Appointment of new Drowning Prevention Commissioner

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Posted By: ILSF.org 23rd April 2010

The ILS Board has announced the appointment of Justin Scarr (Australia) as the new ILS Drowning Prevention Commissioner.

Justin Scarr is the Chief Operating Officer for the Royal Life Saving Society Australia and has been Chair of the ILS Child Drowning Committee during the past two years. The ILS Board of Directors wished to thank retiring commissioner Dr. Dirk Bissinger PhD (Germany) who resigned from the role earlier this year.

Justin Scarr has extensive experience in the area with a personal commitment to addressing the global burden of drowning, demonstrated leadership abilities particularly relating to directing cross functional teams; and has a broad knowledge and skills in the most areas of lifesaving and drowning prevention.

Justin’s relevant experience and achievements internationally with a particular focus on developing nations include:

  • Successful lobbying to secure support and funds for establishment of first International Drowning Research Centre to be set up in Dhaka, Bangladesh in partnership with the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research – Bangladesh and The Alliance For Safe Children (TASC).
  • Secured over 1 million AUD in funds for drowning prevention activity in Asia.
  • Consulted to drowning prevention projects across Asia in partnership with ILS members, The Alliance for Safe Children and the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research ” Bangladesh covering Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand.
  • Formulated the bid for the ILS World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2011.
  • Presented on topic of drowning prevention in low and middle income countries in a range of international and regional conferences.
  • Led the development of the RLSSA Community Development Model as a strategy to position RLSSA to increase its reach and effectiveness across at risk communities. The principles of this strategy underpins much of the successful international activity.
  • Facilitated an ILS Asia-Pacific development forum and the creation of a development discussion paper.
  • Initiated and support a six Australian Youth Ambassador Positions abroad in countries including Thailand, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

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