UK-South Asia scientists and practitioners seminar on climate change, disaster risk governance and emergency management: papers and proceedings

This set of Proceedings summarize the UK-Southeast Asia Scientists and Practitioners Seminar held at the 3rd Asian Ministerial Conference on disaster risk reduction in the Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 02-03 December, 2008. The seminar explored the linkage between climate change and disaster risk reduction. Many of the scientists used the opportunity to present pertinent issues elucidated from conducted research. In many cases, there was a strong sense of the need for greater cohesion between techno-centric and participatory approaches for capacity building, local governance, meaningful and equitable community participation, and structuralist institutions to help enhance local resilience.

Emergent themes of the conference surrounded the crucial and underpinning issue of squaring the circle between bottom-up and top-down approaches in disaster risk reduction. The central tenet of these approaches was the recognition of the need to urgently mobilise existing policy and quicken the rate of policy formation to readily address and enhance capacity, resilience, and vulnerability reduction.