Dr. Virapat focused on the trade, development, and competitiveness in fisheries and aquaculture sectors. He also emphasized on the use of the value chain to create wealth in fisheries and to reduce poverty; learning mechanism and innovation in competitive fisheries value chain, which may be seen as an approach for promoting fisheries value chain in the SAARC countries. Read the full statement of Dr. Cherdsak Virapat below: Statement of the Director General of Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP),Dr. Cherdsak Virapat 24th November 2020, 10:30 am, Dhaka, Bangladesh Director of SARRC Agriculture Centre (SAC), Dr. Mian Sayeed Hassan Additional Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Mr. Shyamol Chandra Karmakar Director General of BFRI, Dr. Yahia Mahmud Dr. Grinson George, Senior Programme Specialist, SAC Distinguished Experts Delegates from South Asian Nations and International Organizations Ladies and Gentlemen Good morning. On behalf of CIRDAP, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the SARRC Agriculture Centre (SAC) for the kind invitation to participate at this regional consultation meeting on promoting innovations in fisheries value chain for improving human nutrition in South Asia. It can be noted that SAARC and CIRDAP share 6 member states as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka with exception of Bhutan and Maldives. In my message, I would like to address issues of trade and development and competitiveness in fisheries and aquaculture sectors, the use of the value chain to create wealth in fisheries and to reduce poverty, learning mechanism and innovation in competitive fisheries value chain which may be seen as an approach for promoting fisheries value chain in the SAARC countries. Economic growth can help reduce poverty As you know, globalization is the process by which people, companies, goods, services, capital, and information has been exchanged without borders. Although international trade has been around for hundreds of years but the current trade has expanded considerably. There are both bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. Foreign investment, advances in communication technology. Most countries now participate in the world trade economy with different levels of economic growth. Economic growth can help reduce poverty, but it helps to reduce poverty well with countries that have equal income distribution. Competitiveness in Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector In fisheries (including capture fisheries and aquaculture sectors), in order for market system to be sustainable and successful, it must be able to compete more with other countries in the world market. The fishing industry in the value chain must be able to mobilize the production to consumer effectively with higher quality and is more unique than other competing countries’ value chains. The competitiveness of both small and large-scale fisheries is relatively different. Increasing the competitiveness of small-scale fisheries can result in more income, which affects wealth generation and decreases poverty. While large-scale fisheries competitiveness can be increased by helping support at all levels of the value chain, the challenges of the economic development strategy is to make the entire fishing industry more competitive. At the same time, the benefits must be broadly distributed. This includes both skills and income at all levels of the fishing industry. The use of the value chain to create wealth in fisheries and to reduce poverty Aquaculture value chain has grown tremendously over the past several decades. Certain fish culture products have become dominant in both the regional and global markets. While some types of fishing have been reduced due to excessive utilization, breeding of some carnivorous fish species is still relying on the product from fishing. In particular, fish meal and fish oil production are still a vital component of fish feed production. The aquaculture sector has been restructuring on its production process in developing countries in recent times, spurred by the development of lower-cost and more efficient technologies to transport and available cheaper labor in the emerging countries. Fish processors purchase raw materials either from fishing or from fish farms. They will be processed into products for consumers. The retail sector is playing an important role in a modern society where consumer convenience is the key to selling aquatic products. The use of the value chain creates wealth in fisheries. The value chain will cover a wide range of activities and services. That gives rise to fishery products from the concept of production to selling products to consumers. The value chain is included in the sale of a product or service in a market which could be at the local, national, regional or the global markets. Learning