UNDRR celebrates partnership between UFJF and São Paulo municipalities to build technical capacity and plan for local disaster resilience

The Disaster Resilience Analysis Programme in the context of the municipalities of Cubatão (SP) and Franco da Rocha (SP) was launched on Wednesday, April 26, by the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF).  The project, carried out through the Regional Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer (Critt), is part of the University's partnership with the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative (MCR2030) of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The municipalities were selected following an open call for applications in October 2022.

The objective of the Programme is to build capacity in both local governments for integrated risk management and disaster resilience action planning. The final deliverable for Cubatão (SP) and Franco da Rocha (SP) will be the elaboration of a Local Resilience Plan.  

Present at the launch of the programme were the Deputy Mayor of Franco da Rocha, Lorena Rodrigues de Oliveira, and the Secretary of Government of Cubatão, César da Silva Nascimento, who signed the agreements together with the Director of Innovation of the UFJF and Critt, Fabrício Campos.

Cities, university, ministry and UN working together to build resilience actions in Brazil

The ceremony was joined by UNDRR through the opening speech of Clément Da Cruz, MCR2030 Junior Programme Officer, during which he provided information on the Local Resilience Plan, to be formulated by the two cities that are part of the project. According to him, the aim is for the plan to be multi-sectoral, formulated by various municipal departments working on the risk reduction agenda. Each city will have to prepare actions with timelines, responsible entities and monitoring indicators for integrated risk reduction. The process will be supervised by UNDRR and UFJF.

"This plan forms the basis of the city's risk governance arrangement. It also intends to be participatory in its elaboration process. We support the city to have a consultative methodology with the communities - not only in the design of actions, but also in their implementation."

Clément Da Cruz, MCR2030 Junior Programme Officer, UNDRR

Another programme partner present at the ceremony was the National Centre for Monitoring and Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations (MCTI). In remote participation, Cemaden researcher Silvia Saito stressed that disaster resilience is an urgent agenda in public management, especially at the local level. Cemaden will support the Programme with technical training on climatology, risk monitoring and early warnings.

The opening ceremony was also attended by Mônica Oliveira, the Pro-Rector of Graduate Studies and Research, representing the Rector of UFJF, Marcus David; and Fernanda Cunha Sousa, the Deputy Rector of Extension.

Academic education in integrated risk management and resilience for municipal agents

As part of the Program, municipal servants in both cities will obtain the UFJF's "Disaster Resilient Cities" postgraduate specialisation degree, considering that these workers are in direct contact with the population's day-to-day life.

Each of the selected municipal administrations designated 23 municipal employees, totalling 46 employees, working in twelve specific areas, such as Environment, Social Assistance, Civil Defence and Urban Planning.

The degree involves professors from the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine, Physiotherapy and the João XXIII School of Application, as well as technical-administrative staff from the University Hospital and the Dean's Office for Student Services (Proae). 

For more information about the Programme and the event,  see the article from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Portuguese).