I very much welcome the initiative by Terry and Philip.  Sitting as I am at the moment in Kyoto, it is a bit frustrating to watch from a distance the preparations for the G8 meeting.  The first of the Live 8 concerts, held in Chiba, near Tokyo, was a bit of a whimper, with just 10,000 people attending.  News of 200,000 people surrounding the castle in Edinburgh with a human circle is uplifting, though.

One wonders how disaster reduction will play into all this?  Of course it is hard to nuance slogans such as "scar on humanity's conscience" and "double development aid."  However, the WCDR in Kobe capped a years' major studies and reports that emphasized that disaster reduction is and mainstream part of sustainable development (and vice versa) -- reports by DFID, UNDP, ISDR, etc.

Nevertheless, in news I've received of the G8 meeting, there seems to be no mention of the WCDR in Kobe, nor, for that matter the launch of the International Early Warning Platform that took place during the WCDR or the launch last month, in Kobe, of the International Recovery Platform.  Rather, the news in the Japanese press says that the G8 will consider an initiative to coordinate a global tsunami early warning system.

I hope this news is distorted or simply wrong.  However, it wouldn’t be the first time that the U.S. (one presumes leading this initiative) has simply ignored U.N. and other multi-lateral efforts to coordinate such matters.  There is already a great deal of international activity around tsunami warning.  Does it need further coordination?  Indeed, as many have observed, tsunami warning taken in isolation from other warning systems and from issues of mitigation and preparedness, would be of limited effectiveness.

It seems to me that the Gleneagles affair and the follow up to it by NGOs and journalists offer a good opportunity to remind the world of the intimate links between disaster reduction and sustainable human development.  Debt reduction, reform of the EU’s CAP, and an increase of development assistance won’t necessarily reduce risk among the most vulnerable people in Africa.

More generally, as I think about the links between development and disaster, it seems that the rhetoric of the Make Poverty History campaign, at least as focused now on these three Gleneagles demands, drags us back to the bad old days when development was measured by inputs and not outputs.  The campaigners need to be reminded that whatever the policy inputs (more money, debt forgiveness, reformed trade rules), they are ineffective unless they produce outcomes as specified by the Millennium Development Goals.

I hope the newly formed Study Group on Disasters and Development will encourage discussion along these lines among NGOs, civil society campaigners, journalists, and the officials who will be trying to program concrete follow up to the G8.

Ben Wisner
4 July 2005
DPRI, Kyoto University
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-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Cannon <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Jul 3, 2005 7:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New Disasters and Development Study Group

Dear All,
Philip Buckle (Coventry University) and I have started up a new Study Group 
on Disasters and Development within the UK Development Studies Association 
(DSA).

The inaugural meeting was held a few weeks ago, hosted at the University of 
Greenwich in London. About 50 people attended from NGOs, academia, DFID and 
independent consultants. Although called a Study Group, we intend it to 
include action as well. The first open meeting was on the problems of 
long-term recovery and development after the tsunami disaster, especially 
given how the media defined the event as an emergency requiring relief.

The next activity will follow up on this problem of how the media 
constructs disasters in this way, and will be a panel discussion of 
journalists, NGOs, Red Cross and others involved in the tsunami and other 
disasters. This will be a session that forms part of the DSA Annual 
Conference, taking place at the Open University in Milton Keynes, 7-9 
September 2005.

The group also held its first business meeting to define its terms of 
reference and set out its initial plan of action. Papers and programme for 
the open meeting on the tsunami are available at the Group's page on the 
DSA website:
http://www.devstud.org.uk/studygroups/disasters.htm

The TORs and plan of action for the group will follow shortly also on this 
page.

Information about the DSA annual conference is available at:
http://www.devstud.org.uk/

With good wishes

Terry Cannon (University of Greenwich, London).