The Risk Interpretation and Action (RIA) fellows blogged about their experiences of the recently concluded IRDR Conference 2014 held in Beijing. In their blog, ” Bridging Gaps: RIA Fellows in Beijing,” the RIA fellows expressed how they actively participated in the conference and contributed to the conference’s closing and take home messages –  a great way to play a more active role in a key international conference where leaders in the field met to discuss key issues in the lead up to the review of the Hyogo Framework for Action.

In the words of the RIA Fellows at the conference:

“A fantastic opportunity to contribute to a truly international conference on DRR. … At the conference a key message for my research was reiterated – the need to involve science in developing land use plans (Senator Loren Legarda). This has now formed the basis of my future research tasks in this area.” – Wendy Saunders

“The IRDR conference was an exciting discussion across disciplines that shared important experience from different countries around the world. … The complexity, cultural differences and learning experiences that shape how society, decision-makers and scientists perceive, interpret and respond to disaster risk reduction was explored, identifying current opportunities of research.” – Fabiola S. Sosa-Rodríguez

“I met some authors of key papers in my main interest (decentralization, DRR policy implementation), which was fantastic. I had the opportunity to exchange viewpoints on some debates that directly relate to why DRR policies face trouble at the local level in many countries, and that motivates me to explore new and old (but forgotten) theoretical perspectives on how to improve this key dimension of DRR.” – Naxhelli Ruiz

During the conference, RIA Fellows presented grant-winning projects on topics of water-related risks in megacities, indigenous knowledge and risk, and multi-scale policy implementation. A full breakdown of all projects undertaken by the RIA Fellows can be downloaded here.

Since this meeting, the IRDR Science Community has created stronger links and incorporated the Fellows. Within just a few days after the conference, Fellows were asked to collectively prepare a statement on their views on the role of science and technology in the existing Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015, and their opinions on what should feature in the UN’s review of HFA in 2015 (known as HFA2).

Read more on the RIA Fellows here : http://blog.worldsocialscience.org/2014/07/bridging-gaps-ria-fellows-beijing/

Source: International Social Science Council Blog