Kyrgyz Republic Capital Bishkek moves forward on city resilience with the support of UNDRR and the European Union

On 21 September, the city of Bishkek, in cooperation with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), conducted the Preliminary Disaster Resilience Scorecard Assessment. The event is part of a series of workshops focused on resilience assessments and the development of the “Local Disaster Resilience Strategy and Action Plan” for the capital city of the Kyrgyz Republic by August 2022.

The workshop brought together over 40 members of the Technical Working Group, established by the Mayor’s Office of Bishkek.  The group discussed the resilience challenges and the city’s progress across 47 indicators of the Preliminary Disaster Resilience Scorecard. The Scorecards have been used across the globe as tools to assess urban resilience. The results of assessments are used as the baseline for the development of local strategies.

Mr Almabek Aidakeev, Head of the National DRR Platform Secretariat under the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic emphasized that “Today we have gathered here to take the first steps to assess the city’s resilience for the development of the local disaster resilience strategy and action plan for Bishkek. We face challenges: the city is developing very rapidly, the social infrastructure lags behind in the process of urbanization. To ensure urban development in an effective manner it is necessary to assess the baseline, to explore the best practices and take into account the lessons learned so that we do not repeat other cities’ mistakes.”

The Mayor’s Office of Bishkek and UNDRR also invited the civil society organisations to the assessment as co-facilitators, including participation from the organisations such as Nash Vek on promoting sustainable development and Rescuers Union working with the government authorities on the emergency first aid. The organisations welcomed the involvement of civil society in the process and highlighted that the Technical Working Group demonstrated strong commitment to reducing disaster risk in Bishkek.

Ms. Anna Soltysik-Pawlic, Programme Manager from the European Union Delegation to Kyrgyzstan highlighted that “As losses associated with natural events and pandemic continue to increase, the decisions that are being made now on the disaster risk reduction and resilience planning for Bishkek are vital for increasing disaster and climate resilience”.

Mr. Abdurahim Muhidov, Programme Coordinator at UNDRR on the Central Asia Initiative emphasized that “with the growing impacts of climate change, this meeting is an important step forward in ensuring the future resilience of Bishkek against disaster risk”.

The work is undertaken through the project “Strengthening disaster resilience and accelerating implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia” funded by the European Union. In 2021 Bishkek joined the global initiative Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) as part of actions on strengthening resilience.

UNDRR will continue to support the city administration of Bishkek and all relevant stakeholders on disaster risk reduction.

Background information

The EU-funded project “Strengthening disaster resilience and accelerating the implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia”, implemented by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), supports countries of the region in implementing the Sendai Framework priorities.  The project supports strengthening regional coordination, development of regional DRR strategy, national disaster loss accounting systems, and community-level disaster risk reduction. On the local level, the project supports the development of disaster resilience strategies of capital cities. For this project, the EU committed EUR 3,750,000 for the three-year implementation.

MCR2030 is a global partnership of key partners with expertise and networks across urban resilience, DRR, climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals to bring synergized collaboration. The MCR2030 initiative builds on a decade-long of advocacy and capacity-building work that reached more than 4,000 cities across the globe within the network of the Making Cities Resilient Campaign. The initiative seeks to provide guidance and support to enhance understanding of risk reduction and resilience, to improve strategic planning and build resilience, as well as to take actions. It supports, connects, and facilitates resilience-building, offering a range of tools and services including peer-learning and knowledge exchange amongst cities.

For additional information please contact:

Ms. Yerkezhan Amriyeva, Communications specialist, EU Delegation to Kazakhstan, at: [email protected]    

Mr. Abdurahim Muhidov, UNDRR Regional Programme Coordinator, at: [email protected]