Book Launch: “Human Security and Empowerment in Asia: Beyond the Pandemic”

The first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly impeded global development and challenged our understanding of human security. As we overcame these diverse and compounded insecurities and uncertainties, it became crucial to reevaluate the approach to human security by considering the protection and empowerment nexus applied to different vulnerable groups and populations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While much of today’s human security literature focuses on the concept of protection from states, there is still a need for new perspectives on the human security concept by exploring empowerment from theoretical and practical perspectives.

Based on this background, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development undertakes a research project, “Human Security and the Practices of Empowerment in East Asia,” which focuses on the unique empowerment narratives of specific vulnerable populations within the Southeast Asian region and Japan. Eight insightful and substantial case studies brought considerable learnings in operationalizing human security, incorporating a broad range of complex situations and typologies of actions, as well as protection and empowerment actors (global, national, and local; public and private; community, religious, developmental, and political) from the diverse human security issues experienced and confronted by vulnerable groups and communities.

This Book launch in Manila is the second part of the two-fold book launch for the research project’s final output. After completing the launch in Japan, the book launch in Manila aims to introduce the findings by reaching a larger audience in the region where most case studies were from. This book launch will be held at Ateneo University in Manila, where one case study author is from. It also intends to attract an audience from the academe and civil society, who are active stakeholders in the country, to learn more about human security and empowerment, and the issues of aging, health, gender and disaster displacement. The presentations will include the key features of the book, along with discussions on the lessons from key human security issues such as health, gender, aging, and forced displacement, all of which have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic with case studies from the Philippines, Thailand, and Japan. More so, this book launch anticipates a healthy exchange among diverse stakeholders, reflecting on the future of human security research in the region beyond the pandemic.

-Prof. Mely Caballero-Anthony, Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
-Dr. Maria Tanyag – Australian National University (Canberra, Australia)
-Dr. Surangrut Jumnianpol – Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand)
-Dr. Lisette R. Robles - JICA Ogata Research Institute (Tokyo, Japan)
-Dr. Ma. Lourdes Veneracion – Ateneo de Manila University (Manila, Philippines)
-Moderator: Dr. Ako Muto, Specially Appointed Research Fellow, JICA Ogata Research Institute

13:00- 13:05 Opening Remarks
-Dr. Diana Mendoza, Assistant Professor, Ateneo Department of Political Science; Director of Ateneo Southeast Asian Studies Program

13:05-13:15 Welcome Remarks
-Prof. Yoichi Mine, Executive Director of JICA Ogata Research Institute and Book Editor

13:15-13:30 Short introduction of the book (10 minutes):Human Security and Empowerment: Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
-Prof. Mely Caballero-Anthony, Nanyang Technological University Professor and Book Editor

13:30-14:20 Case Study Presentations (10 minutes for each presentation):
1. Lacking in Care’: COVID-19 ‘Shadow Pandemics’ in the Philippines (2020-2021) - Dr. Maria Tanyag, Australian National University
2. From Vertical to Horizontal Empowerment of Women (in) Peace and Security: Towards a Feminist Perspective of Human Security - Dr. Ma. Lourdes Veneracion, Ateneo de Manila University
3. Aging Society in Thailand during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Dr. Surangrut Jumnianpol, Chulalongkorn University
4. Finding Empowerment Amidst Displacement and Immobility during Disasters - Dr. Lisette R. Robles, JICA Ogata Research Institute

14:20-14:40 Remarks and Comments:
-Dr. Maria Ela L. Atienza, University of the Philippines
-Ms. Mary Ann G. Bakisan, JICA Philippine Office

14:40-15:00　Q&A

15:00 Closing of the Seminar

JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development (Attn: Oboshi or Tsuchiya)
E-mail：ditas-rsunit@jica.go.jp　

You do not need to register in advance.