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280Towards safer and more secure citiesThe Habitat Agenda… includes disasterrisk reductionamongst itscommitments foraction• Investment in disaster-proof infrastructure, including theapplication of disaster standards in new building andretrofitting existing buildings and infrastructure. This is aparticularly important task for rapidly growing citiessince uncontrolled urban growth increases vulnerabilityto disasters. Risk assessments, land-use planning andconstruction standards are identified as key componentsof any urban risk reduction strategy.• The protection of livelihoods. Social safety nets tosafeguard livelihoods and lives during slow-onset disasteror during protected periods of recovery aresupported, with employment guarantees and microfinanceschemes suggested as appropriate for urbancontexts.• Governments investment in building and strengtheningnational and local early warning systems to monitorconditions and provide advance warning of potentialdisasters. Surveillance systems can include fieldmonitoring, remote sensing and meteorologicalforecasting. Public information campaigns are importantfor raising awareness of the risks of natural disastersand adequate responses.• Emergency preparedness and contingency plans areneeded to minimize loss and maximize efficiency andequity in post-disaster relief and reconstruction. Plansshould include strategies for evacuation, emergencