SE26: Community Safety and Resilience

Description

The building of safer, more resilient communities is a core objective of disaster risk reduction. In order to focus on communities, specifically those at risk from regular and new (for instance climate-related) disaster impacts, strong local-level partnerships are needed. In this session we will explore how community safety and resilience can be increased through participatory local-level partnerships, highlighting also how such collaborations can best be supported and encouraged at various levels.

Context

There is a need to scale-up actions in disaster risk reduction as a contribution to community safety and resilience. Of particular concern are highly vulnerable communities that experience recurring smaller-scale disasters with cumulative and repetitive impacts that lead to substantial losses in lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, the economy and the environment, hindering sustainable development. Increasingly, communities also face new risks associated with climate change, urbanization, migration and other global dynamics. Activities to increase community safety and resilience must take into consideration local capacities, vulnerabilities and the changing risk environment, working towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the Hyogo Framework for Action.

Assessment of progress towards building resilience at the local level shows that national-level DRR policies and programmes often fail to properly address community capacities and needs. Local-level partnerships, supported and encouraged also at the national and international levels, are needed not only to increase community safety and resilience, but also to engage and support the abilities and rights of affected communities to participate in and control decision-making processes.

This has further been recognized in the 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, with Point 9 of the recommended action plan being:

Adopt an approach supportive of local initiatives:
Promote a culture of planning and implementation of disaster risk reduction that builds on government–civil society partnerships and cooperation and is supportive of local initiative, in order to dramatically reduce the costs of risk reduction, ensure local acceptance, and build social capital.

Scope

This workshop will explore local-level partnerships to strengthen community safety and resilience including entry points and good practices, the raising of political commitment, support and resources, and leveraging existing community capacities. By promoting South-South sharing of experiences and ideas, a global space for communities to be represented in terms of needs, capacities and innovations, further enabling them to manage their own risks, will be provided.

Expected Outcomes

• Increased awareness of the need for local-level partnerships to support community safety and resilience including climate change adaptation.

• Expanded knowledge of how local-level partnerships can be initiated, developed and supported based on South-South sharing of experiences.

• Increased political commitment to encourage and support local-level DRR partnerships.

• Establishment of linkages between participants facilitating future local-level partnerships.

Background Papers

> Community Safety and Resilience [DOC, 50.50 Kb]

Presentations

> PROGRAMAS PARA EL DESARROLLO DE UNA CULTURA PREVENTIVA [PDF, 56.48 Kb]

Outcomes

Note: this is an interim report pending publication of the Conference Proceedings from the 2009 Global Platform.

> Report from SE26 [DOC, 80.50 Kb]