Aga Khan Planning And Building Service, Pakistan International Conference on School Safety (A Golden Jubilee Initiative) 14-16 May 2008 Islamabad, Pakistan In partnership with Focus Humanitarian Assistance, Pakistan Conference Brief Extended Announcement Conference Concept and Registration Information With saving life, promoting seismic-resistant buildings and culture of risk-reduction against natural hazards a major Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) ethical concern a three-day International Conference on School Safety, aimed at sharing learning about issues related to school safety across the globe and to come up with recommendations for action at national and regional levels, is being organised at Islamabad. The AKDN, represented by Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan and their affiliate Focus Humanitarian Assistance, are the main sponsors of the conference. The conference is expected to be a catalyst of change and will exhibit consolidation of awareness having a national focus with a regional outlook. The conference is expected to influence policy and reach a broader level understanding of how to effectively address school safety risks in the country and in the region. Background Children are the most valuable asset and are amongst the most vulnerable segments of society. Destruction caused by major earthquakes in the South-East Asian region of the past few years remind us of insufficient progress towards safe schools. One of the most tragic aspects of the October 8, 2005 earthquake in Pakistan was the disastrous collapse of schools where over 8,000 schools were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Over 17,000 school-age children perished in these collapsed schools (approximately 23% of the total deaths), and over 20,000 children suffered serious injuries. Pakistan falls in a seismically active zone with more then 50 percent of the population living in high seismic activity area. There is a potential threat of similar disaster in various areas of Pakistan such as Northern Areas, Kashmir, Balochistan, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and parts of Sindh and the Punjab with approximately 30,000 such schools being located in similar seismically active zones. There, generally, is an agreement among experts that many schools collapse due to lack of knowledge and lack of policy formulation and guidelines for school site selection, design, construction, and use of construction material, etc. Equally contributing to such factors is lack of preparedness in schools in terms of evacuation plans, designated evacuation areas, and safety awareness. It is known that existing technology and knowledge can be applied in a cost effective manner to lower risks to schools. Promoting school safety is of strategic importance to overall community safety as activities related to school safety trickle down to the larger community through various means such as training of masons, interests of parents, and conveyance of information by children to the entire household. Educating school children on how to make their environment risk-free may lead to educated and safer generations. Despite the great human and capital loss in frequent occurrence of earthquakes and other natural disasters, international community and national governments have not been able to give due attention to seismic safe designs and safe schools, and response to the need has been limited.
A Step Forward in World Initiatives The Conference aims to highlight global and regional understanding and objectives as set in various initiatives such as the Yokohoma Strategy, the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development, the Millennium Development Goals, the 2006-2007 World Campaign on Disaster Reduction entitled Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School, and the Global Knowledge and Education Platform, etc. Importantly, the conference aims to provide the opportunity and space to address the need of harmonizing and moving forward on defined key regional and sub-regional initiatives and processes through long-tem partnerships and strategic actions as impetus to disaster risk reduction in schools in Asia. These concerns have also been underscored in many recent commitments as, Delhi Declaration through 2 nd Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR, Nov 2007 Bangkok Action Agenda on School Education and Disaster Risk Reduction, Nov 2007 Ahmedabad Action Agenda for School Safety Jan, 2007 Phuket Declaration on Disaster Education and Communication for People with Disability, January 2007 International Conference on Earthquake Risk Management, Islamabad April 2007 ECO meetings on Disaster Risk Management, Istanbul June 2006 and Islamabad Oct 2007 SAARC Disaster Management Framework, Dhaka March 2006 Beijing Action for DRR through 1 st Asian Ministerial Conference, August 2005 ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, Vientiane July 2005 and ASEAN Regional Program on Disaster Management ARPDM) 2004 2010 Hanoi RCC 5 Statement on Mainstreaming Disaster Reduction into development Planning and Implementation in Asian Countries, May 2005 Conference Objectives To promote school safety at policy and practice level To raise awareness about importance of and availability of tools and techniques for school safety in a larger context To provide a forum for like-minded people and organizations to share lessons learnt, develop strategies, share resources, and develop time bound actions to address school safety issues To identify challenges and bottleneck in school safety and identify practical national and regional solutions to address these issues Focus Thematic: Safe Schools leading to safer Infrastructure and safer Habitat in rural/urban areas Geographic: Pakistan, South Asia, and Central Asian Region Substantive: Sharing learning, influencing policy, and action strategies for application Expected Outcomes Conference declaration of commitment with Action agenda. Recommendation for follow up national/regional practical action plans for forward action. Structure Designed to be a three-day event with a mix of primary observation of earthquake effects on school safety (a day visit to Muzzafarabad) and two days of discussions and debates in plenary and working group sessions to come up with pragmatic and practical recommendations based on theory, practice and observation. The conference is expected to develop a statement and a regional action agenda (with special focus on Pakistan) to address school safety issues through action solutions in the short term and the medium term. In plenary and in working group sessions, the conference will explore Identifying the problem: Assessing the vulnerability and risks to schools Addressing the problem: Improving school safety The way forward: Developing strategies and programs for school safety
Themes Addressing School Safety from a holistic perspective and with practice to policy connect the conference will have 6 inter-linked sub-themes for discussions and recommendations. Theme 1 Policy and Institutional Mechanisms for promoting School Safety This theme will focus on national/local level policy requirements and bottlenecks in enforcing safer school construction, along with institutional mechanisms and systems to support implementation. Issues related to enabling laws, regulations, guidelines and institutional practices at national, provincial, local and community level, and compliance to facilitate risk reduction and mitigation will be discussed. Models of best practices in lowering of risk threshold of designing and applying policy tools and instruments in local vulnerability will be part of this theme. Principles of good governance, flexibility to change over time, and the ability to incorporate local knowledge and cultural contexts in the implementation of risk reduction will be part of the theme. Theme 2 Technical Aspects of Seismically Safer Schools This theme will focus on sharing, understanding and using of engineering designs/structural solutions for safer seismic resistant constructions schools, including school sites, especially in the mountain terrains. Issues related to design and construction codes and guidelines, options for designs, and appropriate construction materials for school construction in varying terrain, as well as physical planning elements of hazard mitigation for critical infrastructure, will be brought forward. Issue of insufficient and inefficient use of materials and building technologies will also be included. Models and good practices for safe school construction, prioritization of school retrofitting, cost-effective retrofit techniques, etc. will be part of this theme. Theme 3 Systems/Skills/Resources-Capacity Development Requirements for Safer Construction This theme will focus on local, regional and national requirements of skills, techniques and corresponding human resource development for better and appropriate construction. Issues related to availability and access to safer construction skills, techniques, and tools, earthquake-resistant designs, construction and maintenance of school buildings and other critical existing and new constructions, etc. will be discussed. This includes looking into opportunity and access to training, indigenous knowledge, capacity-building in design and construction, learning from experiences in safe school construction, and resources requirements for appropriate construction skills of critical places such as homes, schools and hospitals. Requirements and practices in long-term formal training setups and resourcing for local technicians to increase safer construction skills will be part of the theme. Theme 4 Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction Information in Formal/Informal Education This theme will focus on ways and mechanism for integrating disaster risk reduction information in formal and informal schooling, and raising general awareness on local/regional disaster risks to schools. Issues relating to scope and sequence of disaster risk reduction education and life skills to be developed from childhood through adulthood for preventive and applied knowledge in risk reduction will be discussed. Models and practices in strategic interventions for public raising risk awareness and response through various tools such as child focussed initiatives, knowledge exchange, grass-roots collaboration, public community-level interaction, and linking and scaling-up with large-scale campaigns utilizing media and social marketing processes will be part of the theme. Theme 5 Community Preparedness for Disaster Prevention and Response This theme will focus on programs and activities for preparing communities around the schools in prevention and first response and search and rescue, along with preparations for schools as safe havens in disasters. The theme will include process of community based assessments of local hazards, vulnerability and capacity assessment, and planning and implementation of risk reduction at the school-community level. Community preparation and response interventions, facilities and provisions; and development and practice of response-preparedness skills, will be included. Issues and practices related to programmatic and operational requirements of designing, designating, and operations of community infrastructure as safe haven within local communities in post disaster scenarios will be brought forward. Theme 6 Public-Private Partnerships for Safe Schools This theme will focus on incentives/involvement of private sector investments and financing in all elements of safe schools as part of the business development process as well as means of risk transfer. Discussion and issues of shift from post disaster relief and reconstruction (RR) to pre-disaster prevention and preparedness (PP) investment in disaster reduction and its integration within the development planning process will be included. Elements of practices in investments and partnership in matters of business continuity planning; opportunities in investments in development process; safeguarding investments; and corporate social responsibility, etc., along with new opportunities and innovative partnership leading to safer schools and safer communities will be part of the theme.
Programme Brief Day One May 14, 2008 Day long visit to Muzzafarabad Kashmir with visits to earthquake affected sites. Day Two May 15, 2008 Early Morning Session: Formal Opening of the Conference. Late Morning and Afternoon Sessions: Thematic Plenary Sessions and corresponding Working Group Sessions. Day Three May 16, 2008 Morning and Afternoon Sessions: Thematic Plenary Sessions and corresponding Working Group Sessions. Late afternoon Session: Conference Closing Adoption of Plans. Language Working language of the conference will be English. Who Should Attend Policy makers from the region: public representatives, public service organizations, legislature. Substantive resource agencies: individuals/thematic groups, knowledge platforms, experts Key implementing agencies in good practice/policy: public sector, private sector, civil society Strategic entities who will/can take the action agenda forward: financing institutions, business sector, government agencies, bilateral and multi lateral funding agencies, academia, national disaster management agencies, national education agencies of the various countries, local governments, ministries, civil society, communities, national and international NGOs, applied research institutions, school teachers, parents and children. Registration Information Registration for the Conference is free of charge. Seating to attend the conference will, however, be limited due to logistical constraints, and will be available on first come first served basis. Participation and registration in the conference will be for specific participation categories as defined below and assessment of the participant s relevance to the conference objectives. Expected Participants Category Break-up 50 percent- Pakistan (Open registration) 25 percent- Asia (Open registration) 10 percent- Rest of the world (Open registration) 5 percent- Local community members and representatives 5 percent- Students and school going children 5 percent- Invitees Intending participants are encouraged to complete the registration request form (attached as last page of this document) and send a scanned email or a fax copy to the Conference Secretariat as soon as convenient. Registration confirmation will be sent to the participant once checked for completion of requested information, participation category, and relevance of attending to the conference. Scanned electronic copy (if possible) of the completed form be kindly sent to conf.secretariat@schoolsafetyconference.org Fax copy of the completed form can be sent to (++92-21) 536-1807; Attention Conference Secretariat.
Position Papers / Experience Sharing Papers As part of the conference structure, the thematic working group sessions will provide participants an extended opportunity to contribute into the thematic discussions and action agenda development. In that, participants are encouraged to submit position papers, experience sharing papers or recommendation papers, etc. on any of the issues as related to the specific conference themes. These documents will be made available to conference participants during the thematic working group sessions, and will also be included in conference final proceedings document to be published at the conclusion of the conference. There is no pre-set format for such submission, but it is expected that the document will not exceed 4, A-4 size pages, and will have identifying information such as the working group theme, author(s), organization, and contact details etc. Soft copies of such papers (Max. 2 MB per document) can be sent to: conf.secretariat@schoolsafetyconference.org Display Space A very limited amount of display space will be available to participating individuals and organisations for display of information and communications materials related to the conference themes. Details of the amount of space available per organisation, location, dimensions, facilities, etc. will be developed shortly, and will be provided on request. Though the display space will be available on first come fist served basis, preference of space allocation will be for participating organisations from Asia. Conference Contact Conference Secretariat Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan 310-311, Kassam Court, BC-9, Block 5, Clifton, Karachi-75600, Pakistan Phone: (92-21) 536 1802-04, Fax: (92-21) 536 1807 Email: conf.secretariat@schoolsafetyconference.org Website: www.schoolsafetyconference.org (Under Construction) For Further Information Khizer F. Omer Ghulam Panjwani Manager Program Planning & Evaluation Chief Executive Officer Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan Focus Humanitarian Assistance, Pakistan 310-311, Kassam Court, BC-9, Block 5, Clifton, House No. 563, Street 19, G-10/2, Islamabad, Pakistan Karachi-75600, Pakistan Phone: (92-51) 229 4024 Phone: (92-21) 536 1802-04 Fax: (92-51) 229 4036 Fax: (92-21) 536 1807 Email: ghulam.panjwani@focushumanitarianpk.org Email: khizer.omer@akpbsp.org Website: http://akdn.org/focus/index.html Website: www.akpbsp.org, www.akdn.org
Aga Khan Planning And Building Service, Pakistan Focus Humanitarian Assistance, Pakistan In partnership with: International Conference on School Safety (A Golden Jubilee Initiative) 14-16 May 2008 Islamabad, Pakistan Registration Request Form Category: Pakistan Asia Rest of the World Students Community Members Participant Information: Title: Mr. Ms. Other, please specify: First Name: Last Name: Designation: Organization: Phone: Fax: Email: Address: Country: Postal/Zip Code: Passport Details: (For non-pakistani participants only) Nationality: Passport Number: Date of Issue: (dd/mm/yy) Place of Issue: Valid Until: (dd/mm/yy) Will you require an invitation letter to support visa process? Yes No Will you participate in day-trip to Muzzafarabad? Yes No Will you send background papers for thematic group sessions? Yes No Kindly respond to the question below as it will help us analyse the relevance of your participation: How will your participation contribute to the conference objectives and outcomes, and to your own/ your organizations goals and objectives? (Max limit 100 words) Scanned electronic copy (if possible) of the form should be sent to conf.secretariat@schoolsafetyconference.org, or fax to (++92-21) 536-1807.