History of LBD

Youth Looking by Disaster (LBD) was conceived of by Professor Darryl Macer during October 2010 as two of the locations of Eubios Ethics Institute (Christchurch and Bangkok) were in places of disaster, while in Hiroshima, Japan, convening the First Youth Peace Ambassadors (YPA) Forum. 

On 4 September 2010 an earthquake caused damage in Christchurch, New Zealand, and in October 2010 floods affected many parts of Bangkok, Thailand (and Cambodia).  The frequency of disasters in the first decade in Asia and the Pacific is threefold higher than in the late twentieth century. Disasters affect communities, but can also rebuild communities. Youth were one of the important stakeholders involved in helping people and others affected, whether it be helping old persons clean-up their flooded houses, their broken houses, or deliver food to stranded pets, and so on.

The office of Eubios Ethics Institute from 1990 had been damaged but remained functional (Eu-bios = Good life, founded by Darryl in 1990 initially in Christchurch and Tsukuba Science City).

The youth forum in Hiroshima (YPA1) held in October 2010 was an important step as a regional youth forum - where youth could share experiences and develop action plans together. The concept of man-made disasters is epitomized by the use of the atom bomb in Hiroshima. One of the trainers who also joined that forum was Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, and we started discussing the concept of a new type of University, American University of Sovereign Nations (AUSN) to address the disastrous public health situation of indigenous people, who are often victims of disaster.

 From 2010 Eubios Ethics Institute started to employ several staff working on Youth Forums assisting Darryl Macer, notably on the YPA and LBD forums. The programmes cross-fertilise each other, and trainees can attend either workshop to present the results of their action plans. The Asian Bioethics Association also started to consider disaster ethics, and professional responses to these events.

There were so many possible venues for a dedicated Regional or Global Youth forum on disasters, because disasters strike everyone of us. The YPA2 forum was held in Cambodia in early March 2011, a country which had also been widely flooded in late 2010 (several hundred people had died, and it also had been subject to the mass murders and social disaster of the Khymer Rouge which had killed one quarter of the population. 

Events helped shape the progress of these deliberations on  the venues of YPA and LBD. On 22 February 2011 another earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, and on 11 March 2011 the tsunami and earthquake hit North Eastern Japan, also affecting Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. This destiny that all three locations of Eubios Ethics Institute had been affected by disasters in the space of six months, during which we had also organised two youth forums that were sites of man-made disaster, Hiroshima, Japan, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia (also a site of natural disaster). The basic conditions of a good life (eubios) for all creatures had been violated. It was then decided to hold dedicated LBD forums in Japan and New Zealand and South East Asia, amongst the regular YPA programmes, allowing persons to plan their actions at one forum and come to a subsequent forum to present their experiences.

These forums develop action plans for concrete action, as well as enhancing information exchange between persons who have faced many different types of disaster. The LBD forums are implemented by Eubios Ethics Institute in cooperation with partners which are open to the similar goals, and they need to meet established standards for quality and training. Youth Ambassadors were recognised in 2011.

On 21 March 2011, Darryl Macer, who was Regional Adviser for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific for UNESCO, proposed to the Secretary of the New Zealand National Commission to UNESCO to cohost a LBD forum in Christchurch, New Zealand.  This led to collaboration with potential partners in New Zealand, and through various preliminary meetings, by August 2011 invitations were sent by DM to youth around the world. DM asked Sam Johnson, who was also a Christchurch native, and who founded the Student Volunteer Army, to chair the local organizing committee.

The LBD1 forum was a success thanks to all involved and the determined support of the New Zealand National Commission to UNESCO, and six other partners, and youth. 

One week before LBD1 at YPA3 in Penang, Malaysia, there was also discussion of disasters, with participants from every continent present. Thus these paired meetings, one week in Malaysia and then another in New Zealand, gave youth from every continent a chance to discuss action plans and explore how to rebuild societies.

The LBD1 participants were also invited to come to the next LBD and YPA forums. Some came to YPA4 in Hiroshima, and some to  Sendai, Japan, LBD2 in 2011.  UNESCO provided significant support for LBD1 and YPA1, but they decided not to fund YPA2 or LBD2.

Eubios Ethics Institute continued to fund the preparations for LBD2, in order to continue the LBD forum and YPA forums.  Participants had to contribute many of their own resources to come, and LBD and YPA are participatory forums for self and community development. Every youth who is a member of the YPA and LBD family is a partner in these endeavours to work for peace and overcome disaster.

During LBD2 in 2012 one of the  partnerships that emerged was between Darryl Macer and Dr. Michiko Banba, from Kobe, Japan, which had been the site of the 1995 Earthquake. Therefore together they organised LBD3 in Kobe, Japan in 2013. Also in 2011 and 2012 Darryl Macer had spent weeks in California discussing the foundations for AUSN and these initiatives.  Dr. Banba was one of the initial AUSN Visiting Faculty also, building up our capacity for providing a formal educational qualification for the trainees of the YPA and LBD programs.

There was also a LBD Pacific meeting held in 2012 in Auckland organised by the New Zealand National Commission to UNESCO. There are some other forums also organised by alumni of the LBD program.

