More than 90% of the world’s natural disasters are concentrated in Asia, with developing countries particularly vulnerable to the damage. The social capital, such as community organizations and communal trust, is proven to be correlated to the damage that the society experiences. One of the core principles of SSE such as empowering local communities and improving the resilience of society can be effective tools for the restoration of disaster affected areas. The Secretary General of CityNet, which is the largest association of urban stakeholders committed to sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region, will share innovative experiences of different Asian cities’ efforts in mitigating the damages from natural disasters based on multi-sectoral partnerships.

World in Tohoku (WIT) was established immediately following the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011. When the Earthquake severely hit Tohoku prefecture, professionals in the field of social innovation gathered to share their experiences and acted upon their shared commitment towards creating change-making communities and scaling impact. The societal issues around Tohoku post-disaster is currently gaining a lot of attention from both within Japan and across the world. The efforts of building capacity of social entrepreneurs who are seeking to have an impact on their region and beyond can enhance the resilience of the community. Through the session, WIT will demonstrate how social economy can be the key to increasing the positive impacts and possibility of replicating or scaling in other disaster-stricken regions in the world in the context of rapid societal changes notably issues of nuclear radiation, decreasing birth rate and ageing population.

On November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded at landfall and in terms of wind speed devastated large tracts of geographic area in Central Philippines, leaving behind 6,268 people dead. The magnitude of the damage of the first ever super typhoon that hit the country resulted to an overwhelming need for well-planned, well-coordinated, well-organized interventions that could maximize limited resources and improve local capacities to enhance the resilience of the community and ensure its sustainability. The PhilSEN’s experience will share how it responded as a coalition to the challenge for emergency and humanitarian needs of Haiyan affected communities through cooperation and forging solidarity with various sectors. It will highlight the importance of participatory processes and coordinative mechanisms in designing disaster recovery interventions that is more responsive to the needs of affected communities. These disaster recovery interventions aimed for sustainable economic recovery through capacity building, community empowerment and resiliency enhancement, and linking these initiatives to government programs at the local level.

The sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 took more than 295 lives, mostly from high school students in Ansan City. The disaster was both natural and man-made as the incident revealed serious problems of disaster control system in Korea. The Sewol ferry disaster has proven that both the magnitude of natural disaster and the lack of prevention system at a state level can amplify the damage.
Woori-Hamkke (_we together _), a network of 10 social welfare centers in Ansan City, is helping the victims’ family members to recover from the post-disaster traumas. The network is working on establishing organized collective support for disaster affected areas and the restoration of community spirits against both physical and psychological damages. Woori-Hamkke’s social economy approaches with its particular emphasis on local, community levels and collective efforts is making movements for larger systematic changes.

Asia-Pacific Alliance of YMCAs(APAY) is an association of 24 national YMCA movements of countries based in Asia and the South Pacific. APAY works on various areas such as disaster response, environment, gender mainstreaming, youth empowerment and social economy. This July APAY hold National General Secretary’s Conference under the theme ‘sharing a common vision, building sustainable development’ During the conference National General Secretaries developed APAY’s Quadrennial Programme Plan and the social economy approahes was disccused one of the strong means of acheving sustainable community development and contributing to develop APAY’s strategic sectors.