Cities emerge top in UN’s Sasakawa Award for risk reduction

Four African towns commit to urban resilience

THE cities of San Francisco (Philippines), Santa Fe (Argentina), and District of North Vancouver (Canada), were unveiled as winners of the United Nations-Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction last week at a special ceremony on the second last day of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva.

San Francisco, a small coastal city prone to typhoons, won US$25,000, and was chosen for its innovative use of the Purok system, a traditional method of self-organisation within villages where members voluntarily contribute to a money bank used by those in need of emergency funds after a disaster. Also, with limited access to the Internet, cellphones and radios, the Purok system is used to disseminate information and risk assessments, with Purok coordinators acting as couriers of information to residents.

One of two cities receiving US$12,500 was Santa Fe, a city frequently hit by floods, which was recognised for effectively communicating risk to everyday citizens. In areas with many informal settlers, several thousand have been “regularised” and given certificates of occupancy, debt cancellation certificates and sale contracts for their homes. Scores of families in zones not protected by flood embankments have been relocated in this way.

The District of North Vancouver, which experienced a landslide in 2005, also received US$12,500. Mayor Richard Walton from the District of North Vancouver impressed delegates of the Global Platform at the Ignite Stage with his presentation on the city’s GIS (Geographic Information System) Website, where the public can access mapping, census, land, environmental, zoning, building and other valuable information that is stored in the District’s GIS. The city’s stated goal – acknowledged by the jury – is to provide “as much information where possible to our community.”

Other winners included the city of Bhubaneswar (India), and the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, ERRA, an initiative of the Pakistan Government with support from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), which both received a letter of recommendation. The Coordination Centre for Natural Disaster Prevention in Central America, CEPREDENAC, which is based in Guatemala, received a letter of merit.

“Each of the finalists have had a history of engaging in disaster risk reduction regardless of whether it was fashionable at the time or not,” said Margareta Wahlström. “Remarkably, they continued to engage in it even if funding was scarce, demonstrating their durability and a sense of innovation and commitment about how to make disaster risk reduction work even with limited resources.”

The winners were picked out of a pool of 25 nominees, by an independent jury of for eminent disaster risk reduction experts from the Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe, after three days of deliberation in Geneva, in April.

The ceremony was hosted by Swiss broadcast journalist Michel Cerutti, and the awards were handed out by Mayor Khalifa Sall from Dakar, Senegal, whose city is part of the UNISDR-led “Making Cities Resilient” campaign.

Earlier, four cities – Addis Ababa, Kampala, Narok and Yaoundé, had joined the Making Cities Resilience campaign after their mayors took part in a debate on city resilience recently, moderated by top Kenyan journalist Yvonne Okwara.

A representative from Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI ), an association of over 1,220 local government officials from over 70 countries, was also part of the panel.

Panellists pointed to poor planning, corruption, and negative attitudes as elements that could erode city resilience. They said the way to advance disaster risk reduction was to raise public awareness, stimulate stronger political commitment and to cultivate partnerships for cities to learn from each other and improve the awareness on urban disaster risk and solutions.

“The challenges faced by my city and other cities in Africa include high poverty and rapid urbanization, which puts pressure on existing infrastructure and informal settlements. Often, other priorities are addressed at the expense of disaster preparedness,” said Mr. Samuel Okello the Mayor of Kisumu (Kenya), who is also the new campaign champion.

“We will now review our strategic plan for the city to include disaster risk reduction and the ten essentials of the campaign. But we also need a system to monitor progress on how we perform,” added Okello.

City officials suggested that the “Making Cities Resilient” campaign be used to raise the awareness of both politicians and the public, so that its “ten essential actions” are incorporated into city planning and budgeting processes throughout the continent. National authorities dealing with local and urban development should also be involved in recruiting cities to join the campaign, they added.

Panellists also stressed the importance of transparency and the need to combat corruption.“One of the biggest impediments in addressing urban sustainability is corruption and the general lack of political buy-in,” said Ms. Allen Kisige, representing Kampala City Council.

Over 600 local governments are already part of “Making Cities Resilient,” bringing UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction UNISDR – which administers the campaign – ever closer to its goal: forming a global network of cities of different sizes, characteristics, risk profiles and locations to implement disaster risk reduction measures. As part of its work to raise political commitment for the cause, UNISDR carries out public awareness activities to spur political commitment for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation among local governments and mayors.

Helena Molin-Valdes, Deputy Director of UNISDR, who was present at the debate, said: “We invite national and regional authorities to join the campaign, ‘Making Cities Resilient Campaign — My City is Getting Ready,’ and to lend support to cities and local governments as they improve their capacity to reduce disaster risk.”