Report of Parallel Workshop
Risk Governance
20/03/2006 Keisuke Kuroda
In this parallel session, risk governance issues are presented and discussed. The issues include nature of risks, natural disaster management, environmental regulation, infectious diseases, etc.
Firstly, the overall theme is introduced by Prof. Hideaki Shiroyama, from the Univ. of Tokyo. He stated that the main focuses as for risk governance are as follows:
-Phases (analyzing factors and responses): monitoring risk, analyzing risk, information sharing, risk management decision making, implementation
-Process: involving and coordinating with various stakeholders- corporations, NGOs, local communities, local governments, ministries, international organizations
-Corporation: industries as focal point as sources for potential risks and solutions (innovation) for example, environmental performance, environmental risk management, security trade control
He added there’s two aspect of risk: safety and security.
-Environment, emerging and reemerging diseases, tsunami, food are related to safety aspect.
-Bioterrorism, security trade control, nuclear energy, energy security are related to security.
Then, three presenters, Dr. Masaru Yarime, from NISTEP, MEXT, Japan, Prof. Lee, Hong Kong University, and Dr Jim Foster from MIT, gave presentations about Environmental Regulation and Corporate Response. They stated from the past research, that there’re two basic and closely related constraints affecting the capacity of firms to pursue. They are:
-The inflexibility of environmental regulations that may act as a constraint on innovative corporate actions to improve environmental performance
-The lack of understanding across large elements of industry about the competitive advantages and benefits of superior environmental business practices
They underlined the importance of innovation in order to address both problems. Innovation is regulatory regimes; innovation in relationship between regulators, industry and other stakeholders; and innovation in industrial processes and products that enable improved environmental performance.
Then, Prof. Aikichi Iwamoto, from the Univ. of Tokyo, and Dr. Pathom Sawanpanyalert, from National Institute of Health, Thailand, spoke about the Response to Emerging and Reemerging Diseases.
Prof. Aikichi explained emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases, using smallpox as an example of the infectious diseases.
Emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases results form various factors. Population, traffic, industrial development, wild animals, bioterrorism, and insidious but large scale infectious diseases are thought to be major causes of emergence and reemergence of large scale infectious diseases, he stated. The burden of Infectious diseases is still high in developing countries. Moreover, globalization and inadequate introduction of new technologies may trigger unexpected infectious diseases. Concentration of human or animals can provide a platform for large scale infectious diseases. Therefore, continuous effort for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases is mandatory, he concluded.
Then Dr. Pathom spoke about urgently notified diseases by the government and introduced the surveillance and approach to contain potential pandemics being conducted in Thailand. He underlined the importance of surveillance and research in global scale with a partnership of many organizations. At the same time, he mentioned some difficulties in collaboration; for example, few good practices, hardness to achieve good collaboration, and inequality of partners.
Finally, Prof. Amrit Bart, from AIT spoke about Disaster Reponse Management and Restoration. He explained principles to guide risk governance and principles as to how to implement it.
Firstly, he presented six principles to guide risk governance as follows.
1. Respect natural forces
2. Reduce human exposure
3. Allow natural system to work
4. Improve public services
5. Avoid increase in fishing
6. Diversify livelihoods
Then he presented five principles as to how to implement Risk governance
1. Secure commitments
2. Establish clear goals
3. Decentralize decisions
4. Celebrate success
5. Promote accountability
It was a very long session, which lasted from 1pm to 7pm. The topics were very various and diverse, from political actions by governments and corporations to medical issues like bird flu. Though I had expected there must have been more issues about flood, earthquake, and drought, it was still an interesting session to pay attention to. It was a good experience for me and I was very happy to know more about actual actions and countermeasures against infectious diseases from the experts.
Risk Governance
20/03/2006 Keisuke Kuroda
In this parallel session, risk governance issues are presented and discussed. The issues include nature of risks, natural disaster management, environmental regulation, infectious diseases, etc.
Firstly, the overall theme is introduced by Prof. Hideaki Shiroyama, from the Univ. of Tokyo. He stated that the main focuses as for risk governance are as follows:
-Phases (analyzing factors and responses): monitoring risk, analyzing risk, information sharing, risk management decision making, implementation
-Process: involving and coordinating with various stakeholders- corporations, NGOs, local communities, local governments, ministries, international organizations
-Corporation: industries as focal point as sources for potential risks and solutions (innovation) for example, environmental performance, environmental risk management, security trade control
He added there’s two aspect of risk: safety and security.
-Environment, emerging and reemerging diseases, tsunami, food are related to safety aspect.
-Bioterrorism, security trade control, nuclear energy, energy security are related to security.
Then, three presenters, Dr. Masaru Yarime, from NISTEP, MEXT, Japan, Prof. Lee, Hong Kong University, and Dr Jim Foster from MIT, gave presentations about Environmental Regulation and Corporate Response. They stated from the past research, that there’re two basic and closely related constraints affecting the capacity of firms to pursue. They are:
-The inflexibility of environmental regulations that may act as a constraint on innovative corporate actions to improve environmental performance
-The lack of understanding across large elements of industry about the competitive advantages and benefits of superior environmental business practices
They underlined the importance of innovation in order to address both problems. Innovation is regulatory regimes; innovation in relationship between regulators, industry and other stakeholders; and innovation in industrial processes and products that enable improved environmental performance.
Then, Prof. Aikichi Iwamoto, from the Univ. of Tokyo, and Dr. Pathom Sawanpanyalert, from National Institute of Health, Thailand, spoke about the Response to Emerging and Reemerging Diseases.
Prof. Aikichi explained emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases, using smallpox as an example of the infectious diseases.
Emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases results form various factors. Population, traffic, industrial development, wild animals, bioterrorism, and insidious but large scale infectious diseases are thought to be major causes of emergence and reemergence of large scale infectious diseases, he stated. The burden of Infectious diseases is still high in developing countries. Moreover, globalization and inadequate introduction of new technologies may trigger unexpected infectious diseases. Concentration of human or animals can provide a platform for large scale infectious diseases. Therefore, continuous effort for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases is mandatory, he concluded.
Then Dr. Pathom spoke about urgently notified diseases by the government and introduced the surveillance and approach to contain potential pandemics being conducted in Thailand. He underlined the importance of surveillance and research in global scale with a partnership of many organizations. At the same time, he mentioned some difficulties in collaboration; for example, few good practices, hardness to achieve good collaboration, and inequality of partners.
Finally, Prof. Amrit Bart, from AIT spoke about Disaster Reponse Management and Restoration. He explained principles to guide risk governance and principles as to how to implement it.
Firstly, he presented six principles to guide risk governance as follows.
1. Respect natural forces
2. Reduce human exposure
3. Allow natural system to work
4. Improve public services
5. Avoid increase in fishing
6. Diversify livelihoods
Then he presented five principles as to how to implement Risk governance
1. Secure commitments
2. Establish clear goals
3. Decentralize decisions
4. Celebrate success
5. Promote accountability
It was a very long session, which lasted from 1pm to 7pm. The topics were very various and diverse, from political actions by governments and corporations to medical issues like bird flu. Though I had expected there must have been more issues about flood, earthquake, and drought, it was still an interesting session to pay attention to. It was a good experience for me and I was very happy to know more about actual actions and countermeasures against infectious diseases from the experts.
