National launch for El Salvador

40 Mayors and local governments in El Salvador met for 2 days in a workshop with Ministers and representatives of 15 national institutions, and with NGOs and UN organizations to discuss priorities, experiences and their own roles in improving risk reduction.

The first day, they manifested their commitment to sign up to the campaign, upon approvals from each of the City Councils. Participants from the municipalities took upon themselves to review their progress and priorities in the context of the campaign and send their confirmation to the Ministry of Government and UNDP in San Salvador, for their full adherence to the campaign.

The Mayor of Santa Tecla; Oscar Ortiz, who had already committed and signed up to the campaign, led a panel of five Mayors (including from Verapaz; Tecoluca; Ciudad Delgado) which was followed by an exchange of comments and additional experiences. A list of six core recommendations emerged from this panel for local governments to increase their resilience and capacities to both respond and recover from disasters- as pert of their development. These recommendations were linked to the leadership role of the Mayor; integrated vision for local development; establishment of public policy; raise awareness; coordination and how to take advantage of post disaster/reconstruction to build resilience.