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International NGO Established in 1989 Supported by UNFPA and the Kobe City Government |
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Part of the original vision of the Asian Urban Information
Center was
to make the information that it was collecting useful to urban
administrators. This was done in part through dissemination of the
findings through the newsletter and through specific study reports. In
addition, Kobe government officials wish to use the information to
provide useful training for urban administrators. Providing training
required a new form of organization, however, which could build lines
of cooperation with other cities of Asia.
The following is a list of topics covered in the month long training. Lecture presentations were followed by site visits to Kobe city offices, and visits to other cities. In addition to Kobe city officers, presentations were provided by Professor Toshio Kuroda, Nihon University, Tokyo, Dr. Jyoti Singh and Mr. lan Howie of UNFPA.
The participants and AUICK personnel engaged in an informal evaluation of the course and made the following observations. What the participants learned. The participants gained specific knowledge of Kobe's urban problems and administration. As important, they learned more about urban problems and administration in other cities in their own countries, and in other countries as well. What AUICK learned. This first training course also provided useful lessons for future courses.
b) Second Group Training Course on Integrated Urban Policy, 1995 Since the first training course drew participants from East and Southeast Asia, the second course was aimed at South Asia. Consequently the plan was to include two participants each from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In addition, the two participants from China originally designated for the first course were able to obtain necessary permission to attend this second course. Ultimately eleven participants arrive in Kobe on November 1, 1995. They included:
The program was similar to that of the first training course, with one major addition. Between the two courses, Kobe experienced the great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake that struck Kobe at 5:46 AM on January 17. Registering 7.2 on the Richter Scale it did an incredible amount of damage in a mere 20 second of tremors. The great Hanshin overhead freeway toppled on its side. Locomotives in rail yards were thrown off their tracks. The fifth floor of the old city hall building simply collapsed. Older wooden houses near the JR station were totally demolished by flames as gas lines broke, causing fires^ and water lines broke, making fire suppression impossible. Overall 5,480 people lost their lives, 34,000 were injured; over 200,000 houses were partially or fully destroyed and some 300,000 people were evacuated. The training course came just 10 months after the great damage. Thus trainees could see how great the damage was, but could also see how the city of Kobe was coping first with the disaster itself, and then with rebuilding a more disaster-safe city. A number of lectures and field trips focused on urban disaster management, showing how Kobe had coped with the great tragedy. In addition to the disaster management, the second training course placed greater emphasis on the status, role and condition of women. A field trip took the participants to Tokyo, where they had interviews with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). In Kobe itself, there was also more attention to environmental protection and to the city and its agricultural industry. From this training course, Professor Toshio Kuroda recommended follow-up surveys of the trainees to understand how they had used the training in their current positions. c) Third Group Training Course on Integrated Urban Policy, 1996 In September 1996, AUICK held its third training course in integrated urban policy. There were thirteen participants from 5 countries, as follows.
The topics of the course were similar to those of the previous two training courses, with some additional emphasis on carrying out the ICPD Programme of Action, urban housing and transportation problems and planing, and public health. d) First Specialized Training Course: healthy medical care and welfare, 1996 In December, 1996 AUICK launched a second part of its training program. In addition to the general course in integrated urban planning, AUICK would provide a second more specialized course on different topics. For the first year, the special topic would be urban health, medical care and welfare, with special attention to the needs of women. Participants would be medical officers, with one from each city in nine countries. There was one male officer each from Chittagong, Bangladesh, Tianjin, China, Surabaya, Indonesia, Faisalabad, Pakistan, Singapore, Pusan, South Korea, and Haiphong, Vietnam. The two female officers came from Olongapo, Philippines and Khon-kaen, Thailand. This was planned as a shorter course, of just two weeks, with a more highly focused approach to public health, medical and social welfare programs, especially as they relate to population dynamics. In addition to presentations on population issues by Professor Toshio Kuroda, a long time AUICK advisor, there were also presentations by Dr. Krasae Chanawongse. Dr. Krasae is a member of the AUICK International Advisory Committee. He has been an innovative reformer in Thailand's primary health system, for which he was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Prize in 1973. He has also been deputy governor of Bangkok, Member of Parliament and Minister of Foreign Affairs. e) Training Follow-up One of the unique features of AUICK's training program lies in the follow-up visits. Every year AUICK staff visit participants of the training programs to learn about the impact of the training on their work. Following the meeting of the International Advisory Committee in Bangkok in 'March, 1997, AUICK staff visited ex-trainees in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, meeting almost all of the 23 trainees from those countries. Participants identified the conditions and ideas from Kobe that they found most important, they recorded how they had disseminated what they learned, and they made a number of suggestions for AUICK training and newsletter content. They also reinforced two important lessons AUICK has learned from its decade of activities. The conditions in Kobe that especially impressed participants included the resident registration system, the overall waterfront development including the man-made islands (Port and Rokko islands) and the "Portliner" elevated mass transit system, the incineration of wastes, the excellent medical and health services, disaster planning, and citizen participation in the planing process. Some administrators proposed to adopt a resident registration system similar to Kobe's. In this they reflected findings of earlier surveys, in which administrators said one of their most pressing needs was for better data on all aspects of the city. There was also high praise for the information provided by Dr. Krasae Chonawongse on the provision of primary health care in the less developed regions. Participants also explained they had disseminated what they had learned to other units in their own cities. Most have had direct interviews, as post-training debriefings, with their Mayors, who often proposed adopting of specific things learned in Kobe. Some of the lectures were translated and distributed to relevant technical offices in the city. And some trainees made presentations to various technical agencies in their cities of what they had learned. Thus it appears that what is being learned is also being widely disseminated in the trainees' own cities. There were also suggestions for the future. In respect to the training courses, some participants wished the duration had been longer, as much as six weeks. Topics that should receive greater time and emphasis include fund raising and financial management, the overall Japanese health care system and how to strengthen access to health care, and issues of transportation, housing support and land readjustment. They also suggested that the newsletter, Asian Peoples and Cities, should include a section on the exchange of ideas, more specific examples of urban planning activities, and more information on the overall Japanese urban planning system. Finally, the participants reflected two important lessons to be learned. For one, they found Kobe's independence and autonomy to be highly beneficial, and noted that in their cases, greater devolution of authority, responsibility and financial resources from the center to their own cities would be highly beneficial. This reinforces a lesson AUICK has learned in both its surveys and in-depth studies. Devolution makes good sense and is much desired by urban administrators The second lesson concerns the training strategy. Participants often remarked that even with this training they were but one voice in their urban administration. They recommended that AUICK train a number of people from the same city, so that they would form a critical mass with greater influence and thus greater capacities to implement what they had learned in Kobe. |
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