City resilience efforts to step up

By Jeanette Elsworth

Members of the Making Cities Resilient Campaign have pledged to step up their efforts on collaboration and knowledge sharing to support more cities in implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the global roadmap for reducing disaster loss.

The agreement was made during the campaign Steering Committee Meeting hosted by the chair, UN-Habitat, at the start of Barcelona Resilience Week 2018, where members agreed unanimously on the value of the campaign and the need to boost activity in a new phase.

The meeting brought together local government associations, international organizations, humanitarian organizations and academic institutions, who agreed that the importance of building resilience had increased since the Campaign was established.

Mami Mizutori, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, opened the meeting by acknowledging the invaluable contribution of members to increasing the visibility of DRR and resilience globally.

The Director of UN-Habitat’s External Relations Division, Christine Musisi, reiterated the agency’s commitment to the Campaign’s partnerships and to supporting cities to address resilience through the City Resilience Profiling Tool.

Emilia Saiz, Secretary-General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), highlighted the need to align local and national policies towards action leading to the achievement of Agenda 2030.

During a workshop, participants, including C40, ICLEI, the European Commission and the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities campaign, agreed that focus should be placed on building commitment from Campaign signatories and partners to effectively contribute to the achievement of Sendai Framework, the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Agreement.

More than 4,000 cities have signed up to the Campaign, launched in 2010, which provides resilience assessment tools as best practice guidance such as the Ten Essentials for disaster risk reduction.