Developing capacities on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific region

“Disaster risk is increasing with every passing day. Poverty, rapid urbanisation, climate change – these and other factors are leaving people and communities ever more exposed.” - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

Event background and introduction

Over the past 20 years disasters have affected 4.4 billion people, caused USD 2 trillion of damage and killed 1.3 million people. Natural disasters mostly affected people living in developing countries and the most vulnerable communities within those countries. Over 95 percent of people killed by natural disasters are from developing countries.

The Asia-Pacific Region is the world’s most vulnerable region when it comes to natural disasters. According to the World Disaster Report released by International Federation of the Red Crescent, as many as 85 percent of the people reported affected by disasters belonged to the Asia-Pacific Region in the period 2000-2009.

Urban risk is continually increasing. It has been estimated that, more than 50 per cent of the world's population is living in urban areas. Urbanization is taking place at an unprecedented rate. In the next 20 years, the world’s population is predicted to increase by an additional two billion. By 2030 more than 60% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities, with record concentrations in large urban conglomerations and megacities in the developing world. Vulnerability of cities to disasters is on the rise especially as poor people settle in high-risk urban areas. Unfortunately, planning and development of cities has given little consideration to the consequences of hazards such as earthquakes, hydro-meteorological risks and others. The implication of this reality is the need for countries to focus their collective energies to create a safer world for urban dwellers and develop a series of innovative approaches to meet this challenge.

In this regard, building resilience and adapting to climate change is crucial for cities especially those in the Asia-Pacific region. Efforts to build resilience in cities can benefit from integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation with existing efforts in disaster risk reduction.

This capacity building training workshop, while promoting the importance of effective climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, will provide:

i) an opportunity for countries and cities in the Asia-Pacific region to enhance capacities in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction with a focus on countries/cities Resilience Action Plans development and implementation.
ii) a platform to exchange in-depth learning from experts in the related area and to share good practices among participants
iii) a venue for city-to-city cooperation in building resilience in cities by integrating disaster risk principles into local DRR and CCA plans, programmes and initiatives

The workshop contents are composed of the following:
- Introducing the Concepts and Current Tendencies in Urban Risk and Risk Reduction
Republic of Korea’s National Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Master Plan
- Introducing Making Cities Resilient (MCR) Global Campaign and MCR Campaign Tools
- Applying the MCR Tools, Diagnosis and Assessment
- Mainstreaming DRR and CCA into Development and Building Resilient Cities
- Developing and Implementing of Safe and Resilient City Action Plan
- City Action Plan Monitoring, Evaluating and Follow up
- Sharing Experiences, Model Programs for City-to-City Learning & Capacity Development
- Effective Partnership Building and Facilitation Skills

Participants will

- understand the concept of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
- build capacities with a focus on effective planning and implementation of MCR Campaign 10 Essentials to make their cities resilient to disasters
- adapt and use MCR Global Campaign existing tools to support capacity development needs of local governments, and define the need for additional content related to these
- share good practices and find ways to cooperate with other participating cities

Requirements

Participants are required to attend and actively participate in all workshops, complete assignments and interact with resource persons, and complete pre-workshop readings/assignments and come with prepared questions.
Fluency in English, spoken and written.

Course Certificates
CIFAL Jeju and UNITAR will jointly issue a certificate to participants upon completion of the full program.

ASSISTANCE WITH TRAVEL COST

- CIFAL Jeju only provides a limited financial assistance for participants.
- The following table represents the maximum amount of financial assistance for round-trip international air travel to Jeju Island to participate in workshops of CIFAL Jeju.
- All local expenses (transportation, accommodation, and meals during the 4-day workshop) will be covered by CIFAL Jeju.
- Every participant is responsible for their local transportation in their country and arranging their visa including the visa fee.

Please see attached document for more details.