Young Scientists Side Event

Inside the conference center

One of the events that hit me close to heart is the young scientists’ side event during the conference. I am a young scientist, hence I felt much more involved.

Although there can definitely be improvements on the process of the event, the outcome has made me proud. I was very impressed seeing the enthusiasm of the young scientists. As young scientists are often disregarded in the science community due to young age and lack of experience, their opinions are often ignored. The young scientists’ platform accumulates the power of young scientists from all over the world and acts as a bigger spokesperson with higher bargaining power in order to make young scientists’ voices heard. Young scientists’ biggest asset is creativity as they are not bound by societal rules. This can be beneficial when novel inputs are needed where ideas are exhausted, such as identifying research gaps.

Hong Kong’s young people are never afraid to let their voices be heard. However, there is no effective young scientist platform as such, where young scientists can congregate and share knowledge and form partnerships. While there are a lot of student associations and organisations for youth, there is no big voice that represents young professionals. In order to show the science community the assets we have, young scientists have to unify to form a formal platform in order for ideas to be shared. I believe the passion a lot of young people have can make a significant impact on the research scene in Hong Kong.



A visit to Geneva will not be complete without the obligatory photo of the broken chair.

Preparations of UNISDR Conference

It has been a hectic week, with final preparations for the conference. It is only a few days countdown for it. I have learnt so much during the preparation leading up to the conference. This is the first time I’ve been involved in something in such scale and such height in the global arena. I will share more about my academic learning more after the conference. But first I would like to express my absolute amazement in all the people skills I have learnt working with the team and the organizing committee during this preparation.

As the scientists involved in the conference, ranging from the speakers to the organizing committee are all from different parts of the world, it has been a challenge getting information and details across to all target participants. However the zeal eluded from all that are involved, while striving for the same goal, is priceless. There are precious lessons to be learnt from each country’s practices and  each DRR initiative  hence this conference seem to be the perfect platform to share ideas to improve each others’ practices. It also offers an opportunity for collaboration with each other, and with the Sendai Framework.

Although Hong Kong is not particularly hit by a lot of major natural disasters, prevention is better than cure, hence it would be useful to learn and adopt preventive DRR measures in the future.

Banner for our conference at the Centre International de Conférences Genève!

Disasters all over the world

Other than preparation for the UNISDR conference, one of my tasks here include a weekly bulletin sent out to a subscription list that involves those interested in global hazards. This bulletin includes natural disasters around the world that has made significant impact both to human lives and in a public health perspective.

During the research for this bulletin, it was humbling to come across so many neglected incidents happening around the world. Most of these stories do not make headlines as they do not make a significant enough impact on human lives to raise attention, but nonetheless make sufficient impact on the affected population. Although these events seem trivial compared to larger world events, the lives of the affected are significantly destructed and even destroyed. The bulletin is useful as small impact disasters should merits attention too.

While it is understandable that media attention can lead to increased public attention and hence support, it is also worrying about the events that do not even make it onto the news due to remote geography or social isolation of the populations. How can we effectively reach all these populations? How would we even know about these disasters?

Whilst there are numerous non-governmental organisations trying to reach such communities, they often act on a needs based and only react after emergencies happen. Although there are various organisations that engage in bottom-up resilience building work, a full coverage is impossible. Hong Kong is a relatively small place, but even at this age and technology, many settlements in the countryside and ethnic minorities (such as the large domestic helper populations) are still often neglected in policy making and services. There needs to be a bridge to reach the forgotten populations. 

New beginning in 2016

I have been very honoured to be the recipient of the HKJCDPRI Overseas training Fellow scholarship to work as an intern in Public Health England for a few months. The first week of 2016 has been a very exciting week for me, moving back to London again and starting a new job at a totally new environment.

As much of my work centers around the UNISDR Science and Technology Conference on the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 (“UNISDR conference” in future references), it was easy to engage in my tasks without much induction.

Thankfully, one of my first assigned tasks was to research for a poster about Public Health England’s (PHE) work for poster presentation during the UNISDR conference. While doing the background reading for this poster, I was able to quickly understand the vast range of services provided and work PHE is involved in.

Not only is PHE heavily involved in protecting health of the national population, producing extreme weather plans such as the cold weather and heatwave plan, it is also involved in numerous partnerships at a regional and international level, such as collaborations with WHO Europe and their work on Ebola in Sierra Leone. It was eye-widening to see the vast number of departments within PHE and to see the variety of work done in PHE at so many levels. I think I should make it my goal to understand more the work for each of the teams here!