Keynote speakers
Sir Tipene
O’Regan
Sir Tipene O’Regan is a New Zealand academic and company
director. The son of Dr Rolland O’Regan and Rena Ruiha
(Bradshaw), he is a director of a wide range of South Island
Māori enterprises. He is best known for his role as chairman of
the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board which he guided to successful
land and sea fisheries claims before the Waitangi Tribunal,
culminating in the Tribunal’s reports of 1991 and 1992. He later
led claim settlement negotiations leading to the 1998 settlement
which made extensive provision for customary rights in fisheries
and other natural resources.
Sir Tipene is currently Associate Lecturer and Assistant Vice
Chancellor (Māori) at the University of Canterbury in
Christchurch, New Zealand, associated with both the history and
Māori departments. He was awarded an Honorary D.Litt by the
University of Canterbury in 1992. In March 2009, Sir Tipene was
commemorated as one of the Twelve Local Heroes of Christchurch,
and a bronze bust of him was unveiled outside the Christchurch
Arts Centre.
Ms. Margareta
Wahlström
Ms. Margareta Wahlström was made the first SRSG (Special
Representative of the Secretary General) for Disaster Risk
Reduction in 2008. Until her term was completed at the end of
2015, she was leading UNISDR (The United Nations Office for
Disaster Risk Reduction) to forge partnerships with governments
to ensure a safer world for everyone.
Ms. Wahlström has over 30 years of extensive national and
international experience in humanitarian relief operations in
disaster and conflict areas, and in institution-building to
strengthen national capacity for disaster preparedness, response
and for risk reduction.
UNISDR’s most recent achievement has been facilitating the
creation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
which was achieved in March 2015. It is this new framework that
will guide the world globally and locally for the next 15 years.
Ms. Wahlström has an academic background in economic history,
political science, social anthropology, archaeology and
philosophy of science.
[handouts]
Report
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At the Opening Ceremony all participants were greeted
festively in the traditional Maori way, followed by an
address by Sir Tipene O’Regan, who has been commemorated
as one of the Twelve Local Heroes of Christchurch. He
spoke over the importance of “Identity, names and
places” and explained why it is important for Maoris to
identify where a person is from.
The key note speaker of the Working Week was
Margareta Wahlstrom who has been the UN Special
Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster
Risk Reduction until the end of 2015. Margareta
Wahlstrom underlined that disaster is a social issue as
well as of economic – what are the immediate costs, but
also what are the costs in 5-10 years. There is a
special focus right after a disaster, but a focus on the
longer run is also important. She furthermore challenged
the surveyors stating that “we need people to reach out
to decisions makers on the work on disasters” and
“disasters are a political issue”. Hereto she encouraged
surveyors to be more visible, and to promote themselves
and the work that surveyors do much more than is the
case today. She followed up on the welcome address of
FIG President Chryssy Potsiou, and encouraged surveyors
to be visible within the areas land use planning and
urban planning. “No other than surveyors know about
this. We must be more precise – globally, but especially
locally and nationally”. Collecting data and systemising
it takes a long time but is important. She finally said
that today, risk assessment is not counted into many
strategies of companies in the private sector, nor is
risk perception. The Sendai framework has managed to
define disasters in a modern and updated version, and is
focusing on not only what is good for us but what we
should do at a national, regional and global level.
“Build back better – from the start” is a key word – and
surveyors play a great role in this.
Mark Allen, President of New Zealand Institute of
Surveyors, NZIS, the local host and FIG President
Chryssy Potsiou welcomed all participants to this
Working Week in New Zealand. In her
opening address, President Potsiou stated that “FIG
will move toward more holistic, multi-sector
partnerships to more systematically address the global
challenges, including dealing with disasters and
achieving secure land rights for all by 2030. FIG has
developed a close relationship with United Nations
Agencies, the World Bank, the European Union and other
important international institutions. It is important
that FIG build on these relationships. It is important
for FIG to lend its collective expertise to all aspects
of disaster management for the betterment of societies
everywhere. It is also important that FIG be directly
involved in these activities for the growth and vitality
of its members and their activities in this era of
Globalization. FIG strongly believes in the power of
joint research with the UN and the World Bank, in
advising people and partners on making smart,
evidence-based solutions that shape the development
agenda. FIG, its member associations, academic members,
affiliate members, corporate members, its commissions,
task forces and networks, will coordinate more of what
we do so that we are more strategic in our collective
actions and ensure that priority goes to activities with
the highest returns. We will also do more to build on
new technologies; create new opportunities for
surveyors; and capitalize on more affordable
high-resolution spatial data”.
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