South Asia regional workshop on citizens ' forum on disaster reduction
Introduction
In 2008, the proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas crossed the 50% mark. By 2030, six out of every 10 people will be city dwellers, rising to seven out of every 10 people by 2050. The speed of urbanization has outpaced the ability of governments to build essential infrastructures that make life in cities safe, rewarding and healthy. Many disasters take place in urban areas, affecting millions of people each year through loss of life, serious injury and loss of assets and livelihoods. Poorer groups are generally most affected. The accumulation of day to day risks and their contribution to poverty are underestimated, as is the extent to which rapidly growing and poorly managed urban development increases the risks. The coping mechanisms are challenged in the complicated environment creating major impact on communities’ resilience. The institutional mechanisms in India, though exists, have challenges in sensitizing the local governments for taking up issues of Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation. This needs to be done with citizen participation and not as local government vs citizen approach. It is also essential to understand which aspect of urbanization leads to disasters and what contributes to sustainability.
To understand the issues of local citizen and initiate dialogue or advocacy at local level, a multi stakeholder citizen’s forum becomes the essential staring point.. These forums have the ability to collect local evidences and voices to ensure effective awareness, advocacy and action. Such citizen forums could play a vital role in influencing local development initiatives , reduce risk in everyday life and ensure better city life and stronger coping capacity among themselves
SEEDS with the support of its donors and partner organizations is mobilizing and encouraging the building of citizen’s forums to mandate Disaster Reduction activities at the local level.
Objective
- Creating a shared understanding about the importance of citizens’ forum
- Exposure to citizen led action using appropriate tools and methodology
- Developing strategies for integrating disaster reduction with local development initiatives