Because of the significant involvement of Indonesians in LBD1, LBD2, LBD3, the fourth forum was decided to be in Indonesia. DM managed to get some funding from UNESCO for the forum, to supplement the funding of EEI and local hosts, and planned to hold the LBD4 between Padang and Yogyakarta. However, inreconciliable differences with UNESCO, including over the political independence of youth statements from YPA and LBD forums, meant that DM left UNESCO and it was decided to have two LBD forums independently, LBD Padang and one in Yogyakarta (LBD5). The  LBD Padang was eventually held with UNESCO, but is not in the numbered series of LBD forums. This does not mean it is not recognised, but falls into forums that grew out of the LBD movement. Many flowers may bloom, as disasters affect us all. The LBD4 forum as held in Manila, the Philippines, which faces typhoons every year, and other disasters. EEI recognises the contributions of all partners to the forums and the youth and communities who are working for a better world.

DM co-founded American University of Sovereign Nations (AUSN), founded in March 2013, a new University, and developed a formal Postgraduate Certificate and Community and Peace, and Masters and PhD degrees that have been taken by trainees of both the LBD and YPA forums. This was to ensure quality standards for trainees and future forums, and persons from around the world are now enrolled in this.  Part of their credit comes from the forums themselves. Some trainees are also enrolled in AUSN Masters degree programs. We are also working with partner institutions to develop further postgraduate degrees related to providing quality education to trainees.

Inquiries to lookingbd@gmail.com

• “Christchurch Communiqué” 
• "Sendai Communique"
• "Istanbul Communiqué on Looking Beyond Disaster 2019" 
  



The most recent forum was: Ethical Disaster Resilience for our Global Community: Tenth Youth Looking Beyond Disaster (LBD10) Training Workshop, BETIM, Istanbul, Turkey, 12-15 April 2019

The general objectives of LBD include: 

• A global network of young people and professionals empowered to share experiences and exchange ideas on disaster and community;
• Sharing results of action plans and experiences during disasters;
  
• International youth projects designed at the forums to be implemented in different countries;
  
• Qualification of persons in Community and Peace through formal and nonformal educational qualification;
  
• Ongoing facebook and other social networking discussions; 
• Recommendations to governments, UN bodies and others on youth resilience, rebuilding communities and disaster response; 
• Publication(s) on disaster narratives by youth, experts, and videos



Future LBDs

There are continuing LBD/YPA trainings in USA, and many other countries through the AUSN and EEI partner institutions. The Postgraduate Certificate in Community and Peace, a Masters degree and a PhD degree are offered throughout the year at the  American University of Sovereign Nations (AUSN), Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.

In 2011 and 2012 because of cooperation between Eubios Ethics Institute and UNESCO, we could associated the name "UNESCO" to some of these events. Eubios Ethics Institute funded a number of UNESCO activities from 1992 to March 2013. Although we encourage the creativity of people for the activities inspired by these programmes, and open to a borad range of partners with similar goals, the originators of ideas, programs, materials and goals should be acknowledged.

See this link to a video documentary project of LBD by Salvador Cantellano and Owen Novello (Australia)

The results of one survey on volunteerism among YPA and LBD participants is published (available here):Min Zhang and Darryl Macer (2013) "Youth Volunteerism in Asia-Pacific—YPA and LBD Trainees’ Voice of Volunteerism", Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 23 (2013), 38-46.The evaluation of YPA programme the results have been published in Alin Horj, Suvi Moalinen and Darryl Macer (2013) "Evaluation of Third and Fourth Youth Peace Ambassador (YPA3 and YPA4) Training Programmes",  Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 23 (2013), 102 -35. 

 

This is the logo developed by the local committee of LBD5 in UGM!

Ideas can be exchanged on the facebook group “Looking Beyond Disaster (LBD)”



Past LBDs

The first forum LBD1 was held in Christchurch, New Zealand (9-12 December 2011) and focuses on the development of action plans which meet the needs of young people in different communities affected by disasters. 

The Second Forum LBD2 was held, 16-19 August 2012, in Sendai, Japan.

There was also a Youth Forum Looking Beyond Disaster in Fukushima City, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, on 11-12 May 2013 (Main language Japanese).

Third Youth Forum Looking Beyond Disaster (LBD3), was held 8-11 September 2013, Kobe, Japan, with cooperation between University of Hyogo and Eubios Ethics Institute who organised LBD2. LBD3 was also in cooperation with American University of Sovereign Nations.

The Fourth Youth Forum Looking Beyond Disaster LBD4 was held 2-6 April 2014 in St. Paul's University, the Philippines.

The Fifth Youth Forum Looking Beyond Disaster LBD5 was held 3-7 September 2014 in UGM, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 

The Sixth Looking Beyond Disaster Forum LBD6, was held 17-22 June  and 12-15 July 2015 in AUSN, Arizona, USA.

The Seventh Youth Looking Beyond Disaster Forum LBD7 was held 26-31 October 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Eighth Youth Looking Beyond Disaster Forum (LBD8/YPA11) was held  3-9 February 2016 in Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok and International Peace and Development Ethics Center @ Kaeng Krachan, Thailand.

The Ninth Looking Beyond Diaster Forum was held in November 2017 in Kumamoto, Japan.

You can join the facebook group Looking Beyond Disaster (LBD)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/196609143732038/

Partners of Eubios Ethics Institute for LBD include:

AUSN

Youth Beyond Disasters (http://youthbeyonddisasters.org/)

Youth's UNESCO Club, Nepal

Evaluation

Please send your evaluation reports and comments through the google docs survey. In order to ensure all LBD events organized by Eubios Ethics Institute, American University of Sovereign Nations (AUSN), and other partners have a high quality, we need to receive evaluation reports and comments. We also wish to add new training aspects to each LBD forum so that previous participants can keep on learning more. Please complete the evaluation on the following link to fill in online: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=trueformkey=dGVkUnlBdzlDZkEyLWt2N0RVa2tEQkE6MA