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Taiwan hosts international anti-disaster workshop with Japan, US
TAIPEI (Kyodo) -- Taiwan co-hosted an international workshop on Monday with Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada to promote collaborative solutions for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, bringing together over 100 participants from more than 30 countries and regions.
At an opening ceremony of the three-day event in Taipei, Mami Mizutori, former special representative of the U.N. secretary general for disaster risk reduction, stressed the need for all sectors of society to engage in anti-disaster efforts.
"As risk is everyone's business, we need to tackle disaster risk management as a whole of society. And there is no partnership which is not relevant," Mizutori said, calling for collaboration with the private sector, including insurance, telecommunications and technology companies.
"I firmly believe that governments need to be proactive in fostering and supporting diverse partnerships," said Mizutori, who headed the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction between 2018 and 2023.
The workshop was held under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, a Taiwan-U.S. platform launched in 2015 to address global and regional challenges. Japan joined in 2019, followed by Australia and Canada.
Both Taiwan and Japan are frequently hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons. The self-ruled democratic island maintains unofficial ties with the four other members that jointly run programs under the cooperation framework.
