Implementation of the Sendai Framework at local level: Capacity Development for Making Cities Resilient to Disasters - Varaždin, Croatia

Background

Over the past 20 years disasters have affected 4.4 billion people, caused USD 2 trillion of damage and killed 1.3 million people. Natural disasters affected people living in developing countries and the most vulnerable communities within those countries. Over 95 percent of people killed by disasters are from developing countries

Current and future challenges of mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in development planning demand new approaches, mechanisms, sets of skills and competencies that need to be identified and strengthened in order to form the basis of increasing public demand and political commitment to local actions and budget allocations Lack of appropriate knowledge on the subject, lack of government commitment and the absence of mainstreaming in current organizational and government strategy are key existing challenges.

Urban risk is continually increasing. It has been estimated that, more than 50 per cent of the world's population is living in urban areas. Urbanization is taking place at an unprecedented rate. In the next 20 years, the world’s population is predicted to increase by an additional two billion.

By 2030 more than 60% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities, with record concentrations in large urban conglomerations and megacities in the developing world. Vulnerability of cities to disasters is on the rise especially as poor people settle in high-risk urban areas. Unfortunately, planning and development of cities has given little consideration to the consequences of hazards such as earthquakes, hydro-meteorological risks and others.  The implication of this reality is the need for countries to focus their collective energies to create a safer world for urban dwellers and develop a series of innovative approaches to meet this challenge.

In this regard, building resilience and adapting to climate change is crucial for cities in Croatia. Efforts to build resilience in cities can benefit from integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation with existing efforts in disaster risk reduction and other similar planning processes.

The workshop was convened and co-organized by UNISDR ONEA-GETI and the National Protection and Rescue Directorate – NPRD, and attended by high-level authorities and experts from state and local governments, NGO and volunteers, and other local actors within Croatia. A set of “trainers” was prepared to become GETI resource persons.

Outcome

The Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on “Implementation of the Sendai Framework at local level: Capacity Development for Making Cities Resilient to Disasters” provided an opportunity to participants to:

Better understand of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 implementation and the role of governments at national and local level

• Increase political commitment and social demand for disaster resilient development, adapted for climate change, aiming for sustainable development
• Increase engagement of national actors in the field of national development and planning with the DRR and CCA Agenda and enhance country planners and decision makers’ ability and commitment to promote DRR and CCA through relevant systems, policies and processes.
• Learn about the Making Cities Resilient Global Campaign and how its assessment and planning tools, materials and approaches may be used to build local resilience to disasters.
• Acquire new skills and capacities on City Resilience Action Plans development and implementation, based on MCR Campaign 10 Essentials to make their cities resilient to disasters.

The workshops main outcomes include:

• Trained cadres of national high level city officials
• Draft City Resilience Assessment Report
• Draft City Resilience Action Plans
• Draft Strategy paper on how to further finalize, ensure endorsement and effectively implement the City Resilience Action Plan