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A group of Youth and Young Professionals in Asia shared their collective thoughts on the Futures of Disaster Risk Governance in the Let's Talk DRR Session on 30 July 2021, by presenting the result of three days (14-16 July 2021) interactive discussions they had at the first Futures Literacy Labs on Disaster Risk Reduction (FLL-DRR-1) on Futures of Disaster Risk Governance in 2045.

Ms Christine Kavazanjian from the Futures Literacy team of UNESCO started the session by introducing the concept of Futures Literacy and the practical operation of the FLL-DRR-1. She explained how Futures Literacy builds the capacity of the participants to be able to effectively embrace the uncertainty of the future and to harness the power of images of the future to re-think alternative approaches.

The session was followed by creative presentations by teams of young professionals on their collective thoughts on Disaster Risk Governance in 2045. The conversation style, visuals, and poems were used to effectively showcase their ideas to the 329 participants from across 26 countries. The team’s presentations shared the importance of inclusivity, collaboration, role of technology, and self-governance in the future. Other key topics that emerged during the reflections among the five teams are the culture of prevention, science and research-based policy, as well as the youth involvement with more important roles as part of the functioning system including in the government settings.

During the event, Ms Aarathi Krishnan as Strategic Foresight Advisor for UNDP emphasized designing futures differently by taking into consideration the changing needs of the people through anticipatory action. Radical hope should be used as a driver when designing the future. Learning from identities, we need to ensure that any change is contextual. In the future, society could rethink the meaning of resilience: aiming to go beyond surviving towards thriving against uncertainties. Mr Omar Amach, External Relations Officer from UNDRR also highlighted key topics in disaster risk reduction including collaboration and inclusion, multi-hazards approach to DRR and localization. Moving forward, we need to critically rethink disaster and its relationship to development. Mr Riel Miller, the head of the Futures Literacy of UNESCO, also acknowledged the young professionals have leveraged their collective intelligence that led to this interesting presentation of the Futures of Disaster Risk Governance in 2045.

The Let’s Talk DRR session is part of the Futures Thinking on Disaster Risk Reduction activities organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Accelerator Labs Indonesia, and the Alliance of Youth and Young Professionals in Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation in Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change and Resilience in the Asia Pacific (U-INSPIRE Alliance).

UNESCO, UNDRR, UNDP Accelerator Labs, and U-INSPIRE Alliance are preparing for the second FLL-DRR in October 2021. For more information on the next activities please send an email to drr.jak@unesco.org

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