Disaster-reduction seminar for cities wraps up in Makati

MANILA, Philippines - A two-day seminar on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) hosted by Makati City ended Wednesday with a presentation of a four-year strategic action plan on disaster management for the years 2013 to 2016.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay, 2nd Vice President of CityNet, said the action plan would be presented to key representatives of international organizations, including World Bank, Asian Development Bank and its Cities Development Initiative for Asia, UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

CityNet, with headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, was formed in 1987 and has more than 100 member-cities in over 20 countries. It has facilitated more than 500 exchanges among local governments and organizations in the Asia-Pacific region. Makati City is the head of the Disaster Cluster of CityNet and a member of CityNet for 12 years since 1990.

CityNet is also an Asia-Pacific regional network of local authorities committed to helping local governments solve challenges commonly faced by cities in working towards a livable, sustainable and healthy environment.

Binay said the workshop participants discussed key areas identified last July during a meeting of the Disaster Cluster in Sidoarjo, Indonesia, to include Early Warning Systems, Tools on Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction on Land Use Plans, and preparedness systems for local governments, such as the Local Government Self-Assessment Tool (LGSAT) and Climate and Disaster Resilience Initiative (CDRI).

“This strategic planning workshop has given CityNet member-cities the opportunity to share our best practices, which is the fastest and most effective tool in transmitting knowledge and technology. We have much to learn from the experience of those that have attained some degree of resiliency after implementing certain DRRM initiatives,” Binay said.

The two-day workshop program included the sharing of best practices, a visit to Barangay San Lorenzo to showcase a Community-Based DRRM Sound Initiative, a real-time video conference of participants with Kyoto University and World Bank TDLC in Tokyo, and the workshop proper and presentation of its output-plan for 2013-2016.

The workshop participants include delegates from Baguio City, Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka City North Corporation (Bangladesh), Hue (Vietnam), Iloilo City, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Marikina City, MuAn (Nepal), Muntinlupa City, Quezon City, San Fernando in La Union, Sukabumi (Indonesia), Suwon (Korea) and Yokohama (Japan). From the host city, Makati, representatives from the Office of the Mayor have joined City Councilors, barangay officials, department heads and concerned city government personnel in the workshop.

Binay said the delegates also visited Barangay San Lorenzo in Makati  to learn about its community-based DRRM initiative.

Binay said an important strategy in disaster resiliency and management is the empowerment of the small units of the local government, such as the barangays or villages in the case of the Philippines.

“They should be provided with infastructural, logistical and financial support so that they will be able to contribute to the overall DRRM efforts of the city,” he said.

Binay also noted that the city’s pioneering initiatives have received international recognition and are benchmarked by local governments worldwide.

Makati City won the City-to-City Cooperation Award on its World Bank funded Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery South-South Cooperation Program given by CityNet on July 11 during the celebration of its 25th anniversary at Surabaya, Indonesia. The city hosted the third and final leg of the study visit and residency training under the City-to-City Sharing Initiative, exchanging best practices with delegates from Quito, Ecuador and Kathmandu, Nepal.

Makati was recognized by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) as “Role Model City” and “Campaign Champion for Making Cities Resilient” in May 2011, and as one of “East Asia’s Climate Resilient Cities” by the World Bank (WB) in 2008. Recently, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the secretariat of UNISDR, cited Makati as one of the 29 model communities in the world that are “exemplars in disaster risk management and reduction.”