Dilanthi Amaratunga

Location: United Kingdom
Country Coverage: EU countries, South Asia, Pacific, Australia and New Zealand
Regional Coverage: EU and Asia
Field of Expertise: Disaster risk reduction
Language: English, Sinhalese
Email: d.amaratunga@hud.ac.uk

Advocate Biography

Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga is a leading expert in disaster resilience with an international reputation. She current leads the Global Disaster Resilience Centre, a global leader in inter-disciplinary research, education and advocacy to improve the resilience of nations and communities at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Her research interests include disasters and the built environment; capacity building; socio-economic measures for disaster risks; gender and protection; Preparedness for response, recovery and reconstruction, conflict affected societies; Risk management and sustainability; and Public policy, governance and procurement. An interdisciplinary background in construction management, facilities and business continuity management, education and training, disaster mitigation and reconstruction provides her the opportunities to work across a broader disaster management research agenda including developing partnerships of international research teams, government, NGOs and communities.

Full details of Dilanthi’s publications, projects, and national and international activities can be found at www.dilanthiamaratunga.net.

Campaign Activities

• Prof Dilanthi Amaratunga has been involved with the UNDRR “Making Cities Resilient: My City is getting ready!” campaign since its inception in 2010. She continues to be a formal academic partner of the “Making Cities Resilient: My City is getting ready!” campaign, a Steering committee member of the UNDRR Making Cities Resilient: My City is getting ready!” campaign, helping to build multi-stakeholder partnerships to achieve the aims of the campaign at the local level, by working together with local organisations, grass root networks, private sector and national authorities, Along with Local governments and the UN, work together to build safer communities and commit to World Disaster Reduction campaign including developing city hazard maps, instituting building regulation by-laws, and providing training as well as education programmes for government officials and school children on urban disaster risk reduction. Following list provide some examples of these key activities:

• Raise the commitment for sustainable urbanization, which will reduce disaster risk for all spheres of government and contribute to all levels of decision-making. Linking the International Conference on Building Resilience directly to the campaign.

• Partnership with UNESCO Coastal Hazard Management Commission

• Partners in the national launch of the Making Cities Resilient campaign in Sri Lanka

• Working with local authorities

• Policy briefing in Melbourne, Australia

• Support towards Ministry of Disaster Management, Sri Lanka

• ANDROID (Academic Network for Disaster Resilience to Optimise Educational Development)

• International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE)