Workshop on Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Mauritanian Cities

Following the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 last March 2015, and building on the outcomes and achievements of the Global Campaign on Making Cities Resilient, UNISDR along with UNDP in Tunisia and Mauritania submitted a project proposal for consideration by the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS). The project is titled “Enhancing community resilience and human security of vulnerable communities in urban settings through the implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030”.

The project aims to help protect urban communities living in vulnerable conditions and to develop capacities of the local institutions to overcome disaster, health, food, environmental and economic insecurities, and thus enhance human security of the vulnerable. In Addition, it will be one of the first projects of its kind to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 through and with integration of the human security concept. As such, the project takes the key aspect of the new framework, adopted in March 2015 in Sendai, Japan, that is the recognition, for the first time at international level, of the importance of the involvement, empowerment and focus on communities and community organizations as key for effective disaster resilience and human security.

The project objectives are (1) to support the development of resilience and human security capacities at local levels and (2) to strengthen and promote innovative partnerships for resilience-building and human security. In addition, the project will utilise the inter-disciplinary human security approach, which is integrated in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, to promote actions at the local level to enhance the resilience and responses of vulnerable urban communities to climate related threats and natural hazards targeting 5 cities in Mauritania.

The beneficiary cities for this project were chosen in consultation with UNDP offices and the government DRR focal point. These cities are Nouakchott (TavraghZeina), Rosso, Boghé, Kaedi, and Tintane.

To formally kick-off the first activity, UNISDR, UNDP and the national government are organizing a 3 day training workshop on the newly developed Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities in Nouakchott, Mauritania from 22-24 August 2017. The workshop will mainly focus on conducting local self-assessments to measure resilience, human security and existing resources as a means to identify the root causes of vulnerability,

The workshop will further aim to:
• Enable beneficiary cities and potential partners to understand the results and outcomes of the initiative
• Identify progress and barriers in the beneficiary cities
• Using the new Disaster Resilience Scorecard identify the challenges and gaps in the implementation of the 10 essentials for Making Cities Resilient in the beneficiary cities
• Agree on a work-plan and timeline for the implementation of the project