The Fifteenth Meeting of The High-level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) of the United Nations: 2020 HELP Actions under COVID-19 Pandemic

Prof Emily Chan and Mr CS Wong of the CCOUC team participated in the Fifteenth Meeting of The High-level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) of the United Nations: 2020 HELP Actions under COVID-19 Pandemic on 29 May 2020 via Zoom. As two of the invited health experts to report to the meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof Chan has delivered a presentation entitled “COVID-19 and DRR”. The other invited speaker is Dr Ryoma Kayano, Technical Officer of World Health Organization Centre for Health Development in Kobe of Japan (WHO Kobe Centre).

The HELP meeting drew 68 high-level officials and experts from around the world to discuss the global issue of water and disasters, with COVID-19 pandemic as the pressing context. While the pandemic became the focus of this meeting, climate change threats (e.g. flooding, strong typhoons, and drought) were highlighted, as well as health in water and disasters in DRR. The importance of collaboration with health experts has also been stressed.

The meeting was chaired by Dr Seung-soo Han, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Water. HELP members delivering keynote remarks in the meeting included:

Mr. Basuki Hadimuljono, Minister of Public Works and Housing, Republic of Indonesia
Mr. Roald Lapperre, Vice-Minister of the Environment and International Affairs, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Kingdom of the Netherlands
Mr. Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner, Crisis Management, European Union
Mr. Kunihiro Yamada, Vice-Minister for Engineering Affairs, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan
Mr. Bambang Susantono, Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable, Development, Asian Development Bank
Mr. Damon Lilly, Senior Executive Service, US Army Corps of Engineers Pacific Ocean Division
Mr. Janos Bertok, Director for Public Governance, The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Mr. Yusuke Amano, Senior Vice President, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Prof. Howard Bamsey, Chair, Global Water Partnership
Mr. Loic Fauchon, President, World Water Council
Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Professor of ITB (Institute of Technology Bandung), Republic of Indonesia
Mr. David Boys, Deputy General Secretary, Public Services International

The High-Level Expert Panel on Water and Disaster (HLEP/UNSGAB), predecessor of HELP, was convened at the request of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) in 2007, under the Presidency of Dr. Han Seung-soo, Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea and Former President of the Korea Water Forum. The HLEP included 21 experts in disaster preparedness and response and international issues, and was co-moderated by the World Water Council, the UN Secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR, the predecessor of UNDRR), the Japan Water Forum and the Korea Water Forum.