MEDIA ALERT - Disaster Management Institute South Africa

The South African National Disaster Management Centre has introduced Phase 2 of the International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction Campaign theme for 2010-2015: “Making Cities (Municipalities)
Resilient: My City (Municipality) Is Getting Ready” (to implement DRR) at the DMISA Conference
2012. The campaign strategy is that it should aim at creating an enabling environment of risk
reduction at local level through the following strategic approaches:
Political dimension: to attain commitments at local and national level to reduce disaster risk in
a sustainable way by increasing investments within existing development programmes and
budgets.
Technical dimension: to facilitate the implementation of disaster risk reduction measures in
municipal planning and implementation (i.e. through IDPs, compliance with building codes,
etc).
Communications/Advocacy dimension: to enhance awareness about disaster risk among
different stakeholders, including local leaders, communities and other role players.
The Campaign Partners and Target Audience:
Primary audience:
• Municipal structures: A Municipal planning process should be participatory, allowing all
stakeholders to consider how best to integrate disaster risk reduction elements and the ‘ten
essentials’ into their development plans and activities.
(http://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/toolkit/essentials)
• Communities, civil society formations, Non-Governmental Organizations/Community Based
Organizations, Faith Based Organizations can play a major role through “community action
planning”. The importance of participative, community-based approaches is generally
acknowledged in the fields of development, disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and
recovery measures.
Secondary audience:
• National and provincial government:
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To develop appropriate policies and legislative frameworks.
To build adequate capacity and allocate resources.
To involve non-state actors to support implementation.
• Academic institutions:
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To design and implement DRM/R education and training programmes.
Awareness creation on DRM/R issues.
Development and roll-out of advocacy, awareness and research programmes.
Knowledge management and advisory services (i.e. information and advisory services).
• DRM professional bodies such as DMISA
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
OPENING CEREMON Y
Candle ceremony and moment of silent reflection
DR MAL REDDY: PRESIDENT: DMISA