15 June 2023

11 cities in Uruguay start planning for urban resilience under MCR2030 national pilot and Safe Schools initiative

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean Sistema Nacional de Emergencias

The 11 municipalities participating in the pilot of the Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative in Uruguay have completed Stage A of the Roadmap to Resilience.

During 2022, Local Emergency Coordination Centres (Cecoel) were consolidated in each municipality to carry out risk awareness activities in municipal schools, training of public officials on resilience, and assessments of resilience capacities through the "City Disaster Resilience Self-Assessment Tool" (Scorecard) and the "School Safety Index (ISE)". To generate synergies between the two initiatives, each municipality was asked to identify 11 pre-school and primary schools where the "Safe Schools" project could be implemented.

The actions were supported by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the National Emergency System of Uruguay (SINAE), the Decentralisation and Cohesion Area of the Office of Planning and Budget (OPP), and the General Directorate of Early and Primary Education.

In April 2023, Stage A was thereby completed by the municipalities of Tranqueras (Rivera), Minas de Corrales (Rivera), Vichadero (Rivera), Mataojo (Salto), Villa Constitución (Salto), Guichón (Paysandú), Young (Río Negro), Nueva Helvecia (Colonia), Ciudad del Plata (San José), La Paloma (Rocha) and Bella Unión (Artigas).

The 11 participating municipalities received a certification that recognises the completion of Stage A and marks the beginning of Stage B, which opens the process of developing a Resilience Plan for the year 2024.

Stage B focuses on improving cities' capacities to plan for risk reduction and resilience. In this stage, cities must formulate a strategy and action plan that enables them to prepare for disasters through preventive or risk reduction measures. In Uruguay, MCR2030 will focus on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in risk management and the integration of climate actions within this planning process.

Finally, Stage C will implement specific disaster risk reduction activities, integrating and institutionalising strategies in all sectors of cities and/or municipalities.