Strengthening Capacities of Asia-Pacific Local Authorities to Build Resilient Societies through Disaster Risk Reduction in Sustainable Development Strategies

Background

In September 2015, member states of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This interdependent, universal, and transformative agenda sets the strategic direction for building resilient cities and human settlements by responding to concerns about the impacts of climate change and disaster risk. Prior to the SDGs, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was adopted as the first of the post-2015 development instruments and this new framework will have a profound impact on the lives of people for years to come.

In this regard, building resilience and adapting to climate change is crucial for cities especially those in the Asia-Pacific region. The region is subject to all major types of natural hazards and dominates disaster impact categories across the world. During the past decade the region was struck by 1,625 disasters—over 40 per cent of the global total – and half a million people lost their lives. The region has incurred substantial economic damage of more than half a trillion dollars over the same period, accounting for 45% of global total. Unfortunately, planning and development of cities and local governments, especially land-use plans and policies, have only briefly integrateddisaster risk reduction and planning,

This training will provide tools to localize the global frameworks for sustainable development, especially focusing on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into plans and strategies to build safe, resilient and sustainable cities in Asia-Pacific region. The training process includes lecture sessions with expert inputs combined with real-life case work and best practice application. Session-based group work will enable participants to transform in-depth learning into practice and familiarize with coordinated action for decision making. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to localize and implement the international frameworks into their city or national context in the pursuit of greater resilience and sustainable development.

Event objectives

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

1. Support the localization and implementation of 2030 Agenda and Sendai Framework for DRR
2. Provide an international platform for knowledge exchange, supporting sharing and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned across cities
3. Promote city-to-city cooperation by establishing a strong network and community of practice in the region.

Learning objectives

By the end of the training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the global framework for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals;
• Build capacities with a focus on effective urban planning and implementation of making cities resilient to disasters;
• Utilize the operational tools of Sendai Framework at local level to develop city action plans;
• Identify indicators for monitoring and evaluation of the city action plan; and
• Share good practices and find ways to cooperate with other participating cities.

Target audience

This training is open to central and local government officials and other related personnel from civil society and institutions in the field of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.