Three types of data were particularly important in the design and promotion of the “Program for Earthquake-Resistant School Buildings”: school data, data on damages, and data on hazard risks. School data was collected by surveys and investigations conducted by FDMA and MEXT. A list of the surveys is indicated below.

One of the biggest instigators for developing and promoting school retrofitting is the past experiences of earthquakes. The 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake triggered the development of the program’s comprehensive guidelines, and the program gained momentum after the 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake and 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China which caused the collapse of 6,898 school buildings and 19,065 deaths of schoolchildren. This prompted MEXT officials to pass the revised Act on Special Measures for Earthquake Disaster Countermeasures, which supported additional national subsidies toward the school retrofitting and reconstruction program. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake prompted the program to give higher priority to nonstructural elements and highlighted the need for tsunami countermeasures and functional improvements of schools as evacuation centers. Learning from each disaster event and applying the lessons learned to the improvement of the systems has contributed to ensuring the seismic safety of public schools.

Promoting EbA measures with a high level of community involvement and binational ties was an effective way to achieve greater interaction between community, municipal and national actors, and also between peers (network of resilient producers; local government encounter). The results are, on the one hand, greater local empowerment, and on the other, scaling-up of EbA measures both vertically and horizontally. Thus, contributions are made towards institutionalizing EbA and creating conditions for its sustainability. The replication of the integral farm model arose from networking between producers, communities and local governments, and from a regional project with the Binational Commission of the Sixaola River Basin (CBCRS) that provided the financing. The Agrobiodiversity Fair, the work of producers as a network, and the Binational Reforestation Events, which are now all under the auspices of local and national institutions, were important mobilizing forces of change and spaces for exchange and learning. In the vertical sense, the scaling-up of EbA included working with the CBCRS to integrate EbA in the Strategic Plan for Transboundary Territorial Development (2017-2021), and with MINAE in the National Climate Change Adaptation Policy of Costa Rica.