mechanism and innovation in competitive fisheries value chain for promoting fisheries value chain in the SAARC countries In order for the enterprises in the chain to develop innovation. Learning from inside and outside is essential to the formation of new skills. This includes knowing where to find knowledge in the chain and where the knowledge is needed. The value chain in which this type of learning mechanism is established will be the most competitive. Way forward The Covid-19 outbreak and climate change are identified as Important crisis or threats currently impacting fisheries sector. We are entering into the digital age in which reliable information is required for decision-making. Innovation should be continued in particular on digital technology. We should assist small-scale fishers and rural farmers to access innovation to improve local capacity building and technology transfer. In term of regional approaches, we should put emphasis on regional cooperation and harmonization of policies where appropriate. Unification of economic and ecology with good governance should be made in all fishery policies to promote sustainable development mission at all levels. Ladies and gentlemen, To end my message, I wish you have a great success in the results of your deliberation at the regional expert consultation meeting in fisheries value chain among experts of SAARC member states. I hope that CIRDAP and SAC will continue to explore opportunities and implement collaborative projects and activities related to agriculture knowledge and information to strengthen our collaboration and coordination in the region and beyond. Together we can make our

A free online training program “the 2nd 2020 Training on Mariculture Technologies for the Asia-Pacific Region: Aquaculture Biosecurity” will be held on 15-18 December 2020 (Today to Friday this week), from 10:00 to 15:30 Beijing time (UTC +8). Aquaculture biosecurity has been accepted as a mainstream approach to reducing the risk of infectious disease in aquaculture. If you are interested to participate in the training, you can login into this link for details and registrar: click here or You can directly do the registration here: click here The training program welcomes questions from trainees for discussion and provides a chance for 2~4 participants to present their own experiences on aquaculture biosecurity in a presentation no more than 30 minutes on 18 December 2020. If you hope to make a presentation during the training program, you are welcome to make your application in the online registration form. Your application for the presentation will be selected based on the relevance of the title to the theme of the training program, the representatively, and the order of applications. The selection of the participants’ presentation will be informed during the training program.

Attention..…..Free books for everyone! CIRDAP is giving away some old Books and Reports completely free of cost. The books are mostly on different issues including Rural Development, Poverty Alleviation, Climate Change, Gender, Good Governance, Education, and Agriculture, research etc. published by renowned organizations and publishers. Any Library, organization, NGO, or Individual willing to avail this opportunity are requested to visit CIRDAP Library and collect books during office time from 8 A.M to 4 P.M on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday starting from 13th December, 2020! Address of CIRDAP Aziz-ul Haq Library: Chameli House, 17 Topkhana Road, GPO Box 2883, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. For any information, please contact the head of Librarian Ms. Usha Rani Barua: 01841050470 or email at usharani@cirdap.org

On the day of International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, CIRDAP in collaboration with Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), organized the webinar on 13th October, 2020. The webinar is entitled “Expert Consultation on Building Earthquakes Resilient Communities and Societies for Bangladesh: Sharing Experiences and Lesson Learned from Earthquakes around the World”. Director General (DG) CIRDAP, Dr. Cherdsak Virapat welcomed all participants. He informed that the date of 13 October is an important day for Thailand as the country commemorates the passing of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Father of the Nation in 2016. For honoring him, all the participants were requested to stand up for the Royal Anthem. Dr. Virapat then proceeded by giving opening address of the webinar and provided his message for the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. He called for immediate global attention on disaster risk reduction by mean of hazard vulnerability assessment, disaster early warning, mitigation, preparedness and response. He expected that the meeting will identify strategic actions, measures and pilot implementation of end-to-end earthquake risk reduction systems for Bangladesh. Prof. Mehedi Ansary, BUET provided background and aims of the meeting. Dr. Walter D. Mooney, USGS, U.S.A presented about Indonesian Palu and Sulawesi earthquakes which occurred on September 28, 2018. Dr. Mooney said, “Not only Tsunami but also this earthquake generated ground shaking, landside and liquefaction which was un-anticipated. Most of the emergency warning center destroyed due to this earthquake”. Due to the earthquake the death toll was high with the confirmed death of 3400 people. The key points of the Palu earthquake are that Tsunami waves was there for several minutes after the main shock and the maximum tsunami inundation was 469 m. He also said it will not matter how strong a building is built if the foundation is weak. Prof. Tavida Kamolvej, Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University presented about the lesson learned from disasters. She emphasized more to lesson learned, awareness and education training about the earthquake than the technicality of it. She expressed that communication within the community helped a lot to make a risk reduction measures more than the national level measures. Participatory action research is required for this. Academics and local people – this combined team can be useful on the disaster risk reductions measures or post – disaster phases. Prof. Helal Uddin, Director Research, CIRDAP addressed impacts of earthquake on Bangladesh’s economy. He expressed that since the capital stock of Bangladesh is more than a trillion dollar and Dhaka city contributes around 40% of our GDP which is a huge amount. So, Dhaka is being the most popular city and exposed to the earthquake, economic development and growth will be tremendously affected by indirect loss incurred by any earthquake. Mr. Tinnakorn Tatong, Department of Mineral Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand said, “Earthquake cannot be predicted but still the good data base is needed for kind of predicting about where it is going to happen. Which magnitude it is going to be? Then we can go and pursue the government”. With the open discussions amongst the participants the webinar ended on 12 p.m. by the closing remarks of DG CIRDAP Dr. Virapat. On behalf of CIRDAP, he thanked all the experts and participants for sharing their views and suggestions on the issue of earthquake. CIRDAP and BUET will collaborate with all experts for further development to promote earthquake risk reduction for Bangladesh in the near future. click here to download this report

Today, we celebrate the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction at the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP). The day of 13 October was established at the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. On behalf of CIRDAP, I call for immediate global attention on disaster risk reduction by mean of hazard vulnerability assessments, disaster early warning, mitigation, preparedness and response. It is an opportunity to acknowledge the progress being made toward reducing disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan in March 2015. In keeping with the Day’s focus on the impact that disasters have on people’s lives and well-being, this year’s theme is about conveying the message that many disasters can be avoided or prevented if there are disaster risk reduction strategies in place to manage and reduce existing levels of risk and to avoid the creation of new risk. What that amounts to is “good disaster risk governance.[1]” CIRDAP is proud to organize a webinar in collaboration with Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and partner organizations in Bangladesh, Thailand, and U.S.A. for celebrating the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction entitled “Expert Consultation on Building Earthquakes Resilient Communities and Societies for Bangladesh: Sharing Experiences and Lesson Learned from Earthquakes around the World”. It is expected that the meeting will identify strategic actions, measures and pilot implementation of end-to-end earthquake risk reduction systems for Bangladesh. CIRDAP looks forward to promoting its Emerging issues on integrated rural development including natural disaster risk reduction, climate change impacts, & water resource management programme as part of the work plan 2020+ in the years to come. [1] https://www.undrr.org/publication/concept-note-international-day-disaster-risk-reduction-2020

DG CIRDAP Dr. Cherdsak Virapat has been invited by International Ocean Institute Headquarters (IOI HQ) to be a Commentator in the 15th Annual Session Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS) on 15th – 16th October 2020. The IOI is a collaborating partner with the Global Forum on Human Settlements in the organization of this virtual annual session. The 15th GFHS annual session will address the theme of Post-Pandemic Recovery and Transformation: Resilient Cities, Healthy Planet. Within the Forum, the IOI, through HQ, is responsible for coordinating and moderating Thematic Forum 1b “Blue Economy and a Healthy Ocean” on the 15th October. Partners and speakers in this session hail from the IOI, the World Ocean Council (WOC), UNCTAD, UNEP FI Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative, and the Ministry for Fisheries, Agriculture and Animal Rights, Malta. You are cordially invited to register to the GFHS online Forum and to also join IOI and the distinguished speakers of Forum 1b “Blue Economy and a Healthy Ocean” on the 15th from 13.30hr to 15hrs (CET). To register to the event: click here For more information: click here & click here

BACKGROUND Bangladesh is a moderately seismic country in the world. According to Ambraseys and Douglas (2004) and Szeliga et al. (2010), several past earthquakes have occurred in Bangladesh and surrounding region in the last several hundred years. Among these earthquakes, the 1762 Arakan, 1869 Cachar, 1885 Bengal, 1897 Indian, 1918 Srimangal, 1930 Dhubri, 1934 Nepal, 2015 Nepal Earthquakes are well known in Bangladesh. The 1897 Indian Earthquake located in Assam, has caused massive destruction to structures in Dhaka City killing 1542 people in the region (Oldham 1899). But no large earthquake has occurred here for the last few decades, so the people have become complacent. The 2013 Rana Plaza incidence, which killed 1,130 people without an earthquake and the 2015 Nepal earthquake, are eye-openers for Bangladesh. Now is the right time to make our people aware of the severity of a large earthquake like the 1897 event. During 1897, the population of Dhaka was only 90,000, and currently, its population is almost 20 million. The number of buildings in 1897 was only 100, now it is almost 2 million. A 2009 study of CDMP funded by UNDP and a 2013 study of EMI funded by the World Bank projected that almost 30% of the total building stocks of Dhaka may collapse if an earthquake of magnitude 7 occurs 70 km away at Modhupur fault. AIMS OF THE MEETING The meeting is entitled “Expert Consultation on Building Earthquakes Resilient Communities and Societies for Bangladesh: Sharing Experiences and Lesson Learned from Earthquakes around the World”. The meeting will address the past earthquakes occurred in Mexico, Japan, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, etc. for sharing of experiences and lesson learned, to address local capacities in those countries on end-to-end early warning and mitigation systems, to identify measures and action plans for adaptation and mitigation efforts to improve disaster mitigation and preparedness arrangements for Bangladesh. It is expected that about 10 key participants will attend the meeting. EXPECTED OUTCOME It is expected that the meeting will identify strategic actions, measures and pilot implementation of end-to-end earthquake risk reduction systems for Bangladesh. PROGRAMME Tuesday 13th October 2020 10:00 – 10:10 hrs Welcome by CIRDAP and Introduction to Experts Cherdsak Virapat, CIRDAP 10:10 – 10:15 hrs Background and Aims of the Meeting Mehedi Ansary, BUET 10:15 – 11:00 hrs Expert Brief Presentations 10:15 – 10:30 hrs Mexico Earthquake by Dr. Walter Mooney, USGS, U.S.A. 10:30 – 10:45 hrs Japan, Pakistan and Nepal Earthquakes by Prof. Tavida Kamolvej, Thammasat University, Thailand 10:45 – 11:00 hrs Bangladesh Earthquakes and Risk Assessment of Dhaka, Bangladesh by Dr. Fouad Bendimerad, EMI, U.S.A. 11:00 – 11:50 hrs Discussion What is lesson learned in terms of local capacities requirements on end-to-end early warning and mitigation systems? What are measures and action plans for adaptation and mitigation efforts to improve mitigation, preparedness and response arrangements for Bangladesh? 11:50 – 12.00 hrs The Way Forwards and Closing EXPERTS: Mr. Tinnakorn Tatong, Department of Mineral Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand (TBC) Prof. Tavida Kamolvej, Dean, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University Dr. Penueng Wanichai, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand (TBC) Mr. Pran Siamwalla, President, Association of Natural Disaster Industry (ANDPI) Dr. Walter Mooney, United States Geological Survey (USGS), U.S.A. Dr. Fouad Bendimerad, Earthquakes & Megacities Initiatives (EMI), U.S.A. Prof. Helal Uddin, Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) UNDP (TBC) JICA (TBC) Others If you wish to join in the webinar, please access in the zoom link below: This link is for 13 October 2020 Webinar: International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction cherdsak virapat is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting: click here Meeting ID: 848 1432 3983 Passcode: 649461 Find your local number: click here