1 March 2018, Hanoi, Viet Nam – Twenty-three young scientists from South East Asia (SEA) participates in the APN Proposal Development Workshop (PDTW) from 1-2 March 2018 at 37 Huong Vuong Convention Center, Hanoi, Viet Nam. The PDTW was opened by a welcome remarks by Mr. Seiji Tsutsui, APN Secretariat Director; followed by Mr. Ngo Tuan Dung, APN national Focal Point (nFP) for Viet Nam.
In his welcome speech, Mr. Tsutsui stated that “South East Asian countries are amid a rapid economic growth. On the other hand, they are facing many environmental challenges. As we can see the SDGs and Paris agreement, all the countries are requested to take concrete action to realize sustainable development.” Mr. Tsutsui emphasized that it is important that every country in this region have the capacity to conduct high quality research which provides appropriate underpinning scientific support to policy-making processes.
The PDTW is aimed at enhancing the participation of young scientists in the SEA in regional collaborative research as well as build lasting professional relationships with their peers across national boundaries working in the field of global change research for the common goal of realizing the sustainable future.
Activities of the PDTW includes brainstorming exercises and break-out sessions with the aim of developing a collaborative proposal, and under the supervision of APN Scientific Planning Group (SPG) members, young scientists are expected to present their developed proposals on the second day and also be familiarized with the reviewing research proposals as per APN Science Agenda. The design of the workshop allows them the opportunity to review their peers’ proposals (other groups’ proposals) and present their review comments.
This time, the four groups of young scientists came up with priority topics that are related to disaster risk reduction and management in SEA. Those topics range from water resources management in a changing climate to analyzing the gap between flood mitigation-related policies and the implementation, as well as empowering the urban poor to build resilience in response to aggravating urban heat island effect and the use of sustainable livelihood approaches in disaster risk reduction.
