Microsoft Word - SESI Outcome all final.doc

Mission Statement of UN / DESA

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) is a vital interface between global
policies in the economic, social and environmental spheres and national action. The Department
works in three main interlinked area: (a) it compiles, generates and analyses a wide range of
economic, social and environmental data and information on which States Members of the United
Nations draw to review common problems and to take stock of policy options; (b) it facilitates the
negotiations of Member States in many intergovernmental bodies on joint courses of action to
address ongoing or emerging global challenges; and (c) it advises interested Governments on the
ways and means of translating policy frameworks developed in United Nations conferences and
summits into programmes at the country level and through technical assistance, helps build
national capacities.

Designation employed and presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any
opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations Secretariat or the United Nations Centre for Regional
Development concerning the legal status of any country or territory, or city or area, or of its authorities, or
concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

One of the five priorities for action underscored in the Hyogo
Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience
of Nations and Communities to Disasters, adopted by 168
countries at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction 2005 in
Kobe, is using knowledge, innovation and education to build a
culture of safety and resilience at all levels (HFA Priority 3). HFA
recognizes the central role of school in building resilience of
communities to disasters. The World Disaster Reduction Campaign
for 2006-2007 by the UN International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (UNISDR) was carried out together with various partner organizations under
the theme of "Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School." Various initiatives were taken
during the campaign and they are instrumental in creating a global synergy for safe
schools. Though the campaign ended in 2007 with many noteworthy achievements, the
task for school safety and building resilience of communities has not ended; in fact, it has
just started and needs dedicated efforts to make disaster resilience a component of
sustainable development.

UNCRD has been playing an active role in realizing the message of school safety and
building resilience of communities through schools for last many years. The project on
"Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquake" under the School Earthquake
Safety Initiative (SESI) is an example of how different stakeholders can be involved in
implementing this message. The experience is unique in two aspects: First, the project is
comprehensive and includes components of school retrofitting, disaster education,
capacity building of communities and dissemination. Secondly, the implementing partners
in each country represented various backgrounds; Government agency in Fiji, NPO in
India, academic institute in Indonesia and semi-public agency in Uzbekistan, and
multi-stakeholders collaboration ensured in its implementation, all stages from
conceptualization of the project to realization in the field, involving local governments.

This publication, entitled “Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes”,
not only summarizes the good practices and lessons learned from the project countries and
but also highlights the task ahead to up-scale from model projects to countrywide activities
on school safety.

It is hoped that this publication will be useful in creating further momentum in the
campaign for disaster risk reduction in school and through schools.

Salvano Briceño
Director
UNISDR Secretariat

Foreword

Safer schools are necessary to prevent lives of children during
disasters. The concept of school safety, however, is not limited to
preventing the collapse of school buildings in disasters, and
safety of teachers and students, but rather extends to meet the
broader goal “disaster risk management”.  This is because
today’s children are tomorrow’s adult citizens.    What they learn
about safety today significantly contributes towards development
of “disaster risk resilient communities” for long run.    Here lies
the importance of disaster education under school safety.

Further, we can use the opportunity of this intervention to disseminate the disaster safety
concept, the way of approach and the tools, to surrounding communities through students,
teachers and parents, and also, through masons who are involved in safe construction of
schools. The School Earthquake Safety Initiative (SESI) of UNCRD has successfully
implemented this approach in the project countries.

The current project on "Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes" was in
four countries – Uzbekistan, Fiji, India and Indonesia. The project aims to ensure that
school children living in seismic regions have earthquake resilient schools and that local
communities build capacities to cope with earthquake disasters. The project has the
following key components: School retrofitting; Disaster education, Capacity building and
Raising awareness.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the counterparts and stakeholders in the
project countries without whose continuous support the project wouldn't have come this
far. I would also like to thank UN OCHA for supporting the project through UN Trust
Fund for Human Security.

This publication compiles experience of implementation of the project in the four project
countries along with experience of Japan in successfully implementing school retrofitting
at country level. It is hoped that the publication will be instrumental in developing
strategies for future school safety initiatives and up-scaling model from model projects to
country-wide interventions.

Kazunobu Onogawa
Director
UNCRD

Foreword

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Forewords

By Salvano Briceño, Director, ISDR
By Kazunobu Onogawa, Director, UNCRD

Chapter 1:

School Safety and Initiatives of UNCRD ----------------- 6

1.1 Importance of School Safety

1.2 UNCRD's School Safety Initiatives

Chapter 2:

Reducing Vulnerability of School Children ------------ 13

2.1 Approach of SESI
2.2 Goal and Objectives
2.3 Four Major Activities
2.4 Outcomes and Outputs
2.5 Implementation Modality
2.6 Beneficiaries of the project

Chapter 3:

Implementation in Project Countries -------------------- 22

3.1 Project Implementation: Fiji
3.2 Project Implementation: India
3.3 Project Implementation: Indonesia
3.4 Project Implementation: Uzbekistan

Chapter 4:

Highlights of the Project Outcomes --------------------- 34

4.1 Project Outcomes: Fiji
4.2 Project Outcomes: India
4.3 Project Outcomes: Indonesia
4.4 Project Outcomes: Uzbekistan
4.5 Project Outcomes: Dissemination

Chapter 5:

From School to Communities ------------------------------ 62

5.1 School Safety and Regional Development
5.2 Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative (HESI)
5.3 Importance of School and Housing Earthquake Safety
5.4 Dissemination of Earthquake Safety to Communities and CBDM

Chapter 6:

From model projects to country-wide

intervention: Experience of Japan ----------- 68

contributed by Takayuki Nakamura

6.1 Introduction
6.2 Promotion of Earthquake-resistant School Building
6.3 Non-structural Seismic Retrofitting
6.4 Improvement of the Function for Evacuation Shelter in School
6.5 Disaster Risk Education at School
6.6 Conclusion

Chapter 7:

Conclusions ----------------------------------------------------- 80

ANNEXES

1.1 Importance of School Safety

Earthquake damages residential buildings and infrastructures alike. The damages
witnessed in the past tell a compelling story that among the damages caused to
infrastructures, damages to school facilities are disproportionately high. Many schools in
the earthquake prone regions are vulnerable to earthquakes and are susceptible to severe
damages often killing the students and teachers during an earthquake. In addition to the
already existing vulnerable schools, many schools are being constructed without proper
compliance to earthquake safety standards. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
envisage education for all by 2015. In order to achieve this target, there is a large pressure
to build thousands of class rooms in many of the developing countries and non-compliance
to the safety standards means vulnerable schools are increasing. As witnessed in the past,
the school buildings which are supposed to provide education to children are also the
cause of death in many disasters.

Recently in May 2008, Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan, China killed about 7,000
students trapped in damaged school buildings. When an earthquake hit Spitak area of
Northern Armenia during school hours in 1988, many children lost their lives due to
collapse of school buildings. For example, 285 children out of 302 in total died at one
school. This resulted in almost 2/3 of total deaths of 25,000 were children and adolescents.
In the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake, Taiwan 43 schools in Nantou and Taichung area were
completely destroyed and a total of 700 schools nationwide were damaged to different
extent. The 2001 Gujarat Earthquake in India caused damages to over 11,600 schools
(World Bank 2001). Another case is 2005 Kashmir earthquake. The earthquake occurred
as the school day was beginning and led to death of 18,000 children trapped in damaged
schools. The Kashmir earthquake resulted in collapse of 6,700 schools in North-West
Frontier Province and 1,300 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Figure 1.1 Class being conducted in an
open space (2003 Bam Earthquake,
Kerman, Iran)

Recognizing that school age children spend
majority of their waking hours at school,
there is always a high possibility that an
earthquake struck while they are at school.

Therefore, school buildings need to be protected from disasters as they save life of
children and they can also help to work as shelter in post disaster scenario. Moreover,
resilient schools are effective medium for disseminating disaster risk reduction awareness
in the communities, can act as center of learning, can be instrumental in transfer of
technology to the communities and have significant role to build disaster resilient
communities. The activities like retrofitting of school and new construction with safety
measures can spread message to the community of the importance of resilient buildings to

reduce disaster impact. Realizing the importance of schools in disaster risk reduction,
UNISDR campaigned for two years from 2006 to 2007 with the main theme as "Disaster
Risk Reduction Begins at Schools." The campaign has been instrumental in mainstreaming
school safety in disaster risk reduction initiatives in many countries and has resulted in
many global initiatives such as Thematic Platform on Knowledge and Education by ISDR
and Coalition on Global School Safety (COGSS) Initiatives.

Figure 1.2
Comparison of the per capita
school earthquake lethality
potential of the GESI pilot cities

(Source: Global Earthquake Safety
Initiative, UNCRD, 2001)

1.2 UNCRD's School Safety Initiatives

Since its establishment in 1971, United Nations Centre for Regional Development
(UNCRD) has been engaged in research and training to promote regional development
particularly in the filed of human security, environment and disaster management. The
UNCRD Disaster Management Planning Hyogo Office (Hyogo Office) was established in
1999 in Kobe to reflect the experiences from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995
and disseminate culture of safety to other parts of the world.

Box 1.1 Main Approaches of UNCRD disaster management programs

A: To incorporate and integrate disaster management into regional development

plans and programs through:

•

strategies to reduce vulnerability for promoting rapid urbanization;

•

prioritizing the disaster resiliency of major urban facilities such as schools and hospitals;

•

regional risk assessment utilizing micro-zoning (hazard map); and

•

introduction of risk assessment and disaster prevention systems into planning processes.

B: To develop and transfer regional disaster management planning and

technologies through:

•

establishment of disaster data bases and management systems;

•

providing guidelines for pre-, mid-, and post large-scale disasters;

•

technology transfer, including economic efficiency and casualty evaluation; and

•

development of educational and training programs on disaster management and raising
awareness for the general public such as local residents and communities.

The first disaster management program of UNCRD started in 1985 based on the main
approaches indicated in the Box 1.1. There were in total 8 approaches and the second
approach of A: Prioritizing the disaster resiliency of major urban facilities such as schools
and hospitals, focuses on the importance of school facility, even in the 1980’s. UNCRD
initiated the School Earthquake Safety Initiative (SESI) since 1999 immediately after the
establishment of the Hyogo Office and disaster management section moved from Nagoya
to Kobe. The first programs of SESI in early 2000’s include an exchange program for
school children between Kobe and Kathmandu on disaster management and school
retrofitting projects in India and Iran under the Hyogo Friendship Funds that were created
to assist recovery of disaster affected areas in Gujarat in India, Bam in Iran and Pakistan as
indicated in the latter part of the 1.2.3 “School Earthquake Safety Initiatives”. The original
concept of “Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes” project funded by
the UN Trust Fund for Human Security (TFHS) was also formulated in early 2000’s after
several experiences of SESI of UNCRD Hyogo Office.

1.2.1 Human Security and MDG

Earthquakes are the most lethal among natural disasters, inflicting huge losses on life and
property and damaging the affected area’s economy, social organization, and cultural
heritage. While earthquakes comprise 15 per cent of the total number of disasters, they
cause casualties amounting to around 50 per cent of the world total. Poorly constructed
buildings, low levels of awareness in the community, and poor disaster preparedness of the
responsible agencies aggravate vulnerability to the devastation caused by earthquakes. The
risk in developing countries is growing steadily, due to rapid urbanization and migration
from the rural to urban areas. Earthquakes cannot be predicted, and therefore the effective
way to reduce earthquake risks is through preparedness and mitigation. An appropriately
educated and prepared community is better able to cope with natural disasters and is
thereby more disaster resilient.

Disasters caused by earthquakes severely undermine countries’ efforts to achieve the
MDGs. With respect to poverty reduction, an earthquake pushes the poor into graver
poverty through destruction of their homes. Because the poor are not able to afford houses
that are earthquake resistant, their houses are more vulnerable to earthquakes. To make
matters worse, the poor have less savings, insurance and access to credit that will enable
them to finance reconstruction costs. The achievement of universal primary education can
also be hampered because household asset depletion makes schooling less affordable.
Children and women are more likely to be pressured to contribute to household work,
exacerbating gender inequality. The concept of human security is best defined as removal
or reduction of vulnerability to economic, environmental, cultural, social, and political
risks, including natural disasters such as earthquakes. Therefore, reducing vulnerability to
the destruction caused by earthquakes is essential to ensuring human security.

1.2.2 Community Empowerment and Schools

Schools play a vital role in every community and region. The extent and nature of the
contribution of schools go beyond traditional forms of education to school children. Their
contribution to the regional development varies from cultural to economical, informational

to environmental and vice versa. Recognizing the importance role of schools in regional
development, each region and community needs to strive to improve quality of education
and facilities. Capacity building of human resources and securing financial basis to
provide adequate education and facilities must be considered in the process of formulating
education policy at regional level.

Past experience has indicated that the basic problems related to disaster mitigation and
preparedness in developing countries can be attributed to lack of capacity, awareness,
education, and self-reliance within the communities. An appropriately educated and
self-trained community is much more capable of coping successfully with natural disasters,
and of reducing their impacts. The SESI project aims to promote culture of mitigation
through community participation and the empowerment process tailored to residents with
specific needs will complement, enlarge, and sustain the ongoing efforts. As disaster risk
reduction is also a key for sustainable regional development, concept of disaster risk
reduction should be integrated into school curricula and school facility management.

1.2.3 School Earthquake Safety Initiatives

Schools have been found to be the key element for community involvement in Japan and
other countries world-wide. Schools not only provide education, they can provide
emergency shelters immediately after earthquakes. Through this school-strengthening
program, a community program has been formulated to spread the technologies rooted in
culture and heritage. HFA also prioritizes use of knowledge, innovation and education to
build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels. Furthermore, HFA also emphasizes on
structural strengthening of critical facilities including schools. SESI is aimed at promoting
self-help and education for disaster mitigation by building resilient and sustainable
communities. The participatory approach to community development and capacity
building among the local people is the key focus area of the initiative.

Figure 1.3 Damaged school building in
Sichuan (June 2008)

Figure 1.4 Approach of UNCRD's
School Earthquake Safety Initiative

Hyogo – Kathmandu Collaboration on Earthquake School Safety (2001 -)
As a part of the SESI, UNCRD Hyogo Office contributed to start an exchange program
between schools in Kathmandu and Kobe in collaboration with National Society of
Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET), Nepal based NGO. Recognizing the importance of
education for disaster risk reduction especially after the experience of Kobe Earthquake of
January 17, Maiko High School, located in Kobe started Environment and Disaster
Mitigation course in April 2002 with a purpose to promote culture of disaster mitigation to
young generations.

In Nepal, NSET-Nepal started an initiative to raise Earthquake Awareness in Nepal
focusing on retrofitting vulnerable school buildings in the Kathmandu Valley, and Bal
Vikas Secondary School was selected for this purpose. The retrofitting work of the school
started in 2002 through mason-training program, with resources from parents and local
villages. The activities aimed not only to protect lives of children, but also to empower
communities by providing safer construction practices. While Maiko High School
promotes the disaster education curriculum, Bal Vikas Secondary School attempts to raise
awareness for disaster education through the retrofitting activity. Therefore, UNCRD
Hyogo Office and NSET-Nepal linked up two activities to exchange information, culture,
and learn from each other. Students are expected to be the ambassadors for disaster
mitigation in the future. As of 2008, this exchange program between Maiko High School
and Bal Vikas Secondary School still continues.

Figure 1.5 School Retrofitting in Nepal (2002): before - during - after (NSET)

Discussion and observation of work were carried out during retrofitting.

Hyogo Gujarat Friendship Fund (2001-2004)
Hyogo prefecture, Japan was devastated by the Kobe Earthquake (Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake) in 1995. The people of Hyogo resolved to do something about rehabilitation
in other earthquake affected areas and decided on more concrete, long-term commitment -
setting up a task specific fund for a rehabilitation project involving school children.

After the devastating Gujarat Earthquake of 2001, UNCRD Hyogo Office assisted them to
initiate a project to utilize the fund by giving expert advice and coordinating stakeholders.
The basic concept is to establish a resilient and sustainable community through self-help,
cooperation and education. The overall objective is to conduct the comprehensive
earthquake disaster mitigation training-cum-capacity building program for community
development and long-term sustainability with special focus on the school system and the
non-engineered construction procedures in the affected areas. The scope of work

included construction of one training cum dissemination center in Gujarat, retrofitting of
schools, construction of new school cum community centers, and conducting trainings to
local masons in the process of construction and retrofitting work.

Figure 1.6 School rehabilitation in Gujarat (left) and exchange program in Nepal

Hyogo Kerman Friendship Fund (2004-2008)
After the Great Southeast Iran Earthquake 2003, which badly hit Bam city center areas and
surroundings in Kerman, Iran, the Hyogo Government, Japan has promoted the friendship
with Kerman province in the context that both have similar experiences of severe disasters.
Looking at its own experience of the Great Hansin-Awaji Earthquake (Kobe-earthquake)
and acknowledging the fact that stock of unsafe houses was the main cause of huge loss of
life in Bam, the collected donation fund was offered to implement seismic retrofitting of
schools in Kerman province aiming to support the children who assume the future of the
disaster hit area. The project finished in late 2008 with supports from both UNCRD and
SNS, a Japan based NGO.

