Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience for Cities

Cities and local governments play a crucial role in mitigating climate change, safeguarding local development gains, and fostering safe, resilient, and sustainable cities. This session focuses on cities' peer-to-peer learning.

Satoshi Ishii

Moderator

November 6, 2024 | 17:00 - 18:30

Voices from Cities - room A

Asian Development Bank ADB

Philippines

English

Reference:

VC-A 10

WUF12

Voices from Cities

Summary

Guiding questions:
How can future climate and geophysical disaster risks be reduced and managed effectively by cities, towns, and urban areas, especially in developing economies at high risk in Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Africa and Latin America? How can risk-informed planning be applied? What are effective ways to reduce risks of flooding, landslides, sea-level rise, cyclones and storm surges, droughts, and extreme heat? How to promote risk-informed investments to address escalating climate and disaster risks? What can be done to prepare and plan for disaster response institutionally and technically? What are key components of building capacity and awareness? What kinds of smart ICT can be used and how to augment and facilitate early warning and response action coordination?
The event:
Local governments play a crucial role in mitigating climate change, safeguarding local development gains, and fostering safe, resilient, and sustainable cities. These cities face complex challenges, requiring collaboration from political leaders and various stakeholders. This session focuses on peer-to-peer learning by bringing representatives from local authorities to share experiences in localizing the SDGs and enhancing urban resilience against climate change, natural hazards, and disasters. The focus will be on sharing the experiences of Cities, i.e. Dhaka and Dubai and from cities who present steps taken to enhance its resilience and how they managed the recent flood and present the two outcome documents from the global urban resilience forum that acts as guide for cities to enhance their resilience.
Impact, lessons of benefits and challenges from projects and programs:
Representatives from national and local governments will share their experiences in enhancing their urban resilience towards risks, the benefits from effective DRR , and challenges in arranging stakeholders and agencies and how they implemented risk-informed planning, and how they engaged community and private sector.
Policies, technical guidance, and national programs:
Summarize how effective and integrated disaster risk reduction (DRR) is promoted and enabled, and key challenges to overcome. Overview and sharing lessons from across countries and offer key recommendations for consideration for other countries and cities to replicate. ADB and UNDRR will share experience from DRR planning and technical and financing support in different regions and report its current actions and future plans on policy and program support to national and local governments.
The solutions:
Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction is responding to the challenges of increased climate risk. Practices, systems and plans have been developed in partnership and for countries globally by the event partners; following Sendai framework for DRR. Activities include disaster risk assessment, risk-informed planning, early warning systems, disaster preparedness and response mechanisms, among others.

Objectives

Networking:
The event will bring people together from multinational agencies, national and local governments, NGOs, CSOs and professionals to promote new networks for further exchange and mutual learning.

Learning and sharing cases of effective disaster risk reduction:
Participants from cities and urban practitioners will understand models and cases presented for practical replication in their own countries and cities. They will learn from the experience of other cities,and the challenges that they have encountered and identify ways to overcome these challenges. Stakeholders at the city level become interested in engaging in making cities resilient and sustainable. City-to-city networks are strengthened. Presentation of innovative approaches to enhance cities resiliency and sustainability.

Outlook on further replication and scaling up:
Commitments and plans for further actions by national and local governments will be discussed and promoted both before the event in preparation meetings, during and after the event. Commitments to support DRR from developing agencies and NGOs and CSOs will be promoted for developing Asia and Pacific, MENA, Africa and Latin America.