Chair: Prof. Rajib Shaw

Co-chair: Prof. Irasema Alcántara-Ayala

Members of the Committee:

• Prof. Rajib Shaw, Fujisawa Campus, Keio University, Japan
• Prof. Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, UNAM, Mexico
• Prof. Sumit Sen, IIT, Roorkee, India
• Prof. Ortwin Renn, IASS, Potsdam, Germany
• Prof. Kaoru Takara, Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (Shishu-kan), Kyoto University, Japan
• Prof. Charles Scawthorn, PEER, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Prof. Hirokazu Tatano, Secretary-General, GADRI; DPRI, Kyoto University, Japan
• Dr. Elisabeth Krausmann, EC-JRC, Italy
• Dr. Chipo Muchavanhu, AADRI, Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe

Concept Note

Committee on Advocacy of GADRI

Where is the gap in advocacy?

• Balancing interest and demand: We do advocacy based on "our" [researcher's] interest
• Gap identification: Need to change our mindset to understand the gaps, both at the policy as well as grassroots level
• Last and first mile: The so-called "last-mile" [where we put us, the researcher as Mile Zero and community as the last mile] needs to be the "first mile" [where we start from the needs and priorities both at the policy and practice level]
• Youth led innovation: Generation Z [who have been born with internet] has a different mindset for innovation, which need to be explored

Global-regional-national-local-thematic

• Regional advocacy: While global advocacy is important, the actual advocacy actions happen in regional and national level: focus on regional GADRI like SAADRI (south Asia) as well as other regional nodes
• National advocacy: Strengthening national nodes through knowledge and evidence resources
• Thematic advocacy: need to be specific on thematic issues like: water management, urban resilience, eco-DRR, blue-green infra, critical infra etc. : need to prioritize some specific areas

Youth involvement

• GADRI needs to have its specific youth brigade for research and innovation
• Can collaborate with existing youth led initiatives like U-Inspire
• Provide innovation ecosystem for youth participation and leadership

Media and communication

• Need to provide specific advocacy message for policy and practice
• Co-design the message with science communication
• Work closely with different types of media and generate media and advocacy strategy