Figure 1.7 School retrofitting in Jiroft (left) and Bam (right), Kerman, Iran (2007)

Hyogo Pakistan Friendship Fund (2006-2011) / Yogyakarta Friendship (2007-)
Hyogo Government is also implementing a friendship program in Pakistan, after the 2005
Pakistan Earthquake to rehabilitate a higher secondary school in Mansehra, Pakistan. The
project is being implemented to reconstruct a damaged school building with cooperation
of UNCRD Hyogo Office. The project will be completed by 2011. In addition, UNCRD is
cooperating with Hyogo Yogyakarta Friendship Fund since 2007 to reconstruct and
retrofit schools in 2006 Java Earthquake affected area.

UNCRD is implementing a project on “Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to
Earthquakes” in Asia-Pacific region under project execution by UN Department of
Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and funded by UN Trust Fund for Human
Security (UNTFHS) of UN OCHA since April 2005.
The project aims to ensure that school children living in seismic regions have
earthquake resilient schools and that local communities build capacities to cope
with earthquake disasters. The project includes retrofitting of some school
buildings in a participatory way with the involvement of local communities, local
governments and resource institutions, trainings on safer construction practices to
technicians, and disaster education in school and communities. These activities
are carried out in Fiji Islands, India, Indonesia and Uzbekistan as demonstration
cases which are being disseminated throughout the respective geographical
regions through regional and international workshops.

2.1 Approach of SESI

This project focuses on (1) developing and transferring earthquake-protective technology
to school buildings, (2) promoting education related to earthquake disasters. The first is
physical and concerned with transferring earthquake-safer construction technology to the
community, while the second provides education to students, teachers, and communities
on disaster preparedness in order to raise awareness and self-reliant capacities. An
additional purpose of the project is to ensure that the outputs of the project are also made
available to other countries that experience similar natural disasters. The schools can be
used as relief and rehabilitation shelters after earthquakes. Moreover, the strong leadership
of teachers has been proven to be very effective in dealing with emergency situations in
disaster-prone countries such as Japan. Schools play a crucial role in community training
and building social capital among various community groups. Moreover, by raising
awareness among children, the message can reach their families, and a culture of
mitigation can be spread through the community.

The project facilitates the on-site implementation of training and capacity-building
program for earthquake disaster mitigation, ensures the safety of school children, reduces
damage caused by earthquakes, and thus leads to sustainable development. Promotion of
sustainable development is in accordance with the overall goal of UN DESA and the
mandate of UNCRD. The aims of the project are fully consistent with the commitments of
the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) and the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002). These objectives are echoed in the UN
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially the ones dealing with poverty
reduction.

2.2 Goal and Objectives

The goal of the project is to ensure that future generations living in seismically vulnerable
areas have access to earthquake-resilient schools, and that local communities build the
necessary capacities, through education and training, to cope with earthquake disasters.

The goal is achieved by demonstrating how schools can be used as community centers for
earthquake disaster prevention and mitigation. This includes physical retrofitting of the
schools, training of the local communities, and preparation and dissemination of
educational materials on earthquake disasters. Locally applicable and affordable
earthquake-safer construction technology is being transferred to these communities. This
contributes towards the creation of earthquake-resilient communities, thereby enhancing
their human security.

Objectives
To achieve the above-mentioned goal, the objectives of this project are as follows:
- To assess seismic vulnerability and enhance seismic safety by retrofitting selected

schools as model cases;

- To demonstrate earthquake-safer construction practices, and enhance the capacity of

masons and engineers;

- To raise awareness among students and communities through disaster education, and
- To disseminate case study experiences widely throughout the target countries and their

respective regions.

2.3 Four Major Activities

2.3.1 Objective 1:

Assess seismic vulnerability and enhance seismic safety by retrofitting
schools as model demonstration cases
This includes selection of around 10 schools in each case study city, seismic analysis of
the selected schools, design of retrofit recommendations, and the retrofitting of 10 model
schools (two in Tashkent and Bandung and three each in Suva and Shimla). This produced
retrofit guidelines and manuals, which can be applicable to the regions. One national
consultant (with a civil engineering background) conducted the seismic analysis and the
retrofit design with the help of an international consultant.

Figure 2.1: Assessment Guideline for School Buildings (India)

2.3.3 Objective 3:

Raise awareness of students and communities through disaster education
Educational materials have been developed, and used for training and awareness-raising
programs. The educational materials consist of booklets and posters for the schoolchildren,
and a CD-Rom. The CD-Rom contains general information on earthquake and educational
software for risk assessment of houses and communities. One international consultant was
employed for the development of the educational software. Two national consultants were
employed, one as an education specialist, and the other as a communication specialist.

Figure2.5
Community people watching model
demonstration of non-structural
disaster mitigation in Shimla (India)

Figure2.6 Teachers’ Manual in Fiji (left) and Uzbekistan (right)

Figure2.7 Students’ Drill for evacuation (Indonesia)

2.3.4 Objective 4:

Disseminate the case study experiences widely throughout the target
countries and their respective regions
National and regional training programs were conducted, involving the representatives of
each region. An international workshop has been arranged to disseminate the experience
globally. The results are being published.

Figure 2.8 Activities of Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes

2.4 Outcomes and Outputs

Overall, a national consultant was appointed as a project manager. On-site field inspection
and monitoring was carried out by UNCRD. An independent evaluation is being made at
the end of the project by an international consultant. The activities in support of the
program are:

• Appointment of a national consultant in each city (project manager) by UNCRD
• Appointment of one locally-recruited individual (project assistant) to be stationed

at UNCRD in Japan

• Monitoring missions during the training programs by UNCRD staff
• Preparation of periodic progress reports and six-monthly reports by the national

consultant

• Appointment of an international consultant (project evaluation)

Complementary Project Outputs
In addition to the schools retrofitted with safer construction technology, trained masons
and engineers, and educated children and communities, the following materials were
produced.
At the city level:

1. Guidelines for selection of vulnerable schools
2. Retrofit manuals
3. Educational booklets
4. Educational posters
5. Final report of each city

At the national and regional level:

1. Proceedings of the national and regional workshops

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Activity 4

Seismic Retrofitting
of School Building

Capacity Building
of Communities

Disaster Education
and
Capacity Building

Knowledge
and Experience
Dissemination

At the international level:

1. Proceedings of the international workshop
2. Final Report with CD-Rom, which includes:

a. The final reports from each city,
b. Retrofit manuals
c. Educational booklets and posters (produced in each city), and educational software

3. Reproduction of educational software in different languages

(Report on Seminar, India)

(Students’ Workbook and its content, Fiji)

(Educational material, Indonesia)

(Educational material, Uzbekistan)

Figure 2.9 Manuals, guidelines, reports and educational materials

2.5 Implementation Modality

The project has been executed by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs (UNDESA). UNDESA is responsible for the financial administration and overall
direction of the project. UNCRD Hyogo Office implemented the project. It coordinates all
projects activities, and has been responsible for monitoring and contacts with local
counterparts. The counterparts for the case studies have been the local governments, which
own and operate the public schools. A local committee has been formed in each city to
carry out the project in the country.

UNCRD has appointed three national consultants in each country: one project manager,
one civil engineer (for retrofitting), one training, education, and/or communication
specialist. These three national consultants has been a part of the project team, and are
responsible for conducting the project activities in each country. Retrofitting of schools
has been carried out by the local counterpart, in close cooperation with the local
committee and the project team. The fund for retrofitting has been provided from the
project budget through a contract to the local counterpart. The project scope, activities,
and cost estimates were formulated through consultations with the local governments.
International consultants have been appointed by UNDESA/UNCRD for:
1 review seismic retrofitting, 2 development of educational software, and 3 independent
evaluation of implementation of the project.

2.6 Beneficiaries of the project

The beneficiaries of the project are primarily school children studying at the schools
targeted for retrofitting. Since the average life period of a retrofitted building is 25 to 30
years, beneficiaries also include the students of the retrofitted schools for the next 25 - 30
years. The immediate beneficiaries from training for earthquake-resistant design and
construction include masons and technicians in the cities of project implementation. From
the activities related to disaster education and schools safety plan, teachers are also
benefited. The beneficiaries include community people in project cities as the
disseminations of technology and community seminars are to building their capacity to
manage the earthquake risk. Institutionalization of the school earthquake safety will befit
local and national governments which are supposed to upscale the activities with the
community based approach. At the regional level, training workshops are planned to
involve experts and government officers in the related filed. This ultimately benefits those
countries for seismic risk management with particular focus on school earthquake safety.

Box 2.1: Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes:

Project Activities in Summary

Seismic Retrofitting of School Buildings

The project includes seismic vulnerability analysis of about 10 selected schools in the
project city in each country and the retrofitting of some of them which incorporate prominent
construction typologies of the region. This leads to the development of country-specific
guidelines on earthquake safe construction which incorporates solutions to the practical
problems experienced during school retrofitting. Following stepwise approach is adopted
for retrofitting of school buildings:

(1) Criteria Development for School Selection
(2) Guideline Development for Preliminary Assessment / Evaluation
(3) School

Selection

(4)  Preliminary Evaluation of School Buildings
(5)  Detail Seismic Analysis and Retrofit Design of Selected Schools
(6)  Retrofitting of School Buildings
(7)  Retrofitting Guideline Development

Capacity Building of Communities

Retrofitting of schools in local communities can act as a demonstration of proper local
earthquake technology to residents.    Masons in these communities get on-the job training
during the retrofitting of schools. In addition, technicians in each project city get training on
earthquake design and construction of houses.    Consideration is given to local practices,
material availability, indigenous knowledge, and affordability of earthquake technology
during trainings.

Disaster Education and Raising Awareness

The project includes the development and wide distribution of educational booklets, posters
and guidebooks on teachers' training and students' drills for earthquake disaster
preparedness and response.    The guidebooks gain verification and are updated through
training and mock drills.

In order to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) education into school curricula, current
curriculum has been assessed.  Integration modality and plan will be developed for the
improvement of school curricula to take the DRR measures into account. The project also
develops an interactive educational tool for awareness-raising on earthquake disasters and
simple seismic risk assessment of buildings aiming to motivate householders to plan the
seismic upgrading of their houses.

Knowledge and Experience Dissemination

Regional and international workshops on school seismic safety were held to disseminate
lessons from the project cities to a wider audience.  It is expected that distribution of
guidelines on safe construction, training manuals for technicians, and education and
awareness booklets will help to generate a sustainable demand for the seismic safety of
schools and buildings. Educational interactive software on general awareness and risk
assessment at the household level will be published in local languages to facilitate their
application and distribution in 2009.

The project is being carried out with active participation of different stakeholders in
each country. The counterparts and collaborating partners are basically national
and local government agencies in association with, and support from, academic,
and civil society organizations. The list of major partners in each project country is
as follows:

Table 3.1 Major Partners in each Country

National Disaster Management Office (NDMO)

Counterpart
agency

Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT) and Fiji Institute of
Engineers ( FIE)

Collaborating
partners

South Pacific Islands Applied Geo-science Commission
(SOPAC)

Public Works Department (PWD)

Centre for Appropriate Technology and Development
(CATD)

Fiji

Fiji Social Service Council (FSSC)

Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development
Society (SEEDS)

Counterpart
agency

Ministry of Home Affiars, Government of India

Collaborating
partners

Himachal State Government

Education Directorate of Himachal State

Simla District Commissionar’s Office

India

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
India

Research Centre for Disaster Mitigation, Institute of
Technology Bandung (CDM/ITB)

Counterpart
agency

National Department of Education (DOE)

Collaborating
partners

Department of Education, Bandung / Yogyakarta, Java

Banda Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR)

Indonesia

Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) Provincial
Government

Uzbek Research Institute for Typical and Experimental
Building (UzLITTI)

Counterpart
agency

Tashkent City Office

Collaborating
partners

Ministry of Education, Government of Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

NGO HAYOT

3.1 Project Implementation: Fiji

The Republic of Fiji Islands, situated in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” has frequent small
earthquakes. An earthquake of magnitude of 6.75 in 1953 caused considerable destruction
of property and life. It is a growing concern now that next large earthquake close to Suva
would result in more damages because of the increased vulnerability due to haphazard
urbanization in the past decades. In order to cope with future earthquakes, several
initiatives have been taken at national and local level in recent years. Fiji is also
vulnerable to other natural disasters such as wind storms, floods and drought. Disaster data
reveal that a wind storm hits the country every one and half years.

The project “Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes” is built on the
past achievements of managing the earthquake risk in the country. Schools in and around
Suva city are selected for the intervention of this project. The project maintains synergy
with policy and programs of National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), a
government focal point for disaster management, which carries out community based
disaster management activities. The Ministry of Education has also placed high priority in
staging the school safety program into national campaign for safe school.

Partnership
UNCRD in Fiji coordinates its activities along with its project counterpart, NDMO is a
unit within the Ministry responsible for disaster management, wherein day to day
functions of disaster management are conducted. NDMO deals with disaster management
at the national level. It is the prime policy formulating body and is also responsible for
disaster rehabilitation. One of its core activities includes disaster management training and
public education on par with its coordinating requirements with other governmental
departments.
UNCRD-NDMO partnership is focused both at the policy advocacy level as well as at the
community level in the field of disaster preparedness with special focus on schools.
UNCRD recognizes the importance of working with the government on par with the local
NGOs and the Civil Society Organizations in order to make the interventions replicable
and sustainable. The efforts of UNCRD Hyogo Office in making schools a safer place for
learning are realized with the active participation of its partners and the involvement of the
community.

UNCRD also involves the expertise of local scientific institutions such as the Fiji Institute
of Technology (FIT), the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Development (CATD)
and the Fiji Institute of Engineers (FIE). In order to mainstream earthquake preparedness
as an integral part of education and for facilitating wider dissemination of information,
UNCRD collaborates with the Fiji Social Service Council (FSSC) as well. The local
government bodies such as the Public Works Department (PWD) are also involved for a
greater accountability and implementation of the project at the community level.

Fiji

Box: 3.1 Multi-stakeholders’ involvement in Fiji

Involvement of country team
One of the best practices in Fiji is the involvement of a country expert team to carry out Fiji
SESI project. As NDMO doesn't have capacity for whole components of the project, the
project was launched with involvement of different agencies as the country expert team.
This arrangement not only helped in supplementing capacity of the implementing agency
i.e. NDMO, but also provided opportunity to link simultaneously with different stakeholders
in one project. The project was instrumental in driving home the message that "Disaster risk
reduction begins at schools" to many stakeholders through one model project.

Involved agencies

National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) – Chair/Secretariat

  Ministry of Education, Fiji
Fiji Institute of Engineers
  Ministry of Health, Fiji
  South Pacific Applied Geo-science Commission (SOPAC)
  Suva City Council representatives
  Three Professional Consultants
  Department of Mineral Resources
  Public Works Department
  (Other members are invited as and when required.)

Key features
Multi-stakeholders involvement in decision making
Supplementing capacity of NDMO in different aspects of project implementation
Plan to reach throughout the country through government agencies

Follow-up initiatives
Building upon the experience of SESI model project, NDMO Fiji is developing a proposal to
be submitted to the Cabinet for up-scaling the school project throughout the countries. As
the model project has already produced training manuals for carpenters and masons,
education material for school children and training materials for teachers, NDMO is making
arrangements to distribute it throughout the country. The training manuals for education are
being prepared for verification before commissioning. The Permanent Secretary for
Provincial Development for distribution to all the village and settlement heads in Fiji and the
National Committee will coordinate training for rural carpenters on the use of the Manual.
Plan is undergoing on conducting a training course in vocational schools for carpenters and
masons.

Table 3.2 Outcome summary in Fiji
Activity

Outcome

Numbers

Remarks

School retrofitting

Vulnerability assessment of
schools in Suva, Fiji

See Annex 2

Retrofitting of schools

-Suva Vocational School
-St. Agnes Primary
School
-Nasinu Muslim School

Training and
capacity Building

Training to local technicians

Total 50 participants

Training to teachers

Total 40 participants

School earthquake drills

Participated by students
and teachers

Publications

Training manual for technicians

See Annex 3

Disaster awareness posters and
pamphlets

Guide to creating evacuation plan
for School in the Fiji Islands

Disaster Management and
Earthquake Preparedness:
Teachers' Handbook

Disaster Management: Students'
Workbook

Box 3.2: What next? Future Strategy for School Safety in Fiji

(From Discussion on Country Strategic Planning, meeting in the Intl. Conference on School
Earthquake Safety Initiatives, Nov. 05-07, 2008, Kobe, Japan)

The aim after this SESI pilot project will be to institutionalize and sustain the efforts.
Engagement with government agencies will be a key part of this initiative.    An increased
engagement with the Ministry of Education will be targeted, and the work done on this issue
by the NDMO will also be aimed for transfer to the Ministry of Education for greater
ownership. Regarding structural issues, the target will be to work with Ministry of
Provincial Development and Housing with rural areas and the ongoing development that
needs to be influenced.  The institutions will be encouraged to take steps and promote
policy lessons learnt under the project.

The NDMO will continue to be responsible for the general awareness campaign targeting
the general public.  The lessons learnt from the pilot project will be fed into the overall
campaign besides engagement with the Ministry of Education.   The lessons from the
SESI project will also be shared more widely so that neighboring countries can also benefit
from the experience.

3.2 Project Implementation: India

Following the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, there has been concern over the need to promote
earthquake safety in India.  A majority of the states along the Himalayan belt are in
highest seismic zones which includes Himanchal, Uttaranchal, Assam among others. The
unique geographic setting at the northern-western fringe of the youngest mountain chain
(The Himalayas) places Himachal Pradesh in the most active seismic zone (Zone V).
Therefore, the project activities are to be carried out in Shimla district of Himachal
Pradesh.    Shimla city is commemorating the centenary of India’s worst earthquakes till
date – the 1905 Kangra Earthquake.

