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Mitigating the impacts of disasters279Box 12.1 National initiatives to integrate urban disaster risk reduction and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)With international support, national planning forurban development has begun to integrate disasterrisk reduction and the Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs). The following cases are indicative ofsuch integrated work.MDG 1: Eradicating extreme poverty andhunger.In India, the Self-Employed Women’s Association(SEWA), a trade union representing low-incomeinformal-sector women workers, offers its membersa variety of micro-insurance packages. Over tenyears, 2000 women have received US$327,400 inclaims. Following the 2001 Gujarat earthquake,SEWA provided insurance benefits and microfinanceto regenerate destroyed livelihoods, homes, workingcapital and assets. Within two weeks, SEWA’s insuranceteam surveyed over 2500 insured members’claims of damage and asset loss, mainly destructionof houses.MDG 2: Universal primary education.Colombia has linked achieving MDG 2 directly withseismic vulnerability analysis of a school buildingprogramme in the capital city, Bogotá. Thisprogramme was developed by Proyectos y DiseñosLtda 6 in April 2000. The programme developed arisk evaluation methodology that staff in theEducation Ministry were trained to implement.Primary evaluations were then conducted in allschools to determine seismic vulnerability. Prioritiesamong individual schools were subsequentlyassigned according to available budgets. In somecases, more detailed vulnerability analyses and structuralretrofitting studies were conducted.MDG 3: Promoting gender equality andempowering women.In Armenia, the non-governmental organization(NGO) Women for Development has partneredother agencies in a national survey for seismicprotection and has worked towards includingseismic protection courses in school curricula. Thishas enabled the inclusion of education games andcontributed to a greater acceptance of women’sparticipation as specialists in a wide range of disasterreduction and response activities where men traditionallydominate, including vulnerability and impactsurveying, academic work, emergency services andcivil protection.MDG 6: Combating infectious diseases.Tajikistan has integrated this goal with risk reductionthrough the Dushanbe Water ContaminationResponse Programme sponsored by the EuropeanCommission’s Humanitarian Aid Department(ECHO). This programme aims to improve theaccess of targeted health facilities to safe andpotable water supply in the capital city, as well astheir disease outbreak response capacity. Theprogramme directly addresses MDG 6, which dealswith the containment of infectious diseases, byincreasing preparedness and response levels in caseof a possible disaster. It seeks to build communitycapacity for self-management of health needs byimproving public awareness in the prevention ofwater-borne diseases.MDG 7: Ensuring environmentalsustainability.As part of its efforts towards meeting target 11,which is on slums, UN-Habitat is active in applyinginclusive strategies to support slum upgrading and,where appropriate, as a mechanism for risk reduction.In Mozambique, rapid unplanned urbanizationhas brought flood-prone land into residential use inMaputo, a city where more than 70 per cent of thepopulation live in slums. Here, slum upgrading hasfostered risk reduction. The wider programmesupported training and capacity-building, participatoryland-use planning and physical interventions atthe local level. Local government and communitygroups, as well as state ministries, participated. Thisinclusive approach was instrumental in leading to therevision of planning regulations, and a movementaway from dealing with floods through reactiveemergency management, towards a more proactiveand developmental approach.MDG 8: Developing global partnerships fordevelopment.In Turkey, in partnership with the World Bank,ProVention Consortium has been promoting bestpractice examples of disaster mitigation and futurecost reductions through measures such as a US$505million reconstruction loan to Turkey that includedmeasures to update and enforce building codes.Poor quality construction was responsible for manyof the lives lost during the 1999 Marmaraearthquake. The reconstruction programme willintroduce better planning for land use (possible linksto MDGs) and requires compulsory insurance forhousing. Emergency response management will alsobe upgraded.Source: ISDR, undated a, undated b; Spaliviero, 2006reduce the impact of climate variables, such as El Niñoand La Niña;• encouraging governments to address the problemscreated by megacities, the location of settlements inhigh-risk areas and other human-made determinants ofdisasters;• encouraging governments to incorporate disaster riskreduction within national planning processes, includingbuilding codes.Disaster risk reduction cuts across each of the eight MDGs,but is not identified as a separate target for action. This hasreduced the visibility of risk reduction to some degree.However, the importance of integrating risk reduction withsafeguard gains from disaster loss has become increasinglyapparent. A number of international organizations – such asthe United Nations International Strategy for DisasterReduction (ISDR), 3 the UK Department for InternationalDevelopment (DFID) 4 and the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) 5 – have reviewed the ways in which riskreduction can contribute towards meeting the MDGs.The ISDR has surveyed disaster risk reduction strategiesthat have been designed purposely to contribute tomeeting individual MDG targets. Box 12.1 presents some ofthese findings that draw from urban projects andprogrammes. In addition to direct contributions towardsachieving individual MDGs, reducing disaster impacts freesup resources, including overseas development aid.In 2005, progress towards meeting the MDGs wasreviewed by the independent United Nations MillenniumProject. 7 The resulting report recognizes that disasters are aserious impediment to meeting the MDGs. It calls for themainstreaming of risk reduction strategies within MDGbasedpoverty reduction strategies. The report recommendsfour pathways for achieving better integration, all of whichhave relevance for urban disaster risk reduction:… disasters are aserious impedimentto meeting theMDGs