Local governments and disaster risk reduction: good practices and lessons learned

This collection of good practices shows how building the capacity of local institutions is key to sustaining disaster risk reduction, and demonstrates the immediate impact of local and national political commitments that institutionalise disaster risk reduction. It also showcases collaboration between local and national governments, civil society organizations and international agencies.

These good practices are intended to generate increased interest in the subject among local governments, community leaders, implementing agencies, policy makers and other stakeholders, and to inspire local governments and their partners to reduce disaster risks for the most vulnerable people in their local areas, by following and replicating these concrete examples.

The publication has been produced by the former “Local government alliance for disaster risk reduction”, in collaboration with the UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, the International Training Centre of the ILO and UNISDR. It is as a contribution to the 2010-11 World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Making cities resilient”.

It contains:

- Bangladesh: The Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme: Empowering local governments
- Canada: The Ontario Provincial Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
- El Salvador: Strengthening connections between communities and local government
- Fiji: Beyond early warning and response: Risk-sensitive local development
- France: Memo’Risks: Students survey community risk knowledge
- Indonesia: Many partners, one system: An integrated Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) for Jakarta
- Indonesia: The joint management of Merapi Volcano
- Japan: Watch and learn: Children and communities study mountain and urban risks
- Nepal: Community-based poverty reduction for disaster risk reduction
- Pakistan: Institution-building and capacity building for local governments
- Peru: Empowering local government as leaders in disaster reduction and recovery
- Philippines: A permanent provincial coordinating office for disaster risk reduction
- South Africa: Developing and managing water resources
- Viet Nam: Building local capacity and creating a local government network for cyclone risk