The project took momentum along with other initiatives by state and local governments in
association with civil society. Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development
Society (SEEDS) serves as local resource institution to implement the project. The
program witnessed a very encouraging and positive response from government of India in
not only providing permission to carry out the project but also in providing support
throughout the implementation phase of the project. Government of Himachal Pradesh
supported the entire project and they gave necessary permissions to carry out retrofitting in
school buildings. Department of Education is one of the major partners in carry out work.
They have also given letters for teachers training to be attended in various training
programs conducted under SESI project.

During initial phase of the project, the implementation faced few challenges and it started
late. However, SEEDS carried out the concept on its own and through local resource to
create a very firm working platform when the project was formally launched in Shimla,
Northern part of India. During the approval and clearance waiting, SEEDS carried out
preparatory work and conducted status of disaster education in India, framework for
training manuals and program for community awareness raising. SEEDS also completed
vulnerability analysis survey on 6 school buildings in Shimla which served as base for
selection of school for retrofitting for the project. As SEEDS was working in Shimla with
schools on the School Earthquake Safety Initiative, supported by DG-ECHO through its
disaster preparedness programme in partnership with Christian Aid, they had a very good
working relationship with school authorities and other stakeholders which helped in
mobilization of different stakeholders. As a result of engineers training program in which
secretary of education department was chief guest, he and all engineers showed lots of
interest to include retrofitting for old school buildings in Himachal Pradesh. Outcome of
this project will be shared with different stakeholders who will ensure sustainability of
efforts done under SESI project.

Under this project SEEDS school safety team carried out different programs in schools
and they have prepared school disaster management plans for schools where we are doing
retrofitting. Mock drills were being carried out in schools with formation and training of
different task forces like first aid, search and rescue. SEEDS has also done community
seminars for awareness about building safety in which they have used different local
medium like drama so community can easily understand importance of earthquake safety
in the area. All the stakeholders gave a very good response during different programs.

Table 3.3 Outcome summary in India

Activity

Outcome

No.

Remarks

School retrofitting

Vulnerability assessment of
schools in Shimla, India

See Annex 2

Retrofitting of schools

-Child Welfare School Parishad,
Dhali, District of Shimla
-Primary School Junga, Tehsil,
-Secondary School Kufri, Tehsil,

Training, capacity
Building / awareness

Training to local
technicians

Total 50 participants

Training to teachers

Total 40 participants

School earthquake drills

Participated by students and
teachers

Community Seminar

Total 60 participants

Publications

Training manual to
technician

See Annex 3

Disaster awareness posters
and pamphlets

Education booklet

Box: 3.3 Lessons learned and way forward: India

Lessons learned

x There is an obvious need for promotion of building safety in schools in India

x Construction workers are major players in ensuring safety of buildings

x Need to organize and formal training of construction workers

x There is need for better awareness among technicians about retrofitting and more IEC

(information, education and communication) materials should be developed

Way forward

x The model project of SESI is small but a firm step towards reduction of disaster risks due to

earthquakes

x More such programs are needed for country like India

x Construction workers should be targeted and a certification program should be developed

x Education Department is very keen to take retrofitting of schools in Himachal Pradesh.

Box: 3.4 What next? Future Strategy for School Safety in India

(From Discussion on Country Strategic Planning, meeting in the Intl. Conference on School
Earthquake Safety Initiatives, Nov. 05-07, 2008, Kobe, Japan)

Even before the current pilot project, the work on school safety in India has been going on
for a few years. The work done in Himachal Pradesh under the project needs to be scaled
up to influence policy levels in the government and other decision makers.  The school
safety lessons will also be fed into the state government level planning for disaster
management.    The training of masons is also very important, and a certification program for
construction workers is also being planned.  India is a large country, and with a fast
growing economy.  There are a large number of schools and there is extensive
construction activity taking place, and the work will be used to influence across these.    The
national government is drafting the national policy on school safety, and efforts are being
made to influence the policy planning process.

3.3 Project Implementation: Indonesia

Indonesia lies in a very seismically active region which is characterized by numbers of
major earthquakes frequently occurring. This location makes Indonesia an earthquake
prone country and has experienced more than twenty earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or
higher during the past five years. It was the most affected country by the great Sumatran
Earthquake and Tsunami Disasters in 2004 and the following Earthquake 2005. Many
schools collapsed or were damaged in these earthquakes due to an inappropriate design
and construction. Many of these school buildings still remain damaged.

Realizing the importance of school safety, SESI project was implemented in Indonesia
from 2005. Schools and communities for this project are from Bandung city, which was
affected by an earthquake in February 2005. The concept of long term mitigation in this
project, particularly towards resilient schools and communities, will influence the
reconstruction process resulting in sustainable development. The Institute Bandung
Technology Center of Disaster Mitigation (CDM/ITB) serves as local resource institution
to implement the project with the support of Bandung City, Bandung District and
Department of Education.

UNCRD and Center for Disaster Mitigation (CDM) /ITB conducted a collaborative project
to reduce the vulnerability of existing school buildings in the corridor of the School
Earthquake Safety Initiative (SESI) project. Two school buildings, SD Cirateun Kulon II
and SD Padasuka II both in Bandung County, were selected for this project due to the dire
needs of improvement and severe deficiencies of earthquake resistant systems. The project
included retrofitting and strengthening of school buildings, and other activities to improve
school community preparedness regarding earthquake.

Prior to conducting any physical work to the structure, the locations and building layouts
were checked to ensure that the buildings could be retrofitted. The existing structures were
investigated to determine the type and quality of materials used, as well as the existing
lateral resisting system. Then, the retrofitting was designed based on the structural
deficiencies/weak parts and their accessibilities, weighing in factors of retrofit on
buildings’ life time, earthquake resistance capacity, buildings’ function, and appropriate
retrofit strategy/techniques. The design of retrofit strategy also considered factors of
continuation of normal function, availability of materials and skilled construction workers,
needs of upgrades for non structural components, and total costs.

India

Indonesia

Table 3.4 Outcome summary in Indonesia
Activity

Outcome

Numbers

Remarks

School retrofitting

Vulnerability assessment of
schools in Indonesia

See Annex 2

Retrofitting of schools

-SD Cirateun Kulon II
-SD Padasuka II

Training, capacity
Building and
awareness

Training to local technicians

Total 50 participants

Training to teachers

Total 40 participants

School earthquake drills

Participated by students
& teachers

Community Seminar

Total 40 participants

Publications

Training manual for masons

See Annex 3

Disaster awareness posters
and pamphlets

Education booklet

Indonesia

Box: 3.5: What next? Future strategy in Indonesia

(From Discussion on Country Strategic Planning, meeting in the Intl. Conference on School
Earthquake Safety Initiatives, Nov. 05-07, 2008, Kobe, Japan)

ITB Bandung needs to share experiences and develop a critical mass of people working on
school safety issues.  It also needs to move ahead from the pilot projects and identify
sectors and strategically target them so that we can reach out to maximum number of
schools and teachers.   Government and school teachers are important stakeholders for
this.    Assessment of school safety plans is also a strategic step that needs to be taken up
for appropriate programming.
Indonesia Safety Building Culture for Disaster Risk Reduction – SBCRR, and consortium
for disaster education are examples that can be built upon for scaling the initiative.    The
private sector also needs to be engaged with for making the work sustainable and have
access to resources in the long term.

3.4 Project Implementation: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is situated in a tectonically active region and exposed to high seismicity.
Tashkent, the capital city, was hit by a strong earthquake in 1966 causing a huge loss of
lives and properties. In the last decade, there have made several initiatives to contain the
risk of earthquakes in Tashkent. The city was one of the case study cities for IDNDR
RADIUS and the UNCRD Global Earthquake Safety Initiative (GESI).

The government of Uzbekistan recently initiated National Program for Improvement of
Educational Facilities which includes improvement of school buildings among others. This
program provides the basis for the current project.

The current UNCRD project is conducted in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where the Hokimiyat
(municipal) office, a counterpart agency, is located. The Ministry of Education is taking
part in the project to spread similar programs throughout the country. The Uzbek Research
Institute for Experimental and Typical Building (UzLITTI) serves as a local resource
institution to implement the project in Tashkent.

UzLITTI has been founded in 1963 in Tashkent as a scientific research institution on
construction. Since its establishment, UzLITTI has contributed to technology and design
development of earthquake resistant buildings in Central Asia. UzLITTI has been
nominated by the Government of Uzbekistan as the leading organization in the republic
for seismic resistant construction, design, rehabilitation and reinforcement of buildings
and facilities. UNCRD sponsored a critical study for the school typology buildings in
Tashkent in 2000. The survey permitted to prepare a study focused on the solving of the
structural problems by school building typologies. Immediately after the survey, UNCRD
started building partnership with local stakeholders such as Tashkent City Government
and UzLITTI and conceptualized the project on “Reducing Vulnerability of School
Children to Earthquakes” in Uzbekistan.

The UNCRD project was a welcome model as the government of Uzbekistan that has
launched State National Program on Development of School Education of Uzbekistan
2004-08 under initiative of the president of Uzbekistan. The approach being followed in
Uzbekistan for assessment of nearly 10,000 schools, risk reduction initiatives in prioritized
schools and initiative to improve overall quality of education which emphasizes risk
reduction as most important and urgent priority of President and the Government of
Uzbekistan. One of the priorities of the program is to strengthen school facilities. Out of
around 10,000 school buildings, preliminary assessment of 8476 schools (87%) has been
completed. Of those, 325 schools need new construction, 313 need renovation, 3769 need
structural strengthening and 2089 need maintenance. In approving the renewal of targeted
local schools was drawn up a timetable for the transfer of students for construction and
repair work in the nearby educational institutions. During 2004-2008, along with
educational institutions included in the State nationwide program, funded by local
Hokimiyats and sponsorship organizations have been built and put into operation 47
general schools. To meet this challenge was estimated seismic risk identified schools,
produced the regulatory framework and model projects including retrofitting.

It is very encouraging to note that with the implementation of the State nationwide
program coincided and time of the project UNCRD «Reducing vulnerability of school
children to earthquakes» in Tashkent. The project leads the country with the participation
of design and construction companies, much work on reconstruction and strengthening of
school buildings in Tashkent. In doing so, stakeholders utilize the latest technology in
design and construction work, and in the training schools and residents.

Uzbekistan

Box: 3.6: What next? Future strategy for Uzbekistan

(From Discussion on Country Strategic Planning, meeting in the Intl. Conference on School
Earthquake Safety Initiatives, Nov. 05-07, 2008, Kobe, Japan)

The work so far has led to the derivation of a general philosophy and approach on school
safety, with the three sectors of policy, education and training.    In the context of policy we
should develop a strategy to introduce the safety issue into the curriculum, and to influence
the decision makers.  Priority selection should be taken up with the stakeholders. The
future projects should also include decision maker groups such as politicians.    It should
also involve a number of people such as philosophers and psychologists besides technical
experts, teachers and government officials.

The fixing of responsibilities for planning of schools needs to be much higher than houses.
The second level is designing and the designers.   The third is the construction and the
construction agencies and workers.    The fourth level is of maintenance of the buildings.
All these four factors are important for training and dissemination so that safe school
buildings are constructed and maintained in an appropriate way.    Simplification should be
targeted, and codes should be made easier for construction workers to understand.

Children under 15 years of age should be targeted very specifically for basic education on
disasters such as earthquakes and how to cope with them and behave when they strike.
Older children should not be taught how to respond and behave in disasters, but how to
reduce and mitigate them.    Different levels require different education, starting from small
children to older ones, and local people to governments.
Common standards and codes is the last thing that is very important for schools.

Table 3.5 Outcome summary in Uzbekistan
Activity

Outcome

No.

Remarks

School retrofitting

Vulnerability assessment of
schools in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan

See Annex 2, Many schools
were assessed (State Program
for School Up-gradation)

Retrofitting of schools

-School No. 20
-School No. 116

Training, capacity
Building and awareness

Training to local technicians

Total 50 participants

Training to teachers

Total 40 participants

School earthquake drills

Participated by students and
teachers

Community Seminar

Total 40 participants

Publications

Training manual on Earthquake
Safe Construction

See Annex 3

Education booklet on
earthquake safety

Disaster awareness posters and
pamphlets

Education booklet

Guidelines on seismic resistant
building construction

Box: 3.7 Project implementation by different stakeholders

SESI was implemented in the project countries through local counterparts. Although wider
stakeholders involvement was ensured at all stages of the program in each of the project
countries, stakeholder with different background were selected as leading counterpart in
each country.
This variation from academic institute to government agency was instrumental in producing
a rich experience from the SESI project. The partner agency worked with their background,
their own expertise and under their own country specific conditions. UNCRD played a vital
role in coordination, technical support and information exchange among the project
countries.

Key Implementing partners in project countries

Country Organization

Type

Fiji

National Disaster Management Office (NDMO)

Government

India

Sustainable Environment and Ecological
Development Society (SEEDS)

NGO

Indonesia

Centre for disaster Mitigation, Institute of
Technology Bandung (CDM/ITB)

Academic
Institute

Uzbekistan

Uzbek Research Institute for Typical and
Experimental Building (UzLITTI)

Semi-Public
organization

4.1 Project Outcomes: Fiji

4.1.1 Vulnerability Assessment and School Retrofitting

A methodology for assessing the seismic vulnerability of schools had first to be developed,
as none existed prior to this. The Chief Structural Engineer, PWD Mr Sia Ansari and Mr
Robert Pole representing the Fiji Institution of Engineers (FIE) developed the “Earthquake
Evaluation Process” that has been piloted in five schools in the larger Suva area. A survey
questionnaire “Field Measurements Required for Initial Earthquake Evaluation Process of
Schools” was sent to ten schools in Suva whose response provided the initial basic
information on which the Project Technical Team assessed the levels of exposure to gauge
high risk building and whether a more detailed on site follow up was warranted.

A follow up field visit was found necessary on all the schools that returned the completed
survey questionnaire:- Adi Cakobau, Suva Muslim, Nasinu Muslim, St Annes, St Agnes,
Ballantyne Memorial School, Mahatma Ghandi, Suva Vocational Schools.
The evaluation process provides a systematic and uniform approach for engineers and
technicians to use in deciding the Structural Performance Score (SPS) of a building with
an assigned Grading for Seismic Risk.    An SPS score of less than 33 means the building
fails to meet minimum earthquake safety standards;

Results

x The survey questionnaire for preliminary earthquake risk assessment was very well

completed by all but one school that returned the forms

x In each school there was at least one building that needed further on site technical

assessment

x All the buildings in which further on site technical assessment was done failed to

meet earthquake safety standards with over 80% bracketed in the least and worst
grade.

Grade

A+

D (Fail)

E (Fail)

SPS

Greater
than 100

100 – 81

80 – 51

50 – 34

33 – 20

Less than 20

Figure 4.1 Heavily damaged portion
of a school building in Suva, Fiji

Discussion Issues
1. This small sample in Suva implies a potentially very dangerous national picture that

our schools are not adequately safeguarded against earthquake risk hence we are
potentially putting children’s lives at risk in all schools. Earthquake disasters around
the world have proven to be the most lethal among natural disasters, inflicting huge
losses on life and property and damaging the affected area’s economy, social
organization, and cultural heritage. The NDMO is urged to liase with the Ministry of
Education and undertake a national survey of schools using the survey questionnaire
“Field Measurements Required for Initial Earthquake Evaluation Process of Schools”.

2. A major fault found throughout is the lack of preparedness and other measures to

mitigate fire hazards, particularly provision of adequate egress in double storey
women’s dormitory buildings. What exist are death traps.

3. The opportunity for this Project to work in closer cooperation with the EU Schools

project should be seriously pursued with the MOE by the NDMO.

4. The Project needs input of funding and technical resources to successfully implement

the activities during the project work and workshops.

Before retrofitting

After Retrofitting

Figure 4.2 Example of retrofitting in Suva, Fiji

4.1.2 Education and Raising Awareness

Training Workshop for Teachers
Date: 2nd December 2007
Venue: Salvation Army Hall, Suva
Participants: school supervisors from Ministry of Education (MOE), education expert,
selected school teachers in charge of the occupational health and hazard management unit,
PWD and CATD.

Modules:
I.

Hazard, vulnerability and risk of earthquake in the Fiji Islands in the
context to safety of school system

II.

Preliminary self assessment of school facility against potential earthquakes.

III.

Rapid response to emergency situations

IV.

Role of school administration, teachers and students in emergency
management planning in the schools.

Preparedness and mitigation measures in schools

VI.

The structure of drill exercise to be carried by teachers and students.

Earthquake drill
The Disaster Awareness Committee was formed after a Disaster Management Workshop
by National Disaster Management Office, where the importance of disaster management
was highlighted, and the need to have disaster management plan for each school.

As being felt with the full impact of tsunami waves, the schools along the coast line are
under the greatest threat. MGM High School, which is one of the targeted school under the
programme, falls in the coastal area where is designated as the danger zone by NDMO.

Table: 4.1 Activities list of earthquake drill in Suva, Fiji

Activity

Involved

Activity 1

Setting Up Evacuation Plan

- Hierarchy Chart and Roles and Responsibilities

Teachers
Administrators

Activity 2

Checking Evacuation Procedure for Emergency
Situations at School

- - Fire Threat, Earthquake, Tsunami

Teachers Administrators
Students

Activity 3

Conducting Earthquake Drill

Immediate Threat and Moderate Threat

Teachers Administrators
Students

Activity 4

Conducting Tsunami Drill

- Tsunami Warning and Evacuation from School

to nearest higher ground

Teachers Administrators
Students Community

Activity 5

Checking Emergency Kit / First Aid Kit

Teachers Administrators
Students Community

Educational Material Development
Three educational materials, “Teacher’s Handbook for Disaster Management and
Earthquake Preparedness”, “Students’ Workbook on Disaster Management”, and “ A
Guide, To Creating Evacuation Plans for Schools in the Fiji Islands” has been developed
by the Ms. Tauga, the educational expert of this project in collaboration with NDMO and
Ministry of Education. The workbooks were reviewed at the National review workshop
on school safety book in December 2007.

Figure 4.3 Educational manuals and Technical report developed in Fiji

4.1.3 Training and Capacity Building

One day Training workshop on safe housing and school construction was conducted using
the draft manual of safe school construction as participant’s handbook. The training
program received the comments from the participants on the suitability of the content,
presentation of the material and overall evaluation. Technicians from ministry of
education urged to make the manual as the national guideline for school construction.
Following was the program of the training.

Table 4.2: Brief glimpse of training program in Suva, Fiji

Opening Remarks from NDMO, CATD, UNCRD and GRIPS

Introduction of housing safety survey

Questionnaire fill up on housing earthquake safety issue by trainee

Lecture: Earthquakes, floods, cyclones in Fiji,

Discussion: 1952 earthquake and tsunami and other past earthquakes

Lecture: -How does building behave in earthquakes

- Design and construction principles for earthquakes

Lecture: earthquake deficiencies of wooden, masonry sand RC building

Lecture: Location of building site, Building plan for earthquakes, Architectural issues

Exercise :DO’s and Don’t DO’s

Lecture: Eq resistant Timber frame structure
Lecture: Eq resistant masonry and RC structure
Lecture: seismic retrofitting principle and method for wooden, masonry and RC houses
Lecture: repair and maintenance log and method
Exercice: Multiple choice question
Questionnaire: Re-survey of carpenters on earthquake safety of houses
Feedback: Guideline content and pressent
Closing Remarks

Representative of participant

NDMO, CATD, GRIPS and UNCRD

Training Manual Development
Training Manual for Technicians has been developed by Training Expert, Mr. Robert Pole
and Mr. Josefani Bola, the director of CATD. The content of the training manual are:

1.0 Background
2.0 Earthquakes

2.1 Causes

Earthquakes

2.2

Earthquake Prone Areas

2.3

Damages Caused by Earthquakes

2.4

Structures at Risk

2.5

How to Minimize Effects of Earthquakes on Structures

2.6

Retrofitting School and Similar Public Buildings

a. Inspection and Assessment
b. Problems and Solutions

2.7 Safe Building Construction Practices

Timber Framed Buildings
Masonry Buildings

3.0 School Building Maintenance Programme
4.0 Institutional Arrangement

Figure 4.4 Guideline for Experts and Posters for the Public (Fiji)

4.2 Project Outcomes: India

4.2.1 School Retrofitting

Through the project detailed analysis, design and retrofitting of 3 schools were done. One
of the schools retrofitted is Government school for differently abled children, Dhali. This
school is run by the state government for deaf and blind children from Himachal Pradesh.
This school is situated on top of the mountain in a remote area. This place is far away from
the main market of Dhali. This place is located on the way from Shimla city to Kufri. It is
surrounded by resort and small hotels because of the location of the school building.

There are 120 students in this school from nursery to 10

standard and 12 teachers are

there for taking classes who are coming from near by area. In order to support differently
abled children 8 people are there apart from teaching staff. This school is running by
Himachal Pradesh state government. This school building is built during 1980s and
because of weather and aging it have developed lots of defects. There are diagonal cracks
around openings. There are lots of vertical cracks also on exterior wall of the building.
Condition of the flooring is really deteriorated and students are facing lots of problems due
to the same.

This building is not only lacking the proper earthquake resisting features but it also
lacking the universal design for differently abled children. This will be good school
building to choose for this project.

Figure 4.5 Government school for differently abled children, Dhali.

Figure 4.6
Salient points in restoration and
retrofitting of non-engineered buildings

4.2.3 Training and Capacity Building

Manual of Training for technicians
Content of the Training manual prepared for the Indian SESI project is as follows:

1. Earthquake

1.1. Earthquake Mechanism
1.1.1. Plate Tectonic
1.1.2. Seismic Waves
1.2. Earthquake Terminologies
1.2.1. Focus or Hypocenter
1.2.2. Epicenter
1.2.3. Epicenter Distance
1.2.4. Shallow Focus Earthquake
1.2.5. Deep Focus Earthquake
1.2.6. Fore Shocks
1.2.7. After Shocks
1.3. Measurement of Earthquake
1.3.1. Magnitude
1.3.2. Intensity
1.3.3. Magnitude versus Intensity

2. Indian Seismology and Himalayan
Region

2.1. Seism Zoning of India
2.2 Tectonic Features of India

3. Behavior of Buildings during
Earthquake

3.1 Inertia Force in Structures
3.2 Torsion
3.3 Ductility
3.4 Architecture and Structure (configuration)
3.4.1. Size of Buildings
3.4.2. Horizontal Layout of Buildings
3.4.3. Vertical Layout of Buildings

4. Seismic Construction of Masonry
Buildings

4.1. Box type construction
4.2. Foundation
4.3. Walls
4.3.1. Wall in Stone Masonry
4.3.2. Wall in Brick Masonry
4.3.3. Openings in Wall
4.4. Importance of Bands
4.5. Floor
4.6. Roofs
4.7. Vertical Reinforcement

5. Seismic Construction of RC Buildings

5.1. Foundation

5.2. Beam-Column and Joints
5.2.1. Beam
5.2.2. Column
5.2.3. Beam Column Joints
5.3. Short Column
5.4. Open Storey or Soft Storey Problem
5.5. Building with Shear Wall
5.6. Staircase

6. Quality Workmanship

6.1. Care in Masonry Construction
6.2. Care in Reinforced Concrete Work

7. Common Deficiency in Existing
Buildings

7.1. Recap of Past Damages
7.2. Deficiency in Masonry Buildings
7.2.1. Configuration
7.2.2. Connection
7.2.3. Corners and Joints
7.2.4. Floor/Roof
7.3. Deficiency in RC Buildings
7.3.1. Ductile Detailing
7.3.2. Short Column
7.3.3. Open Storey
7.3.4. Irregular Buildings
7.3.4.1. Plan Irregularity
7.3.4.2. Vertical Irregularity

8. Retrofitting

8.1. Assessment
8.2. Seismic Retrofitting
8.3. Retrofitting of Masonry buildings
8.4. Strengthening Reinforced Concrete
Member

9. Indian Seismic Code

9.1. Importance of Seismic Code
9.2. Seismic Code Published By BIS

10. Earthquake technology dissemination

10.1. Dissemination to Common Public
10.2. Dissemination to Masons
10.3. Dissemination to Technician

10.4. Dissemination to Policymaker

4.3 Project Outcomes: Indonesia

4.3.1 School Retrofitting

The retrofitting project was first conducted at SD Cirateun Kulon II. The school buildings
consisted of two buildings made of RC frames and masonry walls. Each building has four
rooms, and the layout of the school buildings is presented in Figure 4.9. Based on results
from survey and tests, structural analyses were performed on the existing structures using
the actual material and structural components. Earthquake risks were introduced to the
buildings by applying loads based on potential seismic risks and local soil conditions. The
analysis showed that both buildings were considered likely to behave poorly under seismic
loadings, thus required retrofitting. With the funding from Hanshin Department Store Labor
Union of Japan, the physical works were then conducted to improve the structural quality
and reduce the earthquake vulnerability.

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Figure 4.10 Existing structural conditions

Two types of retrofitting strategies were applied to the structures due to different structural
qualities, as well as needs and capabilities of the school communities. Figure 4.11 shows
the different approaches for retrofitting strategies. Building I which was considered to have
lower quality was retrofitted by adding adequate RC frames with mat footings. Anchorage
was provided to connect walls with columns and beams. Building II which was in better
condition was retrofitted using wire mesh for strengthening wall elements. Double tie
beams were added adjacent to the existing one for better foundation system. For both
structures, proper detailing was applied to roof truss systems, and repair was carried out for
nonstructural elements such as doors/windows and ceilings. Finishing/cosmetic repair and
improvement of sanitary facilities were also conducted for both structures. Figure 4.12
shows the various stages of the retrofitting work for SD Cirateun Kulon II and the finished
projects.

4.3.2 Education and Raising Awareness

CDM-ITB conducted Community Seminar at SD Cirateun Kulon. In this seminar, there
were 3 main topics that were delivered to the participants. The topics were:

I. Basic education about human safety
This topic was delivered by Dr. Ir Krishna S. Pribadi. This topic discussed more on giving
the basic knowledge of earthquake to the participants until giving the mitigation measures
before earthquake, during earthquake and after earthquake.

II. Basic education about building safety construction
This topic was delivered by Dyah Kusumastuti, PhD. This topic discussed more on simple
earthquake resistant building construction, such as determining the location and the layout
of the building, determining a good quality material until the construction and the detailing
of the structure.

III. Booklet using coaching.
This Coaching was delivered by Ms. Ayu Krishna. This coaching explained briefly on how
to use the booklet. After each topic, the participants were allowed to ask few questions.
There were four questions that were asked by the participants. From all of the questions,
three question concerned about Building safety construction and one question concerned
about human safety.

1. The first question related on how to build an earthquake resistant simple building
and how to choose a good layout.
2. The second question related on the use of sliding door and the opening of the
door (open into the room or outside the room) related to earthquake safety building.
3. The third question related on how to manage the panic that was happened in the
society after earthquake.
4. The fourth question related on the causal factor of large deflection on the floor
and the retrofitting measures to that problem.

Beside seminar, the students of SD Cirateun Kulon also practiced Earthquake Drill in front
of the participants and it gave good impression to the participants. Overall, this seminar run
successfully, and the participants were looked very enthusiastic in following this seminar.

Booklet

Poster

Figure 4.13 Publications on raising awareness for students

Figure 4.14 Earthquake drill for students

4.3.3 Training and Capacity Building

To further reduce the earthquake vulnerability of the school communities, the improvement
of the structural quality of SD Cirateun Kulon II was accompanied by various activities in
earthquake mitigation and earthquake preparedness. Before conducting the retrofitting work,
hands-on training was conducted for masons and workers to improve their knowledge on
how to build proper earthquake resistant structures. Next, manual/guideline on building
construction was also developed for the masons, as well as for the teachers and parents. To
complete the mitigation efforts, school communities (teachers, students, and parents) were
also involved in the dissemination activities of earthquake mitigation strategy, which
included earthquake drills.

Bengkulu, 2000 (Data: CDM/ITB)

4.4 Project Outcomes: Uzbekistan

4.4.1 School Retrofitting

School Structures Typology Survey and Damage
In Tashkent city, there are more than 360 schools. Nearly 20 % of school buildings have
had deficiencies of different level at present. Preliminary analysis of seismic risk for
Tashkent city showed that more than 25% of school buildings may be completely destroyed
and 30% may be heavily damaged in case of design earthquake.

The buildings of schools and pre-school facilities in Tashkent are represented mainly by
two constructive systems: bricks and RC frame-panel consisting major portion of school
building stock and a few buildings made up of from adobe bricks. Nearly 35 % of school
buildings were constructed before Tashkent earthquake of 1966 for design intensity 7 by
MSK scale. Since 1966, half of school buildings were constructed using assembled RC
frames of IIS-04, which are inherently weak in seismic resistance. The weakness of this
construction typology had been revealed Spitak (1988) and Kairakkum earthquakes (1985)
and also confirmed by through the engineering analysis of earthquake consequences. Many
school buildings in Tashkent are located in    the zone with slumping soils, and as a result
many buildings, both    brick walled and    frame panel type are likely to be damaged.    The
survey showed that typical structures used for school building in Tashkent basically consist
of brick works up to 4 storeys in old construction, and reinforced concrete frame-panel for
the more recent buildings. Recurrent structure typologies for school buildings are
categorized in the following three groups for the purpose of analysis in the work:

1. Mixed type of brickwork and reinforced concrete or wood reinforcing frame - residual

buildings - year of construction ’40s;

2. Brickwork structures, frequent typology used until late ‘60s;
3. Frame-panel, widespread used in the modern construction.

In order to establish an effective and recognizable linkage to the local professional practice
in the Central Asian region, and to follow the standard analysis procedure, it is ensured that
the characterization is in compliance with the previous study on the Risk Assessment of
Tashkent city in the framework of IDNDR RADIUS project.
Main technical parameters assessed during preliminary field survey are:

Year of construction and building codes prevailed in the specific period
Construction typology of structural elements of the building

Existing seismic measures and adequacy against current building code requirements

Design intensity

Relative bearing capacity of the building main elements

Soil conditions

Existing damages

Figure 4.16: School building during retrofitting (Tashkent)

Basic elements of retrofitting of masonry buildings of schools
1. Implementation of anti-seismic belts with application of retrofitting bars or rolling

profile steel as angle bars or channel bars.

2. For creation of a hard disk of ceiling replacement of wooden ceiling on monolithic

reinforced-concrete.

3. Introduction of additional reinforced-concrete or metal frames for retrofitting of long

walls (more than 9 meters) and supported in a perpendicular direction by walls.

4. Implementation of frames for window and doorways by angular steel or monolithic

reinforced-concrete.

5. Retrofitting of walls (from one or two sides) for perception of the main stretching loads

by means of retrofitting grids in a layer of high-strength mortar M 100.

6. If necessary retrofitting of the basements by reinforced concrete covering.
7. Creation of the irrigational network excluding watering of the basements and blind area

around of building.

Figure 4.17 Technology of retrofitting of school buildings used in Tashkent

4.4.2 Education and Raising Awareness

Earthquake drill in N 20 School in Tashkent
In school N 20 of Tashkent earthquake drill was conducted where the personnel of school,
school teachers and students participated. The members of makhalla (neighborhood) and
members of parents committees also participated actively. The training was carried out with
application of multimedia training programs and with demonstration of training films. The
drill had information about response during the earthquake and evacuation immediately
after the earthquake. After the training the participants have shown good skills of repeating
the drill. It is necessary to note, that right after commands of the teacher, children were
covered under school tables and began to count. This approach is widely applied in many
countries, to sustainable preservation of mentality of children during display of forces of
nature. Then the class quickly has gathered and children, having covered heads with
portfolios from probable falling fragments of building on the part of bearing wall of
corridor in which there are no windows, have quickly left building and were built for
muster in the open, beforehand planned district.

Technology of retrofitting of masonry buildings

The layer of plaster under channels or angle bars leaves

Channels are established in design position on a layer of a polymeric mortar

Through walls of channels in a wall bore through cross bars for coupling bolts

Make installation of bolts and their prolongation. A step of bolts no more than 1500 mm and
diameter not less Ɇ12

Through one emptiness in plates bore through apertures for the passing anchor bolts

Establish anchor bolts of d 12 mm which from below weld on channel

In the widened top aperture in emptiness of plates pour concrete, after that tighten bolt nut. On
each plate establish two anchors

Technology of retrofitting of masonry buildings

Technology of reinforcement of frame – panel buildings

Figure 4.18 Students and teachers being instructed during earthquake drill
(N20

School

Tashkent)

4.4.3 Training and Capacity Building

Training program for technicians
A two day training workshop on earthquake resistant construction was held in Tashkent to
impart knowledge to local technicians on earthquake resistant technology and also to
receive feed back on use of guidelines for their refinements before going for publication.

Training Workshop
a) To impart knowledge and skill on earthquake safe construction procedure to technicians

and masons in Tashkent. In particular, the aim of training workshop was to provide
in-depth knowledge to technician/masons on following:

o Earthquake basics

o Building performance in earthquakes

o Planning and configuration

o Earthquake resistant construction for masonry and RC buildings

o Repair, maintenance, Workmanship

o Earthquake retrofitting

o Building code and construction

b) To receive feedback on the content and presentation of the material from the training

participants so as to improve the training guidelines

c) To institutionalize the training and continuing education on earthquake safe construction

in Uzbekistan through formal and informal sector organizations.

Training course module
Module I (Earthquake safety Basics)

x Earthquake hazard and risk- earthquake mechanism, magnitude and intensity

x How earthquake force affect buildings

x Earthquake Risk Mitigation/ reduction measures

x Structural Mitigation measures- Retrofit/ Re-construct the building

x Non-structural mitigation measures - Fix, Fasten, Anchor, Replace, Relocate,

Rectify, manage, restore, reinsure

Module II (Building performance in earthquakes)
Module III (earthquake resistant construction of RC buildings)
Module IV (Case study) school retrofitting (Tashkent school no:116) by designer
Module V (Design of masonry buildings)
Module VI (Explanation of guidebook on earthquake resistant construction under SESI)

For builders technical seminar was held which is program on which the presentation of the
Manual on technology of works on retrofitting of masonry and frame-panel buildings of
schools was carried out.

