Lecture Abstracts

The RSIS World Humanitarian Day includes a public panel discussion and exhibition to commemorate those who have offered their lives in humanitarian service and those in need of assistance, and celebrates the spirit that inspires humanitarian work. The panel discussion will tackle the current nature of humanitarian engagement including the evolving landscape of complex humanitarian emergencies and international disaster relief in the Asia Pacific. It aims to raise public awareness on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the region by providing a venue for exchange of ideas, insights and experiences from Singaporean citizens and residents of Singapore involved in the protection and assistance of vulnerable groups displaced by natural and manmade disaster. The exhibition provides a forum to meet academics, policy professionals and practitioners from the field of humanitarian affairs.

About the Speakers

(SLTC) Lim Kok Kheng

Senior Lieutenant Colonel (SLTC) LIM Kok Kheng “SLim” is currently serving in the Singapore Armed Forces as the Head Plans and Coordination Senior Officer in Changi Regional HADR Coordination Centre (RHCC). Launched in September 2014, Changi RHCC seeks to assist the Affected State’s Military in coordinating with its military partners in a multinational response to a major regional disaster. SLTC Lim has been actively involved in the development of this capability to foster stronger military-military coordination. Prior to his current appointment, SLTC Lim served in Joint Operations Department, and was engaged in operational planning of HADR and Peace Support Operations. He was deployed to Nepal as part of Singapore’s response in the aftermath of the major earthquake in April 2015. A Super Puma helicopter pilot by vocation, SLTC Lim has served in the Republic of Singapore Air Force for 29 years.

Mr Masahiro Ishizeki

Masahiro Ishizeki is the Acting Head of International Programmes at Mercy Relief, Singapore’s leading independent relief agency. With more than 20 years of experience, he brings a wealth of knowledge in corporate social responsibility, research, non-profit organisations and humanitarian aid management. At Mercy Relief, he has five years of experience working on the ground. Masahiro is responsible for overseeing the overall implementation of disaster preparedness, response and recovery programmes across 9 countries such Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He was involved in several high-profile relief operations including the Nepal Earthquake, Aceh Earthquake and the Bangladesh Rakhine Crisis.

With his extensive experience in the humanitarian industry, Masahiro has been featured in leading media outlets such as Channel NewsAsia and The Straits Times. He holds a M.A. in Community Development from the University of Philippines and a BSc Law in International Political Science from the Hokkaido University. He also received formal training from Sphere Project.

LTC Ow Yong Tuck Wah

LTC Ow Yong is an experienced fire and rescue officer from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).   He has responded to more than 200 operational incidents in his twenty over years with SCDF.   He is currently servicing as Head of Specialist Fire Training Centre at the Civil Defence Academy (CDA).   He is trained as an expert in United Nations (UN) Civil-Military Co-ordination, Team Leader (TL) in the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Co-ordination (UNDAC) and ASEAN Emergency Response and Assessment Team (ERAT).

LTC Ow Yong has been deployed overseas for more than six times as part of SCDF Operations Lionheart, ASEAN or United Nations for international humanitarian assistance missions.  Key missions include the Tsunami 2004 in Thailand, Cyclone Nargis 2008 in Myanmar, earthquake response in Central Java 2006 and Padang 2009, Indonesia.  Most recently, in Jan 2018, he was deployed as team leader (TL) for the ASEAN-ERAT mission to assist the Government of Myanmar for the ongoing Rakhine Crisis in Myanmar.

LTC Ow Yong is a Home Team Principal Trainer.   As a trainer, he has helped to developed ASEAN-ERAT curriculum, conducted the first four of the ASEAN-ERAT induction courses, participated in Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR) training including being assessor in rescue battalion exercises and ASEAN Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise (ADREX).

Academic Qualification

• MSc Strategic Studies with Certificate in Terrorism Studies. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) 2011

Professional Qualification

• Diploma in Adult Continuous Education (DACE) Jun 2018
• Associate Member Institute of Fire Engineers (AIFireE), United Kingdom (UK) Jan 2018
• UNDAC Team Leader, Police Academy, Ossendrecht, Netherlands, Apr 2016
• Bronze Medallion Singapore Life Saving Society (SLSS), 1984

Dr Alistair D. B. Cook

Dr Alistair D. B. Cook is Coordinator of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Programme and Research Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre), S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. His research interests focus geographically on the Asia-Pacific and Myanmar in particular and thematically on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), foreign policy and regional cooperation. He has taught undergraduate, graduate and professional development courses at Purdue University, University of Melbourne, Deakin University, Nanyang Technological University, Australian National University, Singapore Civil Defence Academy and SAFTI. He has recently published Negotiating Access to Populations of Concern in Southeast Asia (Pacific Review, 2018), Co-authored An Assessment of International Emergency Disaster Response to the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes (with Maxim Shrestha and Zin Bo Htet in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2018); Humanitarian Technology Survey (RSIS Policy Report, 2017), and co-edited Civilian Protection in the Twenty-First Century: Governance and Responsibility in a Fragmented World (Oxford University Press, 2016).