We successfully held the inaugural “Hiroshima International Conference on Peace and Sustainability 2022” from 1st to 4th March, 2022. The conference was organized in collaboration with 15 institutes (in alphabetical order): AC4 at Columbia University, Earth System Governance, and Elsevier, Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace (HOPe), Hiroshima Prefecture, Institute for Economics & Peace, Kyushu University, North South University, Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, SIPRI, Tohoku University, UNITAR, University of Denver, and University of Nottingham Ningbo.
This hybrid conference included 32 sessions, with nearly 200 participants from 38 countries including Japan ranging from academic researchers, graduate students, policy makers, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and private companies attended and presented their work. The conference provided a unique platform for presenting and exchanging knowledge on a wide range of topics related to peace and sustainability. In particular, there was a focus on the nexus between peace and sustainability that is currently underexplored in science and policy circles. The conference was also successful in capacity building as over half of the participants were graduate students and early-career researchers. Best Paper Award and Best Presentation Award were given to three young researchers, respectively, which were selected by the review committee of the conference.
Best Paper Awards
1. Anna Christi Suwardi (Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand)
Gender and Cross-Cultural Movement towards the Establishment of Peace: The Case of Peace Agenda of Women (PAOW) in the Deep South of Thailand
2. Naija Adina, Ghulam Dastgir Khan, MD Abdul Bari, & Yuichiro Yoshida (Hiroshima University, Japan)
Impact of Remittances on Household Consumption Patterns: Evidence from Afghanistan
3. Oumaima Tounchibine, Nor Razinah Binti Mohd. Zain, Engku Rabiah Adawiah Engku Ali, & Syed Marwan Mujahid Syed Azman (International Islamic University of Malaysia, Malaysia)
The Impact of Refugees on Economic Growth in Malaysia: Evidence from ARDL Approach
Best Presentation Awards
1. Samantha Layton Matthews (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
The politics of fiction and its significance as a medium to advance dialogue and advocacy around the human condition in politically challenging times
2. Yi-chun Ko (Tohoku University, Japan)
Capacity to adapt to temperature effects on crop yields: evidence from rice production in Japan
3. Kazuki Hirano (Hiroshima University, Japan)
A study on zoning methodology for formulation of woody biomass energy utilization plan in non-timber production area
On the last day, Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, delivered a keynote lecture highlighting the significance of global cooperation and partnership for achieving peace and sustainability and addressing key global challenges such as geopolitical conflicts, pandemic of infectious diseases, climate change and nuclear disarmament. After the closing session, the willing participants of the Conference issued a joint statement protesting Russia’s armed invasion of neighboring Ukraine. The statement was reported by several media agencies, such as NHK, on the same day.
NERPS will hold the second conference sometime in the first quarter of 2023. As the network further expands, it is expected that more participants will attend the next conference. The conference demonstrated the value of transdisciplinary dialogue that should be sustained in the next conferences. The conversations and collaborations that were facilitated during the conference contributed to the university’s goal of transdisciplinary research and education for peace and sustainability. Major outputs of the conference will be published in an edited book for Springer and a journal special issue over the next few months.
Testimonials from our Participants
This HICPS provided us a good opportunity to exchange progress and check with each other among participants to our project in its middle. And it also gave us chance to publicize our engagement to international community. – Kaname IKEDA/RESTEC
Kaname IKEDA (President, Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan)
Conference was well organized and I would definitely be interested in participating in the conference in future. It is an excellent platform for networking and learning more about the state of the art technology and methods applied in the field of peace and sustainability.
Vineet Chaturvedi (Technical University of Munich, Germany)
Mr Masatoshi Sato’s coordination was extremely helpful via email throughout the process. He was expedient in addressing queries and an excellent ambassador for the university and NERPs in his public relations role in facilitating administrative practicalities around the conference. This made all the difference as a participant engaging virtually in the conference, when I was not always sure of the process online. Further, the sessions in the conference were well-facilitated by session hosts. The programme itself was an eclectic mix of rich topics that provided many angles to consider within the themes of peace and sustainability. I felt privileged to be a part of this very essential conference and hope to see more of these types of topic discussions expanded upon in the future. Well done to NERPS, Hiroshima University and all its contributors and participants in facilitating this international conference.
Samantha Layton-Matthews (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
It was a great opportunity to receive feedback from a professional researcher.
Erick Cosme Gomez (Hiroshima Jogakuin University, Japan)
I am a newly graduated master’s student. Feel so little among all the participants, guests, chair, and everyone else on the conference. But turned out to be a very wonderful experience. I can broaden my horizon, deepen my knowledge and it was very honor to know significant figures involve in the conference. I just hope that this is my beginning and be able to join the next conference again. Thank you so much for everything.
Bimo Satryo (Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand)