ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Jonatan Lassa was recently awarded “Top Research in the Field of Emergency Management by the Australian Research Magazine 2023“; And the “Science and Health Editor’s Choice Award 2022” for contributions to science-based journalism focusing on disasters and health in The Conversation (ID) in 2022.  Since 2016, He has been a research active tenured faculty in Humanitarian, Emergency & Disaster Management at Charles Darwin University, Australia, where he teaches a Crisis Leadership unit in a post-graduate program.

He completed two postdoc fellowship positions in the US and Singapore, including at Harvard Kennedy School (Harvard University) in 2011 and the Institute of Catastrophe and Risk Management (Nanyang Technology University, Singapore) in 2012. After a brief hiatus, he returned to a long-term academic career in 2014. Since then, he has published more than 100 articles, including peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and research reports, not including 100+ op-eds and commentaries in national and international outlets in the last ten years. Currently, he is working on two books on public leadership in crisis and risk objects.  His research interests include crisis management, disaster reduction, climate change adaptation, natural hazard governance, food and livelihood systems under climate change, humanitarian studies, and complex (social) network analysis. His area of interest includes but is not limited to Southeast Asia and the Pacific. After attending the Executive Education in Crisis Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School in 2011, he began to observe public leaders in Southeast Asia during the crisis.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

The future of societal resilience depends largely on the political commitment to allocate resources to manage and reduce disaster risks and vulnerabilities and build resilience. Lack of political commitment has often been cited as one of the culprits inhibiting countries from prioritizing actions towards mitigating hazards and reducing risks in the short and long term. While acknowledging existing global disaster risk assessments such as World Risk Report, Climate Risk Index, and Global Assessment Report on DRR, etc., we advocate for a new index with the intention to trigger a critical discussion that drives political commitment to disaster risk reduction worldwide.

Under the aegis of 2030 global targets of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, governments should work collaboratively to substantially reduce global disaster mortality and mitigate loss and damage of economic assets and infrastructures. This paper proposes an index measuring countries’ commitment to reducing risks, including disasters and climate change. Commitments from nations can vary and may include: investment in early warning systems; disaster vulnerability reduction activities such as fiscal allocation for mitigation, raising awareness, promotion and incentives for stakeholders to participate in managing risks. This paper contributes to new knowledge and understanding of how political will can be assessed and monitored. It contributes to both local and global debates to strengthen institutional mechanisms by way of fostering political will for building resilience and reducing vulnerabilities.

Venue and time:

• ZOOM, February 23, 2023, 17:45 (Astana time)

Watch the full video from the past NU GSPP Webinar: