October 24, 2011―On March 11 of this year, the world watched in horror as the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake measuring a staggering 9.0 on the Richter scale, hit the Tohoku region along the pacific coast of Japan. The fourth largest earthquake in the world and the largest in Japan’s history, it was unprecedented in scale and nature. The subsequent Tsunami washed away towns and villages along the sea shore, resulting in huge numbers of human casualties and left devastation in its wake.

It is globally recognized that the loss of life and damage could have been far greater had it not been for Japan's disaster risk management policies and measures which are cutting-edge. Emergency plans, sharp drills, and training activities saved thousands of lives as procedures were implemented properly and carefully. Patience, responsibility and the general sense of collected and dignified calm drove the rescue process.

Seven months after the disaster, the Flat Plain in Sendai where the tsunami hit the most, is almost completely clean of debris. Operation Toothcomb cleared main routes first and then moved to the secondary streets leading to the shore. Communication tools, from satellites to Twitter are operational. Volunteers are available to provide psychological care to residents in temporary houses.

The world is now looking to Japan to continue playing a leadership role in this area.

Sharing Experiences

In this context, Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi and Mr. Zoellick agreed to conduct Japan-World Bank Knowledge Exchange/Knowledge Sharing Joint Project during the Annual Meetings this year.  Quickly after October 7, 2011 the Government of Japan and the World Bank launched a collaborative project Learning from Mega Disasters: A Program of Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Exchange, which will help Japan share its experience and knowledge from disaster risk management and reconstruction with the rest of the world.

“Japan is committed to utilizing lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake as global public goods in development assistance,” said Yasushi Kinoshita, Director-General for International Affairs of Japan’s Finance Ministry who opened the workshop.

The Learning from Mega Disasters program is fully aligned with WBI’s role as a global connector of knowledge, learning, and innovation focused for capacity development.Sanjay Pradhan, Vice President, WBI

The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), has been leading the overall collaborative effort on the Bank side since the March 11 disaster, and working on the knowledge sharing project together with WBI.

"This partnership will enable Japan to turn the lessons learned from its recent disaster and its long experience in dealing with extreme events into an opportunity for countries to better integrate disaster risk reduction and resilience into development plans and investments,” said  Saroj Kumar Jha, the Manager of the GFDRR. "As one of the founding members of the GFDRR, Japan has been instrumental in helping to build resilience in countries that are disaster hotspots around the world."

The World Bank Institute (WBI) was requested to provide support on the knowledge exchange project, through Learning from Mega Disasters, which will run for two years, collect data and facts about damage and loss, and disseminate the information to practitioners around the world.

“The Learning from Mega Disasters program is fully aligned with WBI’s role as a global connector of knowledge, learning, and innovation focused for capacity development,” said Sanjay Pradhan, Vice President, WBI. “Access to information, data and lessons learnt are crucial in the disaster risk management world. Open access to data together with access to training and a community of practice where experts can share views, discuss new topics, upload documents and add comments and suggestions, can be transformative. This can help to ensure that countries are as well prepared for a disaster as humanly possible and in turn save lives and livelihoods.”

Connecting Practitioners 

The project will also deploy some of WBI's cutting-edge technologies and tools for learning, in an integrated way, such as the Global Development Learning Network and a web-based community of practice which will host forums and discussion groups. Through this community of practice, development practitioners and the public will be able to access all the relevant information, papers, documents and articles which will be translated into English. A specific e-learning training program for developing countries will be available through the World Bank e-Institute for development.

WBI, the GFDRR, the World Bank’s Tokyo Office and the East Asia and Pacific Region including the Tokyo Development Learning Center will all contribute to the collaborative framework on Mega Disasters, while direct contribution from Japanese experts and government officials has been secured.

The World Bank Annual Meetings in 2012 in Japan will be a wonderful opportunity to share some of the fruits of this project, in terms of the knowledge that has been compiled from Japan and its exchanges with developing countries. The last time the Annual Meetings were held in Tokyo in 1964, it was the year of the Tokyo Olympics, so the Annual Meetings symbolized Japan's post-war reconstruction.  Next year, they would symbolize Japan's post-disaster recovery.