Training program for technicians
Two training were conducted to train the technicians on earthquake safer construction
technology. The content of the training is as given in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3: Brief outline of training program for technicians

Opening/ welcome remarks
Introduction of participants and resource persons
Lecture: Basics of earthquake, Seismicity of India, measuring earthquakes and its impact
Lecture: Basic Rules of Good Quality & Disaster Resistant Construction
Location of building in hilly region, Building plan for earthquake vulnerable areas, Structural
and non structural issues, Architectural issues
Typical damages observed in different types of buildings
Lecture: Basics of Earthquake Engineering for Masonry

Structures

How building behaves during an earthquake, Design and construction principles for earthquake
Lecture: Overview of Disaster Resisting Features for earthquake resistant masonry buildings
Exercise: DO’S and DON’T
Lecture: Ductile detailing and construction for earthquake resistant system
  Latur, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir
Showing different damaged observed in building without earthquake resistant features
Recap of the content delivered on the first day

Lecture: Different steps in evaluation of building, procedure for safety audits
Vulnerability Assessment of Masonry Building
Lecture: Why retrofitting, advantage, damage vulnerability, basic process
Difference between retrofitting and repairing, types of retrofitting, benefits of retrofitting against
new construction
Lecture: Cautions in retrofitting, Retrofitable buildings
Retrofitting of RCC Structures – Brief presentation
Field visit to school under retrofitting and explanation of different activities

Figure 4.19 Retrofitting designs of RC frame panel schools in Uzbekistan

Basic design for retrofitting of RC frame panel schools in Uzbekistan

1. Retrofitting of joint connections of columns and crossbars.
2. Retrofitting of columns by the implementation of reinforced-concrete holder or

metal structure.

3. Retrofitting of crossbars by escalating by metal structure.
4.

Introduction of connections for increase of rigidity of building from
reinforced-concrete diaphragm, transformation of masonry partitions by
retrofitting in diaphragms, metal bracings.

5. Retrofitting of the basements by enlarging or introductions of diaphragm from

reinforced-concrete.

6. Increase of rigidity of ceiling by an additional layer of the reinforced concrete.

On the chosen model schools, specified designs of retrofitting were applied: it is masonry
school N20, 1939 years of construction and frame-panel school N 116 in Tashkent.

Figure 4.20:
Retrofitting
and Children,
Uzbekistan

4.5 Project Outcomes: Dissemination

As part of the dissemination activity, national, regional and International events were
organized by UNCRD in collaboration with UN agencies, International Organizations and
local counterparts.

1. International Symposium on “Keeping School Safe from Earthquakes”
I. Date: 2006.01.18

An International symposium was held on January 18, 2006 in Kobe Japan on the main
theme of Creating Safe Schools, Homes and Communities. One of the sub-themes of the
symposium was "For Children: Earthquake Resistant Schools and Disaster Management
Education." The symposium was organized with the objective of promoting a better
understanding of Safe schools and disaster education. The symposium drew participation
from wide range of interest groups and was an opportunity for academics, professionals and
international agency representatives to interact with wider public.
Besides papers on schools and disasters, lessons from previous earthquakes on school
safety, technical issues on earthquake vulnerability reduction of school children, the
symposium was instrumental in bringing up issues for future intervention in the panel
discussion. The panel discussion focused on three questions to find a general strategy for
future intervention.
• What are the most appropriate themes of disaster risk knowledge?
• What sort of strategy is appropriate to include these contents in school education?
• How can we evaluate the effectiveness of such measures in light of lessons from recent
past earthquakes of Sumatra and Pakistan?
The symposium was held in collaboration with Yomiuri Shimbun Osaka, 2006 Symposium
Committee, Hyogo Prefecture, ADRC) JCA Hyogo, UN/OCHA Kobe, and others.

2. International Workshop on “Keeping School Safe from Earthquakes”
I. Date: 2006.06.01 - 2006.06.02

Fig. 4.21
Kathmandu 2006 Workshop
on “Keeping School Safe
from Earthquakes”

II. Venue

Kathmandu, Nepal (Shanker Hotel)

III. Organizers

United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD)
National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET)

In association with

Department of Education, Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal
UN Secretariat for International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN ISDR)
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan
Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

VI. Purpose

The purpose of this International Workshop on ‘Keeping schools safe from Earthquakes’,

is to provide a platform for exchanging information and experiences from different
countries on school earthquake safety.

3. Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on School Education and Disaster Risk
Eeduction
8-10 October 2007, Bangkok Thailand
Jointly organized by UNESCO, UNICEF, UNESCAP, UNCRD, UNOCHA, IFRC,
ASEAN, ADRC, ADPC, ASB and UNISDR Asia and Pacific
The Regional Workshop on Education for Disaster Risk Reduction has been an initiative
developed by the Education Task Force as a first step to demonstrate the long term
commitment of this partnership to integrate disaster risk reduction into the Education
sector.

This three-day Regional Workshop initiated a longer-term regional strategy that aims at
raising awareness on the need to integrate disaster risk reduction and school safety
construction programs as part of education curricula. It brings together decision makers and
practitioners from the field of disaster risk reduction, disaster management and education
and built on past and existing in-country initiatives as well as key processes and bodies at
the country and regional level that have placed education for disaster risk reduction and
school safety as a top priority of their agenda (RCC, Asian Conferences on Disaster
Reduction, ASEAN Committee for Disaster Management, UNCRD, IFRC among others).
UNCRD took a role as a leading agency to host Session 4: Making School Buildings Safer
from Disasters with ADPC.

Working Group Discussion 4
Following were discussed during the working group discussion.

Question 1: What sort of policy or program can address the issue of vulnerability

reduction of schools?

Question 2: What are the benefits of having separate standards for the design and

construction of school buildings (in addition to the national building code)? What
timelines need to be prescribed?

Question 3: What about capacity building for safe construction and retrofitting?
Question 4: How can all schools (both public and private) be covered for retrofitting and

rehabilitation? What funding mechanism is required for the intervention?

Question 5: Should be there any progress indicator in school safety in line with Hyogo

Framework for Action?

Question 6: What are the concrete recommendations to ETF for regional initiatives to be

undertaken for safe schools construction in hazard prone area?

4. International Conference on School Safety (A Golden Jubilee Initiative)
14-16 May 2008 Islamabad, Pakistan
Organized by Aga Khan Planning Building Service, Pakistan and Focus Humanitarian
Assistance, Pakistan; UNCRD was also one of the partner organizers.

The Conference was held with aims to highlight global and regional understanding and
objectives as set in various initiatives such as the Yokohama Strategy, the Hyogo
Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015, the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable
Development, Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the 2006-2007 World Campaign on
Disaster Reduction entitled “Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School”, and the Global
Knowledge and Education Platform of Global Platform for DRR, etc.
UNCRD led the Session 2 on Technical Aspects of Seismically Safer Schools. The session
evolved from input from experience of experts from a wide range of expertise in
construction, strengthening and retrofitting of schools and also benefits from experience
and expertise of involvement in houses and other infrastructures.
The objectives of the session were:

x To identify and disseminate good practices in building safe schools and

retrofitting of school buildings to withstand hazards

x To create awareness at different levels to make schools as focal point for

building culture of safety

x To highlight the role of safe schools as tool for community awareness and

technology transfer

x To prepare future action plan for seismically safe schools

5. South-pacific Regional workshop on "Safe Schools and Disaster Risk
Reduction", ,
Sept. 08-09, 2008, Suva, Fiji

UNCRD organized South-Pacific Regional Workshop on “Safe Schools and Disaster Risk
Reduction” in collaboration with Government of Fiji and National Disaster Management
Office (NDMO), Fiji on 9 and 10 September, in Fiji, Suva. As Fiji is one of the project
countries for the project representing the South-Pacific region, the Regional Workshop was
held as a platform to disseminate the lessons of the project, to exchange experiences in the
region, and to develop regional strategy to promote school safety and disaster education.

The objectives of the South-Pacific Regional Workshop on SESI were 1. Share knowledge
and experiences of school earthquake safety at the national and regional level, 2. Identify
good practices in integrating disaster risk reduction in developing school safety programs, 3.
Identify the policy issues for institutionalization of school safety into national development
program, resource allocation for making safe school buildings and capacity building for
dissemination and adaptation of appropriate technologies in the context of the South Pacific
countries, and 4. Define the challenges, critical needs and opportunities in implementing
the school earthquake safety in the South-Pacific countries. The workshop was held by
about 60 participants included participants from 5 South Pacific countries.

6. Cenral-Asian Regional Conference on School Earthquake Safety
Sept 17-18, 2008, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

UNCRD has held a Central Asian Regional Workshop on “Safe Schools and Disaster Risk
Reduction” in collaboration with State Committee of Uzbekistan republic on Architecture
and Construction and UzLITTI.

As Uzbekistan is one of the project countries for the project representing the Central Asia
region, the Regional Workshop provides platform to disseminate the lessons of the project,
to exchange experiences in the region, and to develop regional level strategy to promote
school safety and disaster education.

The objectives of the Central-Asia Regional Workshop are 1. Share knowledge and
experiences of school earthquake safety at the national and regional level, 2. Identify good
practices in integrating disaster risk reduction in developing school safety programs, 3.
Identify the policy issues for institutionalization of school safety into national development
program, resource allocation for making safe school buildings and capacity building for
dissemination and adaptation of appropriate technologies in the context of the Central Asia
countries, and 4. Define the challenges, critical needs and opportunities in implementing
the school earthquake safety in the Central Asian countries.

The workshop was participated by about 60 participants including participants from four
countries in the region.

Figure 4.22
Central Asia Regional
Conference on SESI in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
(Sept. 2008)

7. International Workshop on "School Earthquake Safety Initiative"
UNCRD Organized International Workshop on “School Earthquake Safety Initiatives
(SESI)” in Kobe, Japan on 5-7 November 2008.

The objectives of the International Workshop were: (a) To disseminate experience of
UNCRD's SESI project in four countries: Fiji, India, Indonesia and Uzbekistan; (b) To
assess the achievements and challenges school earthquake safety initiative; (c) To define

the challenges, critical needs and opportunities in implementing the school earthquake
safety; (d) To identify the policy issues for institutionalization of school safety into national
development program, resource allocation for making safe school buildings and capacity
building for dissemination and adaptation of appropriate technologies in the global context;
and (e) To recommend process of country strategic planning and its elements for school
safety and disaster risk reduction.

The three day workshop was held by representatives from 4 project countries, international
expert in school safety and disaster risk reduction along with experts from Japan. A
half-day symposium open to public was organized as part of the workshop. Outline of the
country presentation and future strategies are indicated in this document and detailed
discussion will be presented in a proceedings of the International Workshop on SESI 2008.

Figure 4.23:
International Workshop on
SESI in Kobe, Japan
(Nov. 2008)

Figure 4.24:
Retrofitting Inauguration
ceremony in Indonesia
(Dec. 2007)

5.1 School Safety and Regional Development

Schools perform important roles to build and maintain a regional society. The function of
schools embraces; 1) development of a cooperative relationship within the regional society,
2) long-term contribution to the capacity building and stabilization of the society and
community, 3) function as a center in case of disaster emergency of the regional society,
and 4) provisions of an opportunity as a model construction and retrofitting in the region.

Firstly, cooperative relationships would be created through the daily communication among
the children at school, within the parents groups, and between the children and members of
regional society including teachers and school support groups. In particular, elementary and
secondary schools play larger roles if it is compared to the roles played by schools of higher
level education. The second essential function implies that education at schools also
encourages regional society to develop its capacity for improving economic activities and
to promote social development through provision of motivation to members of the
community. Thirdly, schools function as the core of regional society when an emergency
occurs and continues. Surrounding residents evacuate to the school in case that the
community faces a large disaster. People sheltered from danger can receive necessary
information at the school once an emergency base is established. Many experiences show
that the vulnerable groups such as children, physically challenged persons and citizens in
advanced age are affected more severely from disasters and need to be provided extra
attention. Schools can provide protective environment for them and they shelter and stay at
schools as an emergency base during disasters. Moreover, especially in developing
countries, education at school fosters the basement of the development. Resilient schools
are the fundamental factor to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of the UN. And
the last function is shown in the four target countries of the SESI project in this publication.

Therefore, regional development paradigm emphasizes the importance of improvement of
school education and strengthening the school facilities. Capacity building of human
resources for school education at regional level and financial basis for education and
establishment of school building are the key policies. Relevant governments need to
appropriate the budget for educational sector considering a comprehensive program for the
regional development. Regional disaster management as a part of regional development
program requires disaster education at school and disaster risk management in the school
buildings particularly in the earthquake and other strong hazard prone regions. Under the
recent decentralized governance conditions, educational authority and policy makers in the
region need to cooperate in a well-organized manner to cope with regional issues. The
regional society is expected to join and support the regional decisions on educational
policies through processes of participation, involvement, and cooperation. Many cases and
efforts indicate that there exist various issues and challenges to achieve such objectives.
Development of appropriate curricula for disaster management and funding for construction
and retrofitting of school buildings against disaster are remaining as challenging issues.

Many international agencies related to disaster risk reduction and education, have initiated
programs on disaster education and resilient school buildings all over the world. UNESCO,
ISDR, UNICEFF, UNDP, UNCRD and regional agencies continue the effort to develop the

most suitable and applicable solutions for improvement of school facilities and disaster
education in each region. International agencies and NGOs also carry out financial and
knowledge supports in the same direction. After the establishment of the HFA 2005-2015,
more initiatives started and concentrated into the disaster risk reduction at schools. The
integrated program of UNCRD on school earthquake safety is implementing from the
viewpoint of regional disaster management for sustainable development.

5.2 Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative (HESI)

In January 2007 UNCRD Disaster Management Planning Hyogo Office launched a project
titled “Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative (HESI)”. The project aims to improve the
safety of houses and protect them from earthquake disaster through effective

Box: 5.1: From School to Community: Case of Indonesia

In the aftermath of the Great Tsunami and Earthquake in 2004 December, The government
of Indonesia has requested to implement the proposed activities in Banda Aceh area so that
the reconstruction process can get best utilize the demonstration effect of the school project.
Based on their demand, some initial project activities like kick-off meeting and community
seminars were carried out in Banda Aceh. The Banda Reconstruction and Rehabilitation
Agency (BRR) has requested to initiate the activities of school retrofitting in 2005 aiming to
influence other agencies involved in reconstruction of schools and other infrastructures
positively. The UNCRD counterpart institution, the Research Centre for Disaster Mitigation of
Institute of Technology Bandung (CDM/ITB) had carried out building survey and other
preliminary assessment of school buildings in Aceh region based on the understanding. Two
community seminars were also organized in Aceh in collaboration with stakeholders.
Considering the impact and potential hazard exposed by another earthquake in May 2006 in
Yogyakarta, it was then suggested that this project would, in this context, be better in Java
region. As per the advice, consultation works with local Department of Education in Java
region is underway. With the Grant Agreement (GA) with ITB in place, the project activities
can be started with immediate effect in Java.

In Indonesia, the UNCRD Hyogo office is carrying out two projects, namely: school
earthquake safety project and the Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative (HESI) project.
Both of the projects having goal as safety of community people in case of earthquake
disaster, advantage was taken to compliment the activities from each to another. In
Bandung, it has been supported the school project in dissemination of the earthquake safe
retrofitting technology through schools in the community as a contribution from the HESI
projects and its lessons.

In Bandung, school earthquake safety project is being implemented in partnership with ITB
and local governments in Bandung city and Bandung Kabupaten. One of the components of
the school project is to demonstrate the technology of school retrofitting so that the existing
vulnerable school buildings can be improved and children in the schools are safe. At the
same time it will disseminate the concept of safe building in the community. Under the school
project framework, Hanshin Labor Union, Osaka Japan expressed willingness to contribute
financially to the local government and a school in Bandung to get the school retrofitted. As
UNCRD has been engaging local consultants and experts for the earthquake technology
development and dissemination in Indonesia, the retrofitting work of school was found as the
most appropriate way of disseminating it.

implementation of building code. The project is implemented in Algeria, Indonesia, Nepal
and Peru. Although building code is only a part of large dialogue of building safety, it is
important and key element. Under this initiative, UNCRD provides an international
information exchange platform to share policy experiences as well as the cases of school
safety project. The activities included perception and implementation gap analysis of target
countries, raising awareness among the stakeholders, developing policy recommendations
on improving safety of houses and developing capacity of national and local officials to
implement building safety regulations effectively. One of the major activities envisaged in
HESI is creation of platform for networking, information exchange, sharing of knowledge
and sharing of good practices in mitigating earthquake risk throughout the world.

Figure 5.1

Different regimes of Housing
Earthquake Safety Initiative

The project aims to improve structural
safety of houses and other buildings to
reduce impact of earthquakes in life

and livelihood of people through effective implementation of building safety regulations.
Because the collapse of buildings and houses is the single largest cause of human deaths
and economic losses resulting from earthquakes, anti-seismic building code dissemination
(ABCD) and effective enforcement of control systems can reduce the loss significantly.
Though many earthquake prone countries now have building codes, there is serious
challenge for effective implementation of the codes because of lack of awareness, lack of
institutional mechanism for implementation and insufficient capacity of authorities.

There are several effective tools to reduce or prevent life and property losses during an
earthquake. The experiences from past earthquakes show that effective implementation of
earthquake resistant codes can reduce the losses significantly. This is because the collapse
of houses is often the single largest cause of human deaths and economic losses resulting
from earthquakes. However, there are many vulnerable houses with structural deficiencies
in a number of developing countries situated in earthquake prone regions in the world.
These vulnerable houses and buildings including schools are constructed using traditional
techniques without the aid of an architect or engineer. The research seeks to tackle this
situation and to protect vulnerable people from possible future disasters. The first challenge
is to define the process that is appropriate for individual country contexts. The second
challenge is to disseminate the code to communities. It is verified that effective building
code implementation requires not only the capable national institutions for strict
enforcement but also means to engage community people through disseminating the
information and involving professionals for community consultations.

