Multi-hazard resilience of higher educational institutions in Asia Pacific

This collaborative endeavour aims to facilitate the exchange of challenges, lessons learned, and innovative practices in preparedness, response, and recovery across various stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, through the presentation of comprehensive case studies. The primary goal is to cultivate stronger preparation and resilience among High Educational Institutions (HEI) for future crises. Furthermore, this initiative underscores the critical role of disaster risk reduction education within the higher education system, recognizing it as an essential element of disaster preparedness.

The response and adaptation efforts exhibited by HEIs during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting multi-hazard resilience, offer invaluable insights that can significantly enhance disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities within this context. Recognizing the importance of these experiences, the collaboration between the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) underscores the need to harness these lessons.