MCR2030 Webinar: Engaging persons with disabilities in local disaster resilience planning

Time

09:00 (Panama)

About

The challenge

Some one billion people around the world live with some form of disability. In every disaster, a disproportionate number of persons with disabilities suffer and die. Local disaster prevention measures are regularly designed and implemented without including persons with disabilities. Rarely are the unique perspectives and contributions of these communities engaged in local efforts to reduce disaster risk.

The opportunity

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction makes the case for an inclusive, accessible, all-of-society approach to protect lives, livelihoods, and wellbeing as being the most effective pathway towards resilient and sustainable cities.Representing one-fifth of the world's population, including persons living with disabilities in plans and actions to reduce disaster risk benefits communities and cities as a whole. In a Joint Statement on Disability and Disasters the UN has emphasized the benefit of including persons with disabilities “in all policies and programmes” to reduce disaster risk.

The tool

The Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities or the Scorecard enables local governments to assess their strengths and gaps in terms of the Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient. The Scorecard provides a baseline analysis that supports the preparation of local disaster resilience strategies. A new Annex to the Scorecard for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities opens the way for local governments to strengthen their capability to design, formulate, and implement policies that include persons with disabilities. The annex enables the perspectives and capacities of these communities to become an integral part of local resilience strategies.

The webinar

This Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) webinar will be in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish and International Sign, CART. The webinar coincides with the release of the new Annex to the Scorecard for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities. The annex provides a ‘window of opportunity’ for municipalities to engage people and communities previously overlooked. The webinar will make the case that utilizing the new tool will prove to be an investment and not a cost for resource-constrained municipalities. The discussion will bring together representatives from local government and civil society to outline the tool’s potential ‘resilience dividend’. Speakers will also leave space to take questions on key issues that arise.