Safety of

Houses

Social

Economic

Environmental

Raising public
awareness,

Technology management,

Landscape, etc.

Assurance

system,

etc.

Building control,

Seismic

codes

etc.

License

Loan system

with safety

standards,

Energy
Saving

Urban
Planning

5.3 Importance of School and Housing Earthquake Safety

UNCRD held an expert meeting on Anti-seismic Building Code Dissemination (ABCD)
project for the HESI in Kobe in January 2007 as the first step. The representatives from
India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal and Peru joined it. The followings are the key points for the
HESI project;
- It is required to establish a strategy in order to enforce building code to existing buildings

and not only to new constructions in many countries in the world.

- There is a need for training and capacity development, including the strengthening of

existing training institutions towards resilient non-engineered housing.

- Guidelines suffice for non-engineered houses. Technical research should be done to set

the minimum specifications such as size, width of walls and the use of columns.

- There is an immense need for raising awareness how to educate communities and

technicians about the importance of making safer houses, and so on.

During the ABCD for HESI project, UNCRD conducted a survey in a number of disaster
prone countries across the world. The objective was to collect information on building code
and the status of its implementation in each country. Non-engineered houses are
constructed using traditional techniques without the aid of an architect or engineer. A
widespread presence of non-engineered houses, owner self-built among these in particular,
are potentially more dangerous if they are built in crowded cities in the midst of rapid
urbanization. This is also the case of school buildings in rural areas in many developing
countries. Disseminating building code is an effective tool to safeguard houses from
earthquake disaster. To that end, community-based activities and engaging officials and
experts in the target countries are essential for the successful enforcement.

Urban environment or built-environment is mainly composed of individual buildings.
Performance of buildings against hazards including earthquakes and strong wind plays
important roles to build and maintain a regional society. The function of buildings
including schools embraces; 1) to provide livelihoods and safe living environment for
regional society, 2) to activate and provide economic activities for industries and office
workers, 3) to formulate long-term contribution to the culture and stabilization of the
society and community, and 4) to support social functions such as schools, hospitals and
other facilities. Thus, most built-environment of urban area is covered with buildings.
Therefore vulnerable buildings directly imply high urban risks in many cases including the
case of China in 1976, Armenia in 1988, Iran in 1990, Kobe in 1995, Turkey in 1999, India
in 2001, Bam, Iran in 2003, Pakistan in 2005, Java in 2006, Peru in 2007, and China 2008.

5.4 Dissemination Earthquake Safety to Communities and CBDM

Many experiences show that the vulnerable groups such as children, physically challenged
persons and citizens in advanced age are affected more severely from disasters and need to
be provided extra attention. Therefore, regional development paradigm emphasizes the
importance of improvement of public building facilities and private ones including
individual houses. Capacity building of human resources for building construction at

regional level and financial basis for education and establishment of capacity building
systems are the key policies. Relevant governments need to appropriate the budget for
enforcement and/or retrofitting of public facilities considering a comprehensive program
for the regional development. Regional disaster management as a part of regional
development program requires disaster risk management in the school, hospital and other
public buildings particularly in the earthquake and other strong hazard prone regions.
Under the recent decentralized governance conditions, building control and public
construction authority and policy makers in the region need to cooperate in a
well-organized manner to cope with regional issues. The regional society is expected to join
and support the regional decision through processes of participation, involvement, and
cooperation. Many cases and efforts indicate that there are various issues and challenges
to achieve such objectives.

Figure 5.2 Shake table demonstration for
the public (CBDM in Bangladesh 2007)

Disseminating building code is an effective
tool to safeguard houses from earthquake
disaster. However, a number of challenges are
expected as UNCRD implements the HESI
project in Algeria, Indonesia, Nepal and Peru,

though each country has diverse stakeholders of housing and school safety and the
relationship among them might differ. The system always has a loophole unless people who
pay for houses demand that their houses be made resilient. It is imperative to have a system
of punishment for violators of the code, and the house owners and other community
members can be part of the enforcement body. The role of governments, both national and
local, is enormous given the fact that they have to be technically capable to enforce the
code as well as to be able to convince and motivate professionals and the public to comply
with the building regulation.

Moreover, UNCRD has been implementing series of the “Community Based Disaster
Management (CBDM)” projects since 1999. Currently, CBDM projects are focused on
gender perspective in the context of regional development and urbanization. The Figure 5.2
shows an event in Bangladesh to demonstrate how to reinforce houses under CBDM project
in 2007. These programs have been closely connected with school earthquake safety in
terms of its contents and community based activities.

School Earthquake Safety Initiatives in Japan

Contributed by: Takayuki NAKAMURA, JAXA (former MEXT official)

6.1 Introduction

Earthquakes can occur anywhere and at any time in Japan. This is because Japan is located
on the border between four large plates: the North America Plate, Pacific Plate, Eurasia
Plate and Philippine Plate. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (hereinafter, the Kobe
Earthquake), which occurred in Kobe on January 17 in 1995, killed more than 6,400 people.
School buildings were also severely damaged by the Kobe Earthquake. According to a
report provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of
Japan (MEXT), approximately 4,500 educational facilities were structurally and/or
non-structurally damaged, though there were fortunately no casualties resulted from
damaged schools since the Kobe Earthquake occurred in early morning at 5:46 a.m.. After
the strike of the Kobe Earthquake, 390 schools took the role for evacuation shelter and
these schools accommodated approximately 180,000 evacuated people. Furthermore, at the
time of recent major earthquakes such as Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake in October 2004 and
Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake in June 2008, while many school buildings were
damaged, non-damaged schools accommodated many evacuated people. On the basis of
these experiences, it is critical to ensure that school students are safe and school facilities
are fit to serve as evacuation shelters for local populations. In this paper, MEXT’s policies
and some examples on structural and nonstructural retrofitting of school buildings are
introduced. Moreover, measures to improve the function for evacuation shelter and disaster
risk education at school are described together with their examples.

6.2 Promotion of Earthquake-resistant School Building

6.2.1 Roles of School Building

Since school buildings have the following crucial roles, it is indispensable to assure the
safety of school buildings against earthquakes.
A. Place for educating children: school buildings are the place where many children study
and live most part of their days. It is, therefore, vital to keep school buildings in safer and
healthier environment.
B. Place for cultural and sporting activities: school is a well-known building to the
people who live near the school. School buildings are, therefore, often utilized for the
cultural and sporting events for the local population.
C. Place for evacuation: school often becomes an evacuation shelter when a major natural
disaster occurs. To this end, it is important that school buildings accommodate necessary
functions for evacuation shelter.

6.2.2 Retrofitting of School Buildings

A. Revision of the Building Standard Law
The Building Standard Law of Japan was revised in 1981 and new seismic resistant design
methods were adopted. According to the revised law, the buildings constructed based on

the new design would have no damage in the case of middle class earthquakes (about JMA
5 upper scale). Moreover, there would be no casualties in these buildings and no severe
collapse of these buildings even in the case of major earthquakes (about JMA 6 upper).

Table 6.1 Difference between New and Old Seismic Resistant Design

Type of Earthquake
(JMA Scale)

Medium Scale Earthquake
(about 5 Upper)

Larger Scale Earthquake
(over 6 Upper)

Old Seismic Resistant
Design (until 1981)

No major damage

Not verified

New Seismic Resistant
Design (since 1981)

No major damage

Will not collapse

JMA Scale: A scale indicating the strength of seismic motion, which was formed by

JMA (Japan Meteorology Agency)

5 Upper: Many people are considerably frightened and find it difficult to move
6 Upper: Impossible to keep standing and to move without crawling

B. Seismic Capacity Index of Structure (Is)
In order to evaluate the seismic capacity of an existing school building, the seismic capacity
index of structure (Is) is used in Japan based on the regulation of the Law to Promote
Seismic Rehabilitation. The law regulates that a building has low risk of collapsing if the Is
of the building is more than 0.6. However, in consideration of the importance of school
building, MEXT recommends that the Is of school building should surpass 0.7 after
retrofitting.

Is (Seismic Capacity Index of Structure):

An index to define the seismic capacity of an existing reinforced concrete building

ዙEo×S×T

ዖ A basic structural seismic capacity index calculated by the elements of

Strength index (C), Ductility index (F) and Story Index (St)

Eo= C×F×St

S: A reduction factor to modify Eo index, which is based on the structural balance in

both plan and elevation

T: A reduction factor to modify Eo index, which is graded by time-dependent

deterioration

Table 6.2 Evaluation of Seismic Capacity Index of Structure (Is)

ዘ 0.3

There is high risk of collapsing

0.3

ዘ Is ዘ0.6

There is risk of collapsing

0.6

ዘ Is

There is low risk of collapsing

6.2.3 Guideline for promoting earthquake-resistant school building

A survey carried out by MEXT in April 2002 showed that public school buildings had not
been satisfactorily retrofitted. It emerged from the survey that seismic diagnosis was carried
out on only 30% of buildings built based on the pre-1981 Old Seismic Resistant Design,
and only about 45% of public primary and junior high school buildings had been retrofitted.

In this connection, a council called “Co-operators’ Meeting for the Survey and Study of the
Promotion of Earthquake-Resistant School Buildings” was established by MEXT in
October 2002. The outcomes of the council’s discussions were submitted to MEXT in April
2003 in a report entitled the “Promotion of Earthquake-Resistant School Buildings”. Based
on this report, the “Guidelines for the Promotion of Earthquake-Resistant School
Buildings” was stipulated by MEXT in July 2003.

Chapter 1 of this guideline describes the basic concept of the “earthquake-resistant school
building;” and Chapter 2 outlines the methods for devising earthquake-resistant promotion
plans, the points to bear in mind, and the suggested methods for determining the urgency of
earthquake resistance projects.
The basic principles pointed out in this guideline are: (1) to prioritize earthquake resistant
measures for school buildings at high risk of collapse or severe damage; (2) to implement
seismic resistant capacity evaluation promptly; (3) to develop a plan for promoting
earthquake resistance promptly; (4) to disclose the results of the seismic resistant capacity
evaluation and the plans for promoting earthquake resistance; and (5) to check and take
measures for the earthquake resistance of non-structural elements.
          (The web address: http://www.nier.go.jp/shisetsu/pdf/e-taishinsuishin.pdf)

Figure 6.1 Procedure for Developing a Plan for Promoting Earthquake Resistance

6.2.4 Subsidy System

MEXT has been urging municipal governments, which are responsible for school buildings,
to promote school building’s retrofitting based on the above-mentioned guideline. In
addition, as the following figure shows, MEXT has a subsidy system regarding public
school buildings. In line with the Sichuan Earthquake in China in May 2008, MEXT has
raised the subsidy rate for vulnerable school buildings (Is<0.3) from a half to two thirds in
June 2008.

E s ta b lis h a c o m m itte e f or d is c u ss io n

Im p le m e n t b a s ic ex a m ina tio n f o r a s se ss ing

pr io rity of v u lne ra b le bu ild in gs

E v a lu a te s e is m ic re s is ta n c e c a pa c it y

C on s ide r ur ge nc y o f pro je c ts ba s e d o n t h e re s u lt s

o f s e is m ic re s is ta n c e c a pa c ity e v a lua tion

C a rry o ut e a rt hq ua k e re s is ta n c e p ro je c ts

F o rm a y e a rly p la n to m a k e s c ho o l b u ildin gs

e a rt h qu a k e re s is ta n t

C o m m i tt e e   c o n s is ts   o f   b o a r d  o f  e d u ca ti o n ,  re le v a n t
d e p a r t m e n t s  o f   a d m in is t ra t io n ,   a c a d e m ic   e x p e r t s   o n
a r c h it e c t ,  d e s ig n e r s ,  a n d  t e a ch e rs   a n d   s ta ff   o f  s c h o o l s

S im p l e e x a m i n a t io n t o a ss e s s e a rt h q u a ke r e s ist a n t p rio rit y
o f s c h o o l f a c ilit ie s b u ilt b e f o re 1 9 8 1

E v a lu a t e s e is m ic re sis t a n c e c a p a c it y a cc o r d in g t o t h e
a s se ss e d p r io rit y in t h e p r e v io u s s t e p

B u il d in g s w it h h ig h e r r is k o f c o lla p s in g o r s e v e r e d a m a g e s
a r e g iv e n p r io rit y in p ro je c t s

Source:

from MEXT

Table 6.3 Subsidy Rate for Public School Building

Type of Construction

Subsidy Rate from MEXT

New construction

1/2

Reconstruction

1/3, 1/2 (Is<0.3)

Renovation

1/3

Seismic Rehabilitation

1/3, 1/2 (Is<0.3)

Budget of fiscal 2008: 229 billion JPY

6.2.5 Status of Earthquake Resistance

By utilizing the above-mentioned subsidy system, the retrofitting of school buildings has
been implemented in Japan. The following pie chart shows the status of earthquake
resistance on elementary and lower secondary public schools in Japan as of April 1 2008.
As this pie chart shows, approximately 48,000 of school buildings, or 38% of school
buildings were found lacking needed earthquake resistance or needed further assessment.
Above all, 10,000 of these buildings were estimated to be at high risk of collapse in
expected large scale earthquakes. A commitment was made to reinforce all of these
buildings at high risk within 5 years. In addition, as mentioned, the subsidy rate for
vulnerable school buildings has been raised in June 2008. Moreover, in order to accelerate
the 5 years retrofitting program into 4 years, MEXT has added an additional national fund
(114 billion JPY) to the regular budget of fiscal 2008 (115 billion JPY, total 229 billion
JPY) in the supplementary budget of fiscal 2008 of Japanese government in October 2008.

Source: from MEXT
Figure 6.2 The Status of Earthquake Resistance

6.2.6 Earthquake-resistant Methods

In Japan, following methods are mainly utilized for retrofitting school buildings. Since each
method has pros and cons, it is important to select an adequate method based on the
consideration of the structural form of the building, the assigned budget and the needs from
users.

ᎈ Ꮊ ፧ᎶᎭ፧ᎈᎷ ᎹᎰᎳ፧፸Ꮊ Ꮋ፳፧፹፷፷፿

᫝᫝ ᎉᎼᎰᎳᎻ፧ᎰᎵ፧፸ᎀ፿፸፧ᎶᎹ፧ᎩᎬᎭᎶᎹᎬ

᫝፾፿ ፳፺፸ᎀ፧ᯘ፽ ፸፵፽ᯖ ᯙ

ᎉ ᎼᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵᎮ Ꮊ፧Ꮎ ᎰᎻᎯᎶᎼᎻ፧ᎌᎨ ᎹᎻᎯ ᎸᎼᎨᎲ Ꭼ

ᎹᎬᎺ ᎰᎺ ᎻᎨ ᎵᎪᎬ፧Ꮆ Ꮉ፧ᎩᎼᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵᎮ Ꮊ፧ᎻᎯᎨ Ꮋ

ᎯᎨ Ꮍ Ꭼ፧ᎵᎶᎻ፧ᏀᎬ Ꮋ፧ᎩᎬᎬ Ꮅ፧ᎬᎽ ᎨᎳᎼᎨ ᎻᎬᎫ

፻፾፳ᎀ፻ᎀ፧ᯘ፺፾ ፵፾፬፰

ᎉᎼ ᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵᎮ Ꮊ፧Ꮎ ᎰᎻᎯ፧ᎬᎨ ᎹᎻᎯᎸᎼ ᎨᎲ Ꭼ

ᎹᎬᎺ ᎰᎺ ᎻᎨᎵᎪ Ꭼ

፾ᎀ፳፹፸፼፧ᎩᎼᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵᎮ Ꮊ፧ᯘ፽፹፵፺፬፰

ᎉᎼ ᎰᎳᎻ፧ᎰᎵ፧፸ᎀ፿፹ ፧ᎶᎹ፧Ꭸ ᎭᎻᎬᎹ

᫝ ፻፿፳፿፻፼፧ᯘ፺፿፵፻ᯖ ᯙ

᎛ ᎶᎻ ᎨᎳ፧᎕ Ꮌ Ꮄ ᎩᎬᎹ፧ᎶᎭ

ᎉ ᎼᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵ ᎮᎺ

፸፹፾፳፸፽፻

᎛Ꭿ Ꭼ፧᎚ ᎻᎨᎻᎼ Ꮊ፧ᎶᎭ፧ᎌᎨᎹᎻᎯ ᎸᎼ ᎨᎲᎬ ፧᎙Ꭼ ᎺᎰᎺᎻᎨᎵᎪ Ꭼ

፯ᎌ ᎳᎬᎴ ᎬᎵᎻᎨᎹᏀ፧Ꭸ ᎵᎫ፧ ᎓ᎶᎾ ᎬᎹ፧᎚ᎬᎪᎶᎵᎫᎨ ᎹᏀ፧᎗ ᎼᎩᎳᎰᎪ፧᎚ᎪᎯᎶᎶᎳᎺ፰

⏩ᲘᲘ Ჴ᳅᳇᲻᳄᳈ᲴᲾᲸᱳ᳅Ჸ᳆᲼᳆ ᳇Ჴ᳁ᲶᲸᱳ᳁᳂᳇

᳌Ჸ᳇ᱳᲸ᳉ ᲴᲿ᳈Ჴ ᳇ᲸᲷ

ᲇ᱿᲋ᲇᲃᱳᱻᲆᲁ᲋ⓢ ᱼ

ᎉ ᎼᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵᎮ Ꮊ፧Ꮎ ᎰᎻᎯ፧ᎬᎨ ᎹᎻᎯᎸᎼᎨ ᎲᎬ፧ᎹᎬᎺ ᎰᎺᎻᎨ ᎵᎪᎬ

፯ ᎰᎵᎪᎳᎼᎫᎬᎺ ፧ᎹᎬᎻᎹᎶᎭᎰᎻᎻᎬᎫ፧ᎩᎼᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵᎮᎺ ፰

፺፷፳፺፾፷፧ ፯፹፺፵ᎀᯖ ፰

᫝ᎉᎉ ᎼᎰᎳᎫᎰᎵᎮᎺ ፧ᎻᎯᎨᎻ፧ᎫᎶ፧ ᎵᎶ Ꮋ፧ᎯᎨᎽᎬ

ᎬᎨ ᎹᎻᎯᎸᎼᎨ ᎲᎬ፧ᎹᎬᎺ ᎰᎺᎻᎨ ᎵᎪᎬ፧ᎨᎵᎫ

ᎵᎬᎬᎫ፧ᎻᎶ፧ᎩᎬ፧ᎹᎬᎻᎹᎶᎭᎰᎻᎻᎬᎫ

᫝ ፻፺፳፸፷ᎀ፧፯፺፺፵ᎀᯖ ፰

Type

Steel Frame Brace

Reinforced Concrete Wall

Characteristics

࡮A construction method to attach
steel frame braces to columns and
beams
࡮Steel frame braces can be installed
outside or inside the building
࡮Working at the construction site is
comparatively easy
࡮Users can utilize the building
even under construction

࡮A construction method to add reinforced

concrete walls inside the building
࡮Construction period is comparatively
longer
࡮ Ventilation and lighting might be
disturbed
࡮ Construction cost is comparatively
lower

Photo

Figure 6.3 Earthquake-resistant Method

Type

Column Reinforcement by
Steel Plate or Carbon Fiber

Out Frame

Characteristics

࡮ A construction method to attach
steel plate or carbon fiber
to columns

࡮ Construction cost is comparatively

higher
࡮ Ventilation and lighting are not
disturbed

࡮ A construction method to add reinforced
components outside the building

࡮ Ventilation and lighting are less-disturbed

࡮ Construction inside the building is
unnecessary

࡮ Construction cost is comparatively higher

Photo

(Source: from NIER)

Figure 6.4 Earthquake-resistant Method

6.2.7 Recent Example of School Building Retrofitting

MEXT published a reference book for retrofitting school buildings in September 2006. The
book includes many seismic retrofitting examples with various pictures, charts and plans.
The following schools are some examples in this reference book.

(the web address: http://www.nier.go.jp/shisetsu/pdf/e-taishinjirei.pdf)

(Source: from MEXT)

Figure 6.5 Examples of School Building Retrofitting

6.3 Non-structural Seismic Retrofitting

Even though structural parts of school buildings such as columns, beams and walls are
enough retrofitted, if non-structural members such as ceiling materials, various fixtures and
furniture are not sufficiently retrofitted, these non-structural members may fall or topple
when a major earthquake occurs. Children and evacuated local people can be killed or
injured by these vulnerable non-structural members. Therefore, the retrofitting of
non-structural members of school building is extremely important.

In order to urge municipalities to implement non-structural seismic retrofitting of school
buildings, the National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan (NIER) published
a reference book on non-structural seismic retrofitting of school building in December 2005.
The following case is an example in this reference book.

(Web address: http://www.nier.go.jp/shisetsu/pdf/e-jirei.pdf)

፩᎛፩ ᎼᎷᎷᎬᎹ፧ᎺᎬᎪᎶᎵᎫᎨᎹᏀ፧ᎺᎪᎯᎶᎶᎳ፧፧፯፧᎕ᎰᎰᎮᎨᎻᎨ፧ᎷᎹᎬᎭ፵፰

ᮦ ፺፳፹፷፷፧ᎺᎸᎴ፧፶፧፺፧ᎺᎻᎶᎹᎰᎬᎺ፧

ᮦ ᎚ᎉ᎙፯ᎰᎵᎵᎬᎹ፧ᎺᎰᎫᎬ፰፧፲፧᎙ᎊ᎞

ᮦ ፩᎐Ꮊ፩ᯪ፷፵፺፷፧ᜒ ፸፵፷፸

ᮦ ᎈᎩᎶᎼᎻ፧፸፾፻፧ᎴᎰᎳᎳᎰᎶᎵ፧ᏀᎬᎵ

ᮦ ᎈᎩᎶᎼᎻ፧፼፻፳፺፷፷ᏀᎬᎵ፶ᎺᎸᎴ፧

፯ᎶᎵᎳᏀ፧ᎺᎬᎰᎺᎴᎰᎪ፧ᎹᎬᎰᎵᎭᎶᎹᎪᎬᎴᎬᎵᎻ፰

፩᎚፩ ᎬᎳᎬᎴᎬᎵᎻᎨᎹᏀ፧ᎺᎪᎯᎶᎶᎳ፧፯፧ᎊᎯᎰᎩᎨ፧᎗ᎹᎬᎭ፵፰

ᮦ ፹፳ᎀ፷፷፧ᎺᎸᎴ፧፶፧፻፧ᎺᎻᎶᎹᎰᎬᎺ፧፧፧

ᮦ ᎚ᎉ᎙፯ᎶᎼᎻᎺᎰᎫᎬ፰፧፲፧᎙ᎊ᎞፧፧፧፧፧፧፧፧፧፧፧፧፧፧

ᮦ ፩᎐Ꮊ፩ᯪ ፷፵፻፿፧ᜒ ፷፵፾፸

ᮦ ᎈᎩᎶᎼᎻ፧፻፼፼፧ᎴᎰᎳᎳᎰᎶᎵ፧ᏀᎬᎵ

ᮦ ᎈᎩᎶᎼᎻ፧፸፼፼፳፷፷፷ᏀᎬᎵ፶ᎺᎸᎴ

፯ᎾᎰᎻᎯ፧ᎰᎴᎷᎹᎶᎽᎬᎴᎬᎵᎻ፧ᎰᎵ፧ᎸᎼᎨᎳᎰᎻᏀ፰

Figure 6.6 Example of Non-Structural Seismic Retrofitting

Item

Ceiling Material

Damage

Ceiling materials fell down in a Ceiling materials in an auditorium

special classroom at the 2004 fell down at the 1993 Hokkaido
Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Southwest Offshore Earthquake.
Prefecture.

Retrofitting

1. Daily inspection
࡮Confirm that tie braces are installed

࡮Confirm that the interval between hanging bolts is sufficient, and the bolts are
tightened.
࡮Confirm that ceiling boards are not moved, cracked or deformed, and fasteners
are not loosened or rusted.
2. Retrofitting
࡮Provide sufficient space between ceiling materials and wall or column.

࡮When hanging bolts are long (1500 mm) due to the wide space between the
roof and the ceiling, horizontal and diagonal tie braces should be installed to
prevent the ceiling from moving.

(Source: from NIER)

6.4 Improvement of the Function for Evacuation Shelter in School

6.4.1 Public building designated for disaster prevention base in
Japan

In Japan, when major natural disasters occur, a public building is utilized for an evacuation
shelter for the people who live near the building. As the following figure shows, the
percentage of school building is 61% which is the highest in those buildings.

Tie brace

Provide space (gap)

Table 6.4 Public Building designated for Disaster Prevention Base in Japan
(As of March 31, 2007)

(Source: Fire and Disaster Management Agency of Japan (FDMA))

(Source: from NIER)

6.4.2 Research on the function for evacuation shelter in school

According to the above-mentioned survey, a school building is frequently utilized for an
evacuation shelter in time of disaster. However, it is criticized that the school building has
many inconveniences when it is used for an evacuation shelter. For instance, insufficient
number of toilets, no heating and air-conditioning, no privacy, cramped space for evacuated
people, no barrier-free design, difficult to manage as evacuation shelter, etc. In order to
cope with these inconveniences, NIER started a research on the function for evacuation
shelter in school in March 2006 with the cooperation of several ministries such as MEXT,
FDMA, Cabinet Office (CAO), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
(MLIT) and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). Based on this research,
NIER published a report in August 2007. A survey on the function of school building was
conducted in this research. The following table shows how many schools have necessary
facilities for evacuation shelter.

Emphasized points in this report are; (1) to retrofit school buildings, (2) to secure necessary
functions for evacuation shelter, (3) to manage the evacuation shelter at school efficiently
and (4) to resume the education at school earlier. Especially, necessary functions and
management for evacuation shelter in school are underlined. Specifically, the following

Type of Building

Number of buildings

Percentage (%)

School building

117,228

60.8

Welfare building

24,452

12.7

Public hall

15,515

8.0

Government office

8,849

4.6

Fire station

6,149

3.2

Police office

5,772

3.0

Others

14,770

7.7

Total

192,735

100.0

Evacuated people at gymnasium

Drinking water distributed by water wagons

items are pointed out in terms of necessary functions. Moreover, it is very crucial to put
these functions into a school planning at the stage of designing.

Table 6.5 Facility equipped in the School designated for Evacuation Shelter

Item

Number of
equipped
schools

Number of schools
designated for
evacuation shelter

Percentage
(%)

Toilets at gymnasium

25,406

75.5

Outdoor toilets

20,336

60.4

Stock area

9,125

27.1

Water purification facility

9,087

27.0

Electric generator

4,615

33,670

13.7

(Source: from NIER)

Table 6.5 Necessary Function for Evacuation Shelter

Items

Examples

Toilets, Showers

flushing water, temporary toilets and showers, etc.

Electricity, Water, Gas

retrofitted pipelines, mobile generators, purification
facilities, wells, etc.

Communication measures

telephones, facsimiles, radios, televisions, etc.

Indoor environment

heating, air-conditioning, ventilation, lightning, garbage,
privacy, etc.

Barrier-free design

removing level difference of floors, western-style stools,
multi-purpose toilet booths, using tatami-rooms, etc.

Stock for emergency materials

(Source: from NIER)

In addition, important items shown in this report for the management of evacuation shelter
at school are; (1) to make a plan for utilizing the school building for an evacuation shelter,
(2) to cooperate with related organizations, (3) to create a manual for the management of
evacuation shelter and (4) to resume education at school earlier.

6.5 Disaster Risk Education at School

In Japan, there is no independent subject as disaster risk education. However, curricula
related to disaster risk education are slotted into the several subjects, the class activity, the
school event and the club activity, as the following figure shows.

Moreover, MEXT started a pilot project for promoting disaster risk education at school and
the community from fiscal 2008. The purposes of this project are; (1) to create materials for
disaster risk education, (2) to develop training programs for teachers and staffs at school,
(3) to develop practical programs for disaster risk education and (4) to support advanced or
unique projects rooted in the community. Eight projects, for example Kamaishi City in
Iwate Prefecture, were adopted for this pilot project in fiscal 2008.

Table 6.6 Disaster Risk Education at School
Stage

Example of Curriculum

Elementary
School
(age: 7-12)

Life (2nd grade): Public facilities and workers, for example, fire station and
fire-fighters
Science (5th grade): Work of running water
Science (6th grade): Change of land influenced by volcanic eruptions, earthquakes
and floods
Health and physical education (5th grade): Prevention for injury
Home economics (5th and 6th grade): Out-door cooking exercise

Lower
Secondary
School
(age: 13-15)

Science: Characteristics of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes
Health and physical education: Injury prevention and first-aid in time of disaster
Home economics: Out-door cooking exercise

Upper
Secondary
School
(age: 16-18)

Health and physical education: First-aid training in time of disaster
Ethics: Dignity for life, Relationship with nature and science
Science: Mechanism of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes
Home economics: Cooking and living in time of disaster

Besides above, the drill for evacuation in time of disaster, the lecture on disaster prevention by
experts, the science club activity, the volunteer activity in time of disaster, etc. are implemented as
a class activity, a school event and a club activity.

(Source: the author made this table based on the information from MEXT)

Furthermore, a reference book for teachers and some pamphlets for students on disaster risk
education are published by MEXT.

For teachers For students (Source: from MEXT)

Not only MEXT but also municipal governments are implementing various activities
related to disaster risk education. For instance, the Education Board of Mie Prefecture is
implementing the following diverse activities on disaster risk education.

- The Education Board published videos for disaster risk education in cooperation with

the Department of Disaster Reduction. In addition, guidebooks and sub-textbooks are
also published.

- Lessons and experiments by experts are conducted. In addition, the prefecture has

special cars where students can experience the shock of earthquake.

- Town watching and mapping for disaster prevention are implemented at each school.

Guidebook Lesson by an expert Town watching

(Source: from Mie Prefecture)

6.6 Conclusion

The importance of the retrofitting school buildings and the disaster risk education was
emphasized in the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA), which was adopted in
the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe in January 2005.
Furthermore, in order to implement the disaster risk education and the safer school facilities
which are pointed out in the HFA, the United Nations International Strategy of Disaster
Reduction (UNISDR) and its partners carried out a campaign entitled the “Disaster risk
reduction begins at school (2006-2007)”. As an action of this campaign, a workshop
entitled the “Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on School Education and Disaster Risk
Reduction” was held in Bangkok in October 2007. The emphasized points in the “Bangkok
Action Agenda” adopted at the workshop were, (1) to integrate disaster risk reduction into
school education, (2) to strengthen disaster risk reduction education for community
resilience, (3) to make schools safer, and (4) to empower children for disaster risk reduction.
Not only UN but also OECD has been implementing the initiative on school safety. The
OECD countries agreed that governments in earthquake-prone countries should take steps
to reduce earthquake risks for school children. Based on this agreement, a recommendation
entitled the “OECD Recommendation concerning Guidelines on Earthquake Safety in
Schools” was approved by the OECD’s governing council in July 2005.

Aforementioned Japanese school earthquake safety initiatives in this paper can be situated
in the abovementioned worldwide stream regarding school safety. As shown earlier, 38% of
school buildings are still vulnerable against major earthquakes in Japan as of April 1, 2008.
In order to promote the retrofitting of school buildings under the circumstance of tight
budget, it is indispensable for municipalities to prioritize the retrofitting of their schools.
Furthermore, it is also critical for municipalities to publish the results of the seismic
evaluation and secure the transparency toward the public. Saving children is everybody’s
business. Everybody should have the responsibility about this. It is too late to regret not
having retrofitted school buildings after a major earthquake strikes our children’s schools.

The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: “Building the Resilience of
Nations and Communities to Disasters” adopted at the 2005 World Conference on
Disaster Reduction in Kobe, has underscored use of knowledge, innovation and
education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels as one of the
priorities of action. Furthermore, realizing the central role of schools in building
resilience of communities to disasters, the World Disaster Reduction Campaign for
2006-2007 by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) was
carried out together with various partner organizations under the theme of "Disaster
Risk Reduction Begins at School." The campaign not only underscored the
importance of resilient schools to protect lives of children, but also emphasized the
opportunity created by safer schools to spread the message of disaster risk
reduction to communities.

Realizing importance of resilient schools, UNCRD Disaster Management Planning
Hyogo Office initiated School Earthquake Safety Initiative (SESI) in 1999. SESI is
aimed at promoting self-help and education for disaster mitigation by building
resilient and sustainable communities. The participatory approach to community
development and capacity-building among the local people is the key focus area of
the initiative. SESI is based on the concept that intervention for resilient schools can
be effective medium in building resilience of communities to disasters. The project
on "Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquake" under SESI has been
implemented by UNCRD in 4 project countries: Fiji, India, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.
The project has successfully completed many vulnerability assessments of school
buildings as pilot projects, retrofitting of selected model schools, training and raising
awareness of engineers, technicians, teachers and community people, publication
of guidelines, manuals and teachers' handbooks. The project has been instrumental
in demonstrating success of the approach of integrating components structural
safety and disaster awareness as part of the school safety program.

7.1 From Model Projects to Country-wide Intervention

The UNCRD project has been served as model projects in the four countries. In addition to
the model project of UNCRD, there have been many other initiatives at local, regional and
global level for resilient schools. Japan has been successfully promoting school safety and
retrofitting of educational facilities. Japan strengthened school earthquake safety programs
after 1995 Kobe Earthquake. Through the initiatives, many schools have been retrofitted.
Japan has developed a national guideline for seismic retrofitting of school buildings.
Experience of Japan can be instrumental in up-scaling from model projects to country-wide
intervention.

Learning from the model projects and success stories of countries like Japan, there is an
urgent need now to up-scale the school safety intervention from model project to
country-wide intervention. The existing school buildings need to be strengthened, disaster
education needs to be established in the regular school programs and the community-school

interface needs to be institutionalized. Furthermore, the new school buildings being
constructed need to comply with building standards.

The first step in country-wide intervention is a National Strategic Plan. The strategic plan
should ensure the following key issues:

1. New construction for school buildings comply with building standards. The

investment in making school buildings resilient against earthquakes should also
reach to the communities for safer housing.

2. Strategy for retrofitting of existing schools has to be established. Because of

necessity to build new schools in order to meet the education for all goals by
2015 and scarcity of resources, retrofitting of all school buildings is not
achievable. A systematic approach to assess vulnerability of schools, their
prioritization, detail investigation and design should has to be established.
Empowering the local community for this and transparency of the process are
key issues for strengthening existing schools.

3. School disaster management plan has to be established in close coordination with

all other stakeholders. The school disaster management plan has to be an integral
part of the school operation. The plan should include from regular disaster
education to school maintenance program.

4. Regular disaster risk reduction activities and capacity building of teachers. In

addition to the formal education on disaster risk reduction in school education,
the strategic plan should promote non-formal education through different
activities within the school and in coordination with other stakeholders including
local community. Training of trainers and regular training to teachers on
effective disaster risk reduction education should also be an integral part.

5. Establishment of the process community-school interface to disseminate the

message of culture of safety from school to the communities and
institutionalization of the process. The school based disaster risk reduction
initiatives can be an effective tool for sustainability of community based disaster
management.

6. Capacity building of technicians and development of process tools and guidelines.

As the numbers of schools need to be intervened stands in thousands, capacity
building of technicians is important starting point. As capacity building of
technicians for earthquake safer constructions is directly related with housing
earthquake safety, a wider stakeholder involvement in this process has to be
guaranteed.

Uzbekistan

Indonesia

Figure 7.1 Flow chart of Retrofit

Figure 7.2 Seminar and Retrofit work

7.2 Training Program on Resilient Schools

As many earthquake prone countries will be accelerating efforts for resilient schools, a
large number of technical manpower is needed. In order to disseminate the experience of
the pilot projects of UNCRD and experience of Japan on School Safety, UNCRD has
developed a training module on “Safer School against Disasters (Dissemination of Anti-
Seismic Building for Communities)” which was conducted for the first time in Kobe, Japan
in Oct-Nov., 2008 with support JICA. The training program is designed four weeks and is
targeted for officials working in school construction and retrofitting. Japan, as one of the
most earthquake prone countries in the world, has been taking lead in earthquake resistant
technology development. In addition to technology development, national and local
governments have developed guidelines and established building permit systems to ensure
earthquake safety of school buildings nationwide. Based on a great deal of experience in
technology development as well as in building administration, this program is designed to
meet the needs of national and local government in less developed countries to build their
capacity and to develop practical knowledge of earthquake resistant technology and related
policy for earthquake resilient schools which can contribute to the dissemination of
anti-seismic building for communities.

The training program aims to build capacity of government officials and engineers to
develop action plan and implement school earthquake safety for their respective countries.
This will contribute not only to ensure the safety of schools but also to build resilient
communities. JICA, UNCRD and the KIC (Kobe International Center for Cooperation and
Communication) will continue the training course for three years from 2008.

Supported by JICA Hyogo, UNCRD and KIC

7.3 National, Regional and Global Networking

There has already been a global movement towards safer schools and building resilience of
communities to disasters through schools. Institutionalization of the achievements from
UNCRD school safety project under SESI and expanding the activities by learning from the
past can help in achieving the target in a greater pace.

Thematic Platform on Knowledge and Education (TPK) of UNISDR has been organized by
participation of different organizations. The cluster, is aiming among other things, at
strengthening networking, creating new partnerships, identifying gaps/sharing of members’

Box 7.1: Flow chart of training module on Safer Schools against Disasters

Module 1.1
DRR Primer

Module 1.2
DRR and Schools

Module 1.3
Schools and
Communities in DRR

Preparation of Case
Study Paper

Module 2
New Construction

Module 3
Vulnerability
Assessment

Module 4
Retrofitting

Module 1
School and DRR

Module 5.1
Country strategic
planning

Module 5.2
Case studies

Module 5
Country Policy
and Strategies

Consideration on the action plan
Preparation of draft manual(s) for school safety
Preparation and submission of report on its progresses by
March 2009

Preliminary
Phase

Core Phase

Final Phase

General Component

Technical Component

Policy Component

Module 6
Action Plan

priorities; identification of focus areas and collectively advancing the implementation
towards concrete results for the benefit of countries in achieving the Hyogo Framework
goals though knowledge and education. Coalition for Global School Safety and Disaster
Prevention Education (COGSS-DPE) is an open group of organizations and individuals
actively engaged in core working groups which partners with TPK in supporting
implementation of priority 3 of the HFA. In order to better serve the goals of these global
initiatives, networking and coordination at local and regional level is essential. These
National/Regional Networks on resilient schools and disaster prevention education will be
instrumental in linking with various sub-national and cross-sectoral initiatives. The national
network will involve stakeholders from different sectors.

7.4 Future Actions

UNCRD Hyogo Office will finalize all activities under “Reducing Vulnerability of School
Children to Earthquake” project of SESI by the end of the year 2009. However, the SESI
programs will continue to develop new projects related to the safety of school buildings and
disaster education for students, teachers and community people in earthquake prone areas.
The achievements and outcomes of this project from 2005 till 2009 will be disseminated
not only in four targeted countries, i.e. Fiji Islands, India, Indonesia and Uzbekistan, but
also in other Asia and the Pacific regions vulnerable to earthquake disasters.

In order to implement further challenges such as assessment of vital regional facilities and
all existing houses, retrofitting of most vulnerable facilities and houses, capacity building of
national and local governmental officials and disseminate earthquake safer technologies to
local experts and community people, UNCRD will pursue the earthquake safety measures
in the context of regional development. The social, economic and environmental / physical
aspects of regional development will be analyzed and practical measures will be developed
to secure the safety of vital regional facilities including school, hospital, government offices
and houses by utilizing the opportunity of the UNCRD HESI project that will end March
2012.    Moreover, for the safety of communities, series of CBDM projects funded by the
Hyogo Trust Fund will also continue to promote community based activities on safer
culture and sustainable urban/rural development.

These programs should be implemented based on the considerations to the country and
region specific conditions such as social consensus, policies, construction type, traditional
technologies, available materials and workers. It is essential to collaborate and cooperate
with many stakeholders such as governments, academies, teachers and community people
to implement the SESI project currently and in the future.

Finally, UNCRD would like to collaborate with many relevant organizations and programs
on school earthquake safety and disaster education in the world.

Box: 7.2 Key issues recommended in Country Strategic Planning Session in
International Workshop on School Safety, Nov. 05-07, 2008, Kobe, Japan

A wider stakeholders’ linkage beyond engineers and teachers is necessary in

possible future initiatives.

Mass dissemination is an important issue and we need to work out how to spread the

lessons and the work widely.

Cross-ministerial links are very important, beyond the education ministries.

Linking with other projects such as the European Commission initiatives is also

important to ensure wider coverage and consistency.

Need to create a pressure group for change that will continue to work beyond the

current pilot project to disseminate and possibly extend and expand the current work.

While the current pilot will soon be wound down, there is an emerging window of

opportunity to hand over the process to be owned by the government for future
scaling and sustenance.

COGSS and the Thematic Group on Education of the ISDR are platforms that will be

available for strategic lobbying.

Forming a global strategy and coming together collectively will improve not just

knowledge base for everyone, but will also create a greater global momentum and
will also thereby improve resource availability and funding opportunities for future
initiatives.

Small pieces of work can also lead to great impacts in the long term. The small

scale retrofitting of schools in Nepal has led to this level, and such sustained efforts
will surely lead to much larger impacts in the future.

A linkage with poverty reduction and such issues can be useful for giving a wider

applicability to school safety.    Social studies and such subjects can include disaster
management.    Impacts will take time to be visible, but in a few decades everybody
will be knowledgeable on disaster issues.

The achievements of SESI need to be recognized and made visible globally.

UNCRD will do its bit to do dissemination, but all partners should make efforts to
document, write papers, publish experiences and lessons, and disseminate widely at
local, national as well as global level.

The programme has created influence on other parts of the world, and programmes

with similar themes and names are taking shape in other countries like Iran, Nepal
and other places. The programmes are taking similar approach as SESI and
adding value to it.

The outcome of the project will be published in different languages such as Chinese

and Russian. UNCRD already has a website with elaborate information on SESI
and also on related issues. These can be accessed for use and dissemination.

The partners and participants have highly appreciated and valued the support and

contribution of UNCRD through SESI. Partners will continue to advocate the
agenda with appropriate stakeholders at national level in their respective countries to
take the initiative forward.

There is a diverse range of practices, tools and material emerging from different

parts of the world. This is a very positive trend and needs to be encouraged. At
the same time, basic principles and definitions need to be clarified and agreed upon
so that the framework within which everyone works is consistent.

ANNEX 1

Abbreviation

ABCD:

Anti-seismic Building Code Dissemination

ADRC: Asian Disaster Reduction Center
ADPC:

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ASB:

Arbeiter Samariter Bund (NGO)

ASEAN:

Association of South-East Asian Nations

BIS:

Bureau of Indian Standards

BRI:

Building Research Institute

BRR:

Banda (Aceh) Reconstruction and

Rehabilitation

Agency

CAO: Cabinet

Office

CATD: Centre for Appropriate Technology
and

Development

CBDM:

Community Based Disaster Management

CDM:

Center for Disaster Mitigation

COGSS: Coalition for Global School Safety
DESA: Department of Economic and Social
Affaires

DOE: Department

Education

DPE: Disaster

Prevention

Education

DRR:

Disaster Risk Reduction

FDMA:

Fire and Disaster Management Agency

FIE:

Fiji Institute of Engineers

FIT:

Fiji Institute of Technology

FSSC: Fiji Social Service Council
GA: Grant

Agreement

GESI:

Global Earthquake Safety Initiative

GRIPS:

National Graduate Institute for

Policy

Studies

GP/DRR: Global Platform for DRR
HESI:

Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative

HFA:

Hyogo Framework for Action

IDNDR: International Decade for Natural
Disaster

Reduction

IEC:

Information, Education & Communication

IFRC: International Federation of Red

Cross and Red Crescent Societies

IS:

Seismic Capacity Index

ISDR: International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction
ITB: Institute

Technology

Bandung

JICA:

Japan International Cooperation Agency

JMA: Japan

Meteorological

Agency

JPY: Japanese

Yen

KIC: Kobe International Center for
Cooperation

and

Communication

MDG: Millennium

Development

Goals

MEXT: Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports,

Science

and

Technology

MGM: Mary

Montgomery

MHLW:

Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare

MLIT: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport

and

Tourism

MOE:

Ministry of Education

MSK: Medvedev

Sponheuer

Karnik

NAD:

Nangroe Aceh Darussalam

NDMO:

National Disaster Management Office

NIER:

National Institute for Educational Policy

NPO: Non

Governmental

Organization

NSET: National Society for Earthquake
Technology

Nepal

OCHA:

Office for Coordination of

Humanitarian

Affairs

OECD:

Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development

PEB: Public

Educational

Buildings

PWD:

Public Works Department

RADIUS:

Risk Assessment Tool for Diagnosis of

Urban areas against Seismic disasters

RC: Reinforced

Concrete

SD: Sekolah

Demokrasi

SEEDS: Sustainable

Environment

and

Ecological

Development

Society

SESI:

School Earthquake Safety Initiative

SOPAC: Pacific Islands Applied Geo-science
Commission
SPS:

Structural Performance Score

TFHS: Trust Fund for Human Security
TPK: Thematic

Platform

Knowledge

and

Education

ISDR

UN: United

Nations

UNCRD:

UN Centre for Regional Development

UNDP: UN Development Programme
UNESCAP: UN Economic and Social

Commission for Asia and the Pacific

UNESCO: UN Education, Science and
Culture

Organization

UNICEF: UN Children’s Fund
UzLITTI: Uzbek Research Institute for

Typical and Experimental Building

ANNEX 2

List of Assessed and Retrofitted Schools

Summary table of vulnerability Assessment and Retrofitting of Schools in project
countries

Country

Assessed schools

Retrofitted schools

Fiji

1. Ballentine Memorial School – Methodist High

School, Suva

2. Nasinu Muslim School – Muslim High School
3. Suva Muslim School – Muslim High School
4. Suva Vocational School – Christian Vocational

School

5. St. Agnes Primary School – Catholic Primary

School. Suva

6. Adi Cakobau School – Government all Girls

Boarding High School.

1. Suva Vocational School

– Christian Vocational
School

2. St. Agnes Primary

School – Catholic
Primary School

3. Nasinu Muslim School –

Muslim High School

India

1. Government Senior Secondary School,

Mashobra, Shimla

2. Government Senior Secondary School, Kufri,

Shimla

3. Government Primary School, Koti, Shimla
4. Government Primary School, Junga, Shimla
5. Government Secondary School for disabled

Children, Dhali

6. Government Primary School, Mundaghat,

Darbhog, Shimla

1. Government Secondary

School for Disabled
Children, Dhali

2. Government Senior

Secondary School,
Kufri, Shimla

3. Government Primary

School, Junga, Shimla

Indonesia

1. SD Cirateun Kulon II, Bandung
2. SD Padasuka II, Bandung
3. SD Sukajadi, Bandung
4. SD Legok Jambu, Bandung

1. SD Cirateun Kulon II
2. SD Padasuka II,

Bandung

Uzbekistan 1. School No. 116, Uchtepa district, Tashkent

2. School No. 123, Tashkent
3. School No. 20, Tashkent

1. School No.116, Uchtepa

district, Tashkent

2. School No.20, Tashkent

ANNEX 3

List of Publications and Papers

(Detailed data: Attached CD-ROM and

UNCRD web-site:

http://www.hyogo.uncrd.or.jp/school%20project/outcome/index.html

)

AS: Assessment of Seismic Safety

Fiji

: Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes in Fiji Schools

India

: Preliminary survey and assessment of school buildings;

: Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment of School Buildings, India

Indonesia

: Preliminary Survey of School Buildings to be retrofitted in Bandung;

: Structural Analysis SD Padasuka II, Bandung;
: Structural Analysis SD Cirateun Kulon 1 - 2, Bandung

Uzbekistan

: Preliminary Field Survey of School Buildings in Tashkent

: Seismic Analysis of School Buildings in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

DS: Design for School Retrofit

Fiji

: Brief Technical Evaluation Report,

India

: Final School Retrofit Plans for Schools in Dhalli, Junga, and Kufri

Indonesia

: Retrofitting of SD Cirateun Kulon II and SD Padasuka II, Bandung

: Final Report of Retrofitting

: Case Study; Retrofitting of SD Cirateun Kulon II, Bandung, Indonesia

Uzbekistan

: Provision of School Earthquake Safety, Case Study of Uzbekistan;
: Retrofitting of Masonry and Frame-panel School Buildings in Tashkent

EM: Educational Materials

Fiji

: Students’ Workbook on Disaster Management

: Information for teachers from Ministry of Education

India

: Community Seminar on Disaster Risk Reduction, Junga, Shimla, India;

Indonesia

: School Earthquake Safety (Education booklet)

: Programs for Community Seminar, Students' Drill, Teachers' Training

Uzbekistan

: Training on Preparation to Disasters and Raising of Awareness;
: (Russian educational material of Uzbekistan)

GE: Guideline for Experts

Fiji

Technical

Specification

: Masons, Carpenters & Technicians; Manual on Earthquake, Cyclone,

India

: Manual for Training of Technicians (draft version);
: Report on First Technician Training Programme, Shimla;

: Schedule for Second Technicians’ Training in Shimla

Indonesia

: (Indonesian guideline)

Uzbekistan

: Training workshop on Earthquake Resistant Construction, Tashkent;

: Training workshop for Masons, Technicians, and Engineers, Uzbekistan;

: Training Manual for Masons and Technicians (Russian)

GT: Guideline for Teachers

Fiji

Teachers’ Handbook; Disaster Management Earthquake Preparedness;

: A Guide to Creating Evacuation Plans for Schools in Fiji

India

: Schedule for the First Teachers’ Training in Shimla;

: Schedule for the First School Earthquake Drill Programme;

: Teachers Handbook on Disaster Risk Reduction (version 2);

: A Report on Teachers’ Training on Disaster Risk Reduction, India

Indonesia

: The Children’s Earthquake Drills Report;
: Final Report of Second Trainings in Indonesia

Uzbekistan : Training workshop on Earthquake Safety Education in School, Tashkent;

: Study guide on preparation of school children to emergency actions;

: Report on School Children’s Earthquake Drills, Tashkent;

JF: Japan and Final Reports

Fiji

: Fiji Islands Schools Retrofitting Project

India

: Disaster Education in India – A Status Report

Indonesia

: School Earthquake Safety Initiative in Indonesia, ITB

Uzbekistan

: Reducing Vulnerability of School Children to Earthquakes

Japan

: Guideline for Promotion of Earthquake-resistant School Building, MEXT;

Seismic rehabilitation of seismically vulnerable school buildings in Japan

(Regional Development Dialogue Vol. 28 No. 2, Yoshiaki Nakano)

: Quake Busters (Educational Software: Yamaguchi Univ. and UNCRD)

English / Japanese / for Kids

PP: Posters and Site Pictures

Fiji

: Posters on Tsunami, Floods and Earthquakes

India

: Posters (Hindi) prepared by SEEDS in the project

: Posters (Hindi) prepared by SEEDS before the project

Indonesia

: Pictures of Retrofitting works (SD Cirateun Kulon and SD Padasuka)

Uzbekistan

: Pictures of Retrofitting works and Disaster education/drills, Tashkent

Photos of Field Survey

i) Earthquakes/Flood

Damages

ii) Earthquake

Recovery

iii) Traditional

Construction

iv)

Children in Affected Areas