Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

280
Towards safer and more secure cities
The Habitat Agenda
… includes disaster
risk reduction
amongst its
commitments for
action
• Investment in disaster-proof infrastructure, including the
application of disaster standards in new building and
retrofitting existing buildings and infrastructure. This is a
particularly important task for rapidly growing cities
since uncontrolled urban growth increases vulnerability
to disasters. Risk assessments, land-use planning and
construction standards are identified as key components
of any urban risk reduction strategy.
• The protection of livelihoods. Social safety nets to
safeguard livelihoods and lives during slow-onset disaster
or during protected periods of recovery are
supported, with employment guarantees and microfinance
schemes suggested as appropriate for urban
contexts.
• Governments investment in building and strengthening
national and local early warning systems to monitor
conditions and provide advance warning of potential
disasters. Surveillance systems can include field
monitoring, remote sensing and meteorological
forecasting. Public information campaigns are important
for raising awareness of the risks of natural disasters
and adequate responses.
• Emergency preparedness and contingency plans are
needed to minimize loss and maximize efficiency and
equity in post-disaster relief and reconstruction. Plans
should include strategies for evacuation, emergency
safety zones, insurance schemes, and the pre-location
and financing of humanitarian resources for rapid distribution.
As part of their contingency plans, governments
must establish mechanisms for delivering emergency
services after a disaster has occurred, especially
immediate healthcare, to prevent the outbreak of
diseases among displaced populations. Developed
Box 12.2 The Habitat Agenda: International commitments
for action to reduce urban disaster risk
The following commitments directly address disaster risk reduction. Many other commitments
for action impact indirectly upon vulnerability and risk through targeting urban poverty, infrastructure
and service provision, pollution, land-use planning and urban governance.
Commitment 40 (l):
Promoting shelter and supporting basic services and facilities for education and health
for the homeless, displaced persons, indigenous people, women and children who are
survivors of family violence, persons with disabilities, older persons, victims of natural
and man-made disasters and people belonging to vulnerable and disadvantaged
groups, including temporary shelter and basic services for refugees.
Commitment 43 (z):
Preventing man-made disasters, including major technological disasters, by ensuring
adequate regulatory and other measures to avoid their occurrence, and reducing the
impacts of natural disasters and other emergencies on human settlements, inter alia,
through appropriate planning mechanisms and resources for rapid people-centred
responses that promote a smooth transition from relief, through rehabilitation, to
reconstruction and development, taking into account cultural and sustainable dimensions;
and rebuilding disaster-affected settlements in a manner that reduces future
disaster-related risks and makes the rebuilt settlements accessible to all.
Source: Habitat Agenda, 1996
countries should establish a far more systematic financial
mechanism for disaster response, including
contingent credit investments for individual countries.
The Habitat Agenda
The 1996 Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements 8
endorses ‘the universal goals of ensuring adequate shelter
for all and making human settlements safer, healthier and
more liveable, equitable, sustainable and productive’. In
particular, paragraph 4 reaffirms commitment to integrated
urban development:
To improve the quality of life within human
settlements, we must combat the deterioration
of conditions that, in most cases, particularly in
developing countries, have reached crisis
proportions. To this end, we must address
comprehensively … planning; growing insecurity
and violence; environmental degradation;
and increased vulnerability to disasters.
This integrated approach to urbanization presented in the
Habitat Agenda is entirely compatible with disaster risk
reduction, which takes disaster risk to be a product of the
unsustainable trends identified in paragraph 4 of the
Istanbul Declaration. The United Nations General Assembly
Resolution S25.2 of 9 June 2001 9 reaffirmed that the
Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda provide the
basic framework for future sustainable human settlements
development.
The Habitat Agenda is the sister document to the
Istanbul Declaration and the main political document directing
international work on urban development. The
document recognizes the World Conference on Natural
Disaster Reduction (which took place in Yokohama, in 1994)
and includes disaster risk reduction among its commitments
for action (see Box 12.2). In addition to commitments, some
31 recommendations are made that cover all aspects of disaster
risk reduction, including building partnerships between
local organizations, government and the international
community; risk mapping (including hazardous waste);
investing in human capital for risk management; emergency
planning; early warning; land-use planning, including the
location of dangerous industrial plants; recognizing the
needs of women and children; and planning for reconstruction.
As the leading United Nations agency for human
settlements issues, UN-Habitat has a commitment to reduce
disaster risk and build this into the reconstruction of human
settlements. It seeks to influence partners and, in particular,
to provide guidance at the national level, as well as through
urban professional practice. Building on the commitments of
the Habitat Agenda and on dialogue with its partners during
the second and third World Urban Forums (2004 and 2006,
respectively), UN-Habitat has developed a conceptual
Framework for Sustainable Relief and Reconstruction. This
framework identifies priority areas for action in making
urban areas more resilient in the face of disaster risk (see
Box 12.3).