High-level Symposium on "Integrated Water Cycle Management in the post-COVID-19 era"

High-level Symposium on "Integrated Flood Management in the post-COVID-19 era" at the 9th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM9) in GRIPS, Tokyo, Japan

Date: 18 Feb 2023

Watch the recordings on UN Web TV:

Part 1 : (1) Opening remarks by the representatives of the co-organizers. (2) Keynote speeches by H.E. Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi and Slobodan P. Simonovic. (3) Launching "Flood Risk Management and Environmental Justice policy brief" (https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1r/k1rfdzpy40)
Part 2 : (1) High-level Panel Discussion: "Integrated Flood Management in the post-COVID-19 era". (2) Closing  (https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1hpz58wgu)

OBJECTIVE

COVID-19 affected the implementation of prompt disaster responses, while at the same time water-related disasters such as floods and droughts made it difficult to take necessary measures to tackle COVID-19. Though there are different impacts of concurrent catastrophes of water-related disasters and COVID-19 depending on the regions and geographic characteristics, the important thing to note is that they can disproportionately affect vulnerable regions/countries, such as small island developing States (SIDS) and landlocked developing countries (LLDC) among others.

The International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM) is organized every three years and provides an important opportunity for all the stakeholders working on the flood issues from around the world to discuss with their peers. The ninth session (ICFM9) will be organized in February 2023 in Tsukuba, Japan, just one month before the UN 2023 Water Conference, which will be the first UN Water Conference since 1977.

The objective of the High-level Symposium on "Integrated Flood Management in the post-COVID-19 era" is that leaders from politics, governments, academia and CSOs as well as all the other stakeholders would discuss, share experiences and knowledge, and reaffirm the commitment for actions. The collective messages from the flood community will be compiled based on the discussion and input to the important processes towards and after the 2023 UN Water Conference. The messages will encourage the facilitation of the concrete actions for the resolution of world flood issues at national and local levels as well as in the UN and international communities.

PROGRAM

Opening remarks by the representatives of the co-organizers
  • H.E. Dr. Han Seung-Soo, Chair of the High-level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) / Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea; Hiroko Ota, President of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS); Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations


Keynote speeches

  • H.E. Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations; Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization (WMO); H.E. Dr. Basuki Hadimuljono, Minister of Public Works and Housing of the Republic of Indonesia; Pablo Bereciartua, Chair of Global Water Partnership / President of the Argentinean Engineering Centre (Centro Argentino de Ingenieros – CAI)
  • Slobodan P. Simonovic, Director of Engineering Studies, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, The University of Western Ontario; Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO; Woochong Um, Managing Director General of Asian Development Bank


Launching "Flood Risk Management and Environmental Justice policy brief" a HELP Flagship Initiative by Dr. William S. Logan, Director, International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM), Institute for Water Resources, US Army Corps of Engineers U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)


High-level Panel Discussion: "Integrated Flood Management in the post-COVID-19 era"

  • Panelists: Johannes Cullmann, Director for SDGs, the Office of the 77th President of UN General Assembly; Toshio Koike, Executive Director, The International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM); Ir. Arie Setiadi Moerwanto, MSc., Senior Engineering Expert, Technical Implementation Unit for Hydraulics and Water Geotechnics, DG of Water Resources, Ministry of Public Works and Housing of the Republic of Indonesia; Stefan Uhlenbrook, Director Hydrology, Water and Cryosphere, Water and Cryosphere Branch, World Meteorological Organization (WMO); Paola Albrito, Director, UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR); Anil Mishra, Chief of Section, Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation, Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), Division of Water Sciences, UNESCO; Alessio Giardino, Senior Water Specialist (Climate Change), Asian Development Bank
  • Moderator: Kenzo Hiroki, Professor, GRIPS/Coordinator, HELP


Closing

  • H.E. Dr. Han Seung-Soo, Chair of the High-level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) / Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea


Click here to see the full Concept Note. 



ICFM Declarations
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