Making Cities Resilient Report 2012

CHAPTER 2 | How the Campaign is enabling cities to boost disaster risk reduction
HOW THE CAMPAIGN IS ENABLING CITIES TO BOOST DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
The Making Cities Resilient Campaign is playing an important advocacy role for disaster risk reduction at
the global level, while presenting disaster risk information in an engaging and accessible format for local
leaders and providing them with essential resources to take stock of, and improve, their activities. This
Chapter outlines the value of the Campaign to date as an enabler of urban resilience building, based on the
evidence presented by cities and interviews with local governments conducted for this report.
Since its launch in May 2010, the Campaign has produced a number of tools to help local leaders assess,
monitor, document, and improve their disaster risk reduction activities. These include: the Ten Essentials
for Making Cities Resilient Checklist, the HFA Local Government Self-Assessment Tool, the Handbook for
Local Government Leaders on How to Make Cities More Resilient, and a comprehensive website 3 . The
Campaign has also engaged in a wide range of meetings and technical support activities with city leaders,
both internationally and at the regional level (see Annex 3 for a timeline of the Campaign’s activities).
In November 2011, a meeting of Campaign partners took place in Geneva, preceded by a survey of Campaign
partners and cities, which identified some of the Campaign’s strengths, achievements and challenges (see
Box 2.1).
Box 2.1: Cities recognise the added value of the Making Cities Resilient
Campaign
Representatives of cities who benefit directly from the Campaign, said its added value lies in:
• Enabling city authorities to gain greater visibility for work already being done on disaster risk
management and disaster risk reduction.
• Providing a framework for dialogue between stakeholders from different disciplines that supports
cities as they conduct disaster risk self-assessments.
• Creating a ready-made platform for city-to-city exchange at an international level.
• Enabling cities to receive recognition from UNISDR, through the Role Model City framework, the UN-
Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction, and other frameworks associated with the Campaign.
• Drawing media attention to disaster risk reduction, which in turn triggers greater accountability
among local government authorities as well as citizens.
For many cities, signing on to the Campaign and committing to its disaster risk reduction principles, which
are underpinned by national and international declarations, demonstrates a strong sign of political will.
The Campaign is also a powerful local recruiting tool, having brought disaster risk to the attention of a wide
range of stakeholders from a cross-section of legislative scales and sectors.
The straightforward simplicity of the Ten Essentials is a key strength of the Campaign. These guidelines
provide local leaders with a strategic framework to prioritise areas and approaches to disaster risk reduction
and to chart progress. Through its tools, resources, website, events and partnerships, the Campaign
provides a critical forum for local authorities to raise awareness, learn about disaster risk reduction, share
ideas, and identify concrete solutions. The association with a UN-affiliated global Campaign gives local
authorities at all levels a sense of empowerment, which, more often than not, is translating into tangible
actions and policies.
For cities that had not previously addressed disaster risks, the Campaign is an effective catalyst to begin
risk reduction planning. In Dubai, the Campaign has been instrumental is making disaster risk reduction
3. See www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcitie
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