By Bee Thakore, addressing the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna, Austria on behalf of Space Generation advisory council on youth members volunteering for disaster management from space in the Asia Pacific Region.

1. Youth Views on the capacity
building for community-based disaster
management in context of recent
disasters in Asia Pacific
Bijal “Bee” Thakore
Regional Coordinator, Asia-Pacific
Space Generation Advisory Council
in support of the UN Programme on Space Applications
Talk to:
UN Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space General Assembly, Vienna - June 2008

2. ! The SGAC logo has 3 people floating in space with the UN-like
wreaths of wheat around it.
! A lot of thought went in to this logo, and the meaning and
symbolism behind it:
! The three people represent a community - we do not go in to space
alone, but with all humanity.

3. 1. SGAC and the Asia Pacific Space Generation
2. Key events and activities
3. Key areas of concern
4. Where the Space Generation can help
Content
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4. " Active membership in 14 countries
" 13 National points of contacts
" SGC 2007 in Hyderabad, India
Asia Pacific membership
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Official SGAC countries with NPoCs

5. Youth population distribution
! 60 % of the world’s youth population
! 234 Million in South Asia
! 269 Million in East Asia
! Youth issues - education, welfare, health and vulnerability
! 14 of the UN Declared Least Developing Countries are in Asia Pacific
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Official SGAC countries with NPoCs

6. Youth views on Disaster
Management - former SGAC input
! UNISPACE III 1999
" Recommendation to include ‘Priority Access to Mobile Satcom
Network for Disaster Emergency Management’ in the Vienna
Declaration on Space and Human Development
" 160 youth from 60 countries
! SGAC 50 years Visions 2007
" Recommended “Improvement of rapid response on disasters:
Earth based/space based, especially for ‘developing’ or ‘third
world countries’ which do not have indigenous tools”
! 2007 Highlights
" Endorsed Workshop on Youth for Space: The Next 50 years
held in Malaysia in September 2007
" Endorsed the geo-information and educational portal by the
Pakistan Space Agency
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7. 50 years visions roadmap
276 youth - 28 countries - 900 youth visions*
*(both studies)
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8. Recent events in Asia Pacific
! 2004 South East Asian Tsunami
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The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami killed more than 200,000 people across south and
south-east Asia. (AFP: William West)

9. Recent events in Asia Pacific - II
! 2007 Cyclone ‘Sidr’ in Bangladesh
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AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Christopher Lange

10. Recent events in Asia Pacific - III
! 2008 Cyclone ‘Nargis’ in Myanmar
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11. Recent events in Asia Pacific - IV
! 2008 Earthquake in Sichuan, China
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12. Disasters on an average in Asia Pacific
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Events in the past week Events in the past day

13. ! International Charter “Space and Major Disasters”
! A number of regional initiatives including the
" GMES programme in Europe
" Sentinel-Asia’s operational system
" SERVIR, a Mesoamerican visualization and monitoring portal.
! UNOOSA and UN Members States defined United
Nations Platform for Space-based Information for
Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN
SPIDER).
SGAC supports
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14. SGAC calls for
! Capacity building for communities
! An open, easy to maintain repository
of natural disaster occurrence events
so that trends can be identified
! An emergency number that can be
dialed just like the ambulance “SOS”
! Involvement of the youth in decision
making and the dissemination of
information
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15. Thank you!
See you in Glasgow…
www.spacegeneration.org
www.explorerswanted.com
Agnieszka Lukaszczyk, Alex Karl,
Contact: bee@spacegeneration.org
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