Working Session on Economic Aspects of DRR
Moderator:
Ms. Samantha Chard, Assistant Secretary of the Emergency Management Policy Branch,
Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department
Ms. Samantha Chard is the Assistant Secretary of the Emergency Management Policy Branch,
Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department. The Branch provides policy advice to the Minister
for Justice and Attorney-General on emergency management issues and is responsible for
coordination of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience implementation; and Secretariat
functions for the Law Crime and Community Safety Council (LCCSC) and the Australia - New
Zealand Emergency Management Committee (ANZEMC). She has held a number of policy and senior
management positions across the Commonwealth, in national security, policing, and social services.
Prior to joining the Department, Sam was with the Australian Crime Commission, as the National
Manager, Strategic Policy and Stakeholder Engagement, dealing with a range of criminal intelligence
and organised crime issues.
Keynote Speaker:
Mr. Kiyoshi Kodera, Vice-President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Mr. Kiyoshi Kodera is Vice President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), one of the
largest bilateral aid institutions. Before this position, he served as Executive Secretary of the
Development Committee of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. As Executive
Secretary, Mr. Kodera steered the Development Committee during the global fuel, food and financial
crises. Mr. Kodera started his professional career in the Ministry of Finance of Japan in 1974 and has
assumed various posts, including Deputy Vice-Minister for international finance, Country Director of
the World Bank for Central Asia, First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in the U.S., and board
member for the World Bank, African Development Fund, and Inter-American Investment
Corporation. From his World Bank positions and his various assignments at the Ministry of Finance
of Japan, Mr. Kodera has accumulated broad and in-depth knowledge and experience on
international economics, finance and development issues. Mr. Kodera graduated from the University
of Tokyo, Japan. He has a Bachelor degree in Law and a Master degree in Economics from Tsukuba
University.
Panelists:
Arsenio M. Balisacan, Minister of Socioeconomic Planning, Republic of the Philippines
Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan is the Minister of Socioeconomic Planning and Director-General of the
National Economic and Development Authority. Concurrently, he serves as Chairman of the Boards
of the Philippine Statistics Authority, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Philippine Center
for Economic Development, and Public-Private Partnership Center. Prior to his appointment in the
Cabinet of President Benigno S. Aquino III in May 2012, he was Dean and Professor of the University
of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics and Executive Director of the Philippine Center for
Economic Development.
Mr. Didier Dogley
Dr. Stéphane Hallegatte, Senior Economist, the World Bank.
Mr. Hallegatte is senior economist with the World Bank, in the office of the chief economist of the
Climate Change Group. His work includes green growth and climate change mitigation strategies,
urban economics, and climate change adaptation and disaster risk management. He is lead author of
the IPCC for its fifth assessment report. He also co-led the World Bank report “Inclusive Green
Growth” in 2012, and published dozen of articles and several books, including “Natural disasters and
climate change – an economic perspective.” Stephane Hallegatte holds an engineering degree from
the Ecole Polytechnique and a phD in economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences
Sociales in Paris.
Mr. Stéphane Jacobzone, Counsellor, Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate,
OECD
Mr. Jacobzone takes a leading role in coordinating OECD activities under the High Level Risk Forum
(HLRF). The HLRF led the development of the ground-breaking OECD Recommendation on the
Governance of Critical Risks, which was adopted by the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in May
2014. This work is underpinned by thematic activities as well as peer reviews engaging a wide range
of OECD countries. In this context, Mr. Jacobzone oversaw a report on Managing Risk Related
Contingent Liabilities in Public Finance Frameworks as well as a dynamic modelling exercise to assess
the impact of a major flooding event on the Paris metropolitan area and has been involved in peer
reviews, including Mexico and the cooperation with the European Commission. Mr. Jacobzone is also
coordinating ministerial level activities of the OECD Public Governance community, leading major
integrated public governance reviews, and thematic work on strategic agility and trust in
government.
Dr. Reinhard Mechler, IIASA
Reinhard Mechler has more than 15 years of experience working on the economics of disaster risk
and resilience, risk modeling and climate change. He currently is deputy director of the ‘Risk, Policy,
Vulnerability’ research program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). He
also is a visiting professor at the University of Graz, as well as a senior lecturer at the University for
Economics and Business in Vienna. His research interests comprise catastrophe risk modelling,
understanding the nexus between extreme events, climate change and development, the role of
resilience in disaster risk management, innovative risk financing mechanisms for sharing disaster
risks, and policy instruments for climate mitigation and adaptation. He acted as a lead author on
IPCC’s special report on adaptation to extreme events (SREX) and on IPCC’s 5th assessment report
(working group II). He has been leading and contributing to many international research and
consultancy projects.
Oscar E. Vela-Treviño, Ministry of Finance, México
Dr. Vela-Treviño is a Mexican economist and is the Head of the Insurance, Pensions and Social
Security Unit at the Ministry of Finance of Mexico.
He joined the Ministry in August 2009 as an Economist in the staff of economic advisers to the
Deputy Minister of Finance and latter became Deputy General Director of Public Debt. Prior to
joining the Ministry, Dr. Vela Treviño worked as for Barclays Capital, in New York, within the
Emerging Markets Fixed Income Research Team. He also worked at Banco de México, as an
Economist in the Research Department. Dr. Vela-Treviño holds a bachelors degree in Economics
from ITAM, Mexico City, a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D in
Economics, also from The University of Chicago. Dr. Vela Treviño has lectured courses in public
finance, public policy and microeconomics both at The University of Chicago and ITAM, México.
Some of his research has been published in refereed journals in the U.S. and México.