Making Cities Resilient Report 2012

CHAPTER 3 | Key Trends on Resilience-Building in Cities
Box 3.1 : Community engagement and dencentralisation in San Francisco,
Cebu, Philippines
San Francisco is a small island municipality within the Camotes Island group, which is part of the province
of Cebu. It consists of 15 barangays (12 are coastal), which cover a total of 10,597ha. The municipality has
a total low-density population of 48,834 (2007). The town has received numerous awards and international
accolades for its work in DRR and resilience. The former Mayor and current Vice Mayor, Alfredo Arquillano,
cites this success to a youth and community –centered engagement approach, which integrates DRR into
environmental and social development programmes, which prioritise selected resilience targets that are
practical and tangible in the eyes of the local community. These include solid waste management, tree
planting, mangrove rehabilitation and integrated farming. Children and youth are engaged in all aspects of
resilience building. For example, student leaders participate in local government decision making through
the Local Disaster Coordinating Council (LDCC). There are child-led risk assessments and an early warning
system, and children participate in community drills and simulation exercises. Out-of-school youth have
participated in training exercises on search and rescue, emergency response and swimming. Together,
these approaches aim to address disaster risk, social vulnerability and environmental sustainability in a
mutually reinforcing way.
Resilience building has also been aided by a decentralized governance system. Since 2004, Puroks,
the community group structure below the village-level Barangays, consisting of between 40 and 100
households, each have an elected President who leads a monthly community meeting. The regularity
of these meetings ensures on-going community consultation and continuous education about current
risks and community activities. Participation and commitment are incentivized through cash awards
available to high-achieving Puroks that deliver on their key objectives (which include meeting regularly
and complying with guidelines around segregated waste and maintaining backyard gardens). They are
encouraged to use this capital either as reinvestment, to establish micro-finance lending systems to
stimulate and support the local economy, or as savings in case of emergencies. The Purok system has
been important in mobilizing and empowering communities by connecting them into a wider model of
participatory governance. The system undergoes regular evaluation to ensure continuous improvement,
using indicators developed to measure success.
Another characteristic of early resilience building in some low-capacity contexts is activities driven
by central government supported by multi-lateral agencies, rather than from within city or municipal
governments themselves. In both Pakistan and Rwanda, early resilience building is initiated through a topdown
process in association with UNISDR and UN-Habitat. This may be a reflection of the current weakness
of local government authorities in these countries, and the low capacity of national government, which
require support and resources from outside agencies. The evident commitment to risk reduction from
national government in these cases will hopefully facilitate resilience building at municipal level, by
decentralising resources and providing a supportive legislative framework.
The main advantage, in terms of resilience, of an
urban context that enjoys a higher level of socioeconomic
development is the availability of more
resources and funding for complex hazard management,
forecasting and early warning systems. Venice,
for example, has a high level of socio-economic
development and a sophisticated hazard mitigation
system: the MOSE system (Box 3.2).
“Changing attitudes and behaviours is a
tough undertaking, but I never give up. It’s
necessary to start small and with those
who are willing. You have to show people
actions with high impact, and then they
will join the effort and become organised.
It took me five years to accomplish that.”
Alfredo Arquillano, Vice Mayor,
San Francisco, Philippines
Making Cities Resilient Report 2012 | 35