The province of Potenza #weResilient multiscale and multilevel holistic approach in downscaling local resilience and sustainable development: the case of the province of Potenza and its municipalities of Potenza and Pignola

The present work describes the experience of the Province of Potenza (an Italian local authority of subnational level) in accomplishing the recent UN global agreements goals and targets and in particular illustrates:

• Progresses made in implementing locally the #weResilient strategy, a risk-informed sustainable development policy-making action at territorial/local levels based on a structural combination of environmental sustainability, territorial safety and climate change contrasting policies;
• coherence of the multiscale and multilevel approach in integrating risk informed and sustainable development pathways;
• inclusive approach due to strong community involvement;
• results obtained in supporting and coordinating the municipalities of the provincial territory for creating local conditions to manage hazards, mitigate risks and improve local sustainable development with a multiscale and multilevel holistic approach. The approach is based on a wide-area (super-municipal) outlook and so contributing directly to the Sendai Framework Target E, SDG 11 and SDG 13 and indirectly to the other goals and targets. City of Potenza (as an example of a larger city) and Municipality of Pignola (as an example of a smaller settlement) case studies are described in terms of specific actions performed and results recorded so far;
• effectiveness of the governance-accountability system on which the #weResilient approach is based and is a powerful means to the knowledge acquisition and sharing for creating the conditions that contribute to change.

The aim of this work is to illustrate a concrete example of translation of words (deriving from commitments, such as the global goals) into actions (localization of the commitments) so to provide guidance and inspiration to other worldwide governments (at all levels) in performing a similar path. In this regard, as a specific contribution to the Sendai Framework Target E and to SDG 17, the Province of Potenza (UNDRR World Role Model for “Inclusive Resilience and Territorial Safety” by acknowledgement in 2015) has committed to provide its institutional support in assisting those governments in outlining and implementing local resilience strategies and actions.

This paper is a contribution to the 2019 edition of the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2019).

To cite this paper: 

Attolico, A. and Smaldone R. The province of Potenza #weResilient multiscale and multilevel holistic approach in downscaling local resilience and sustainable development: the case of the province of Potenza and its municipalities of Potenza and Pignola. Contributing Paper to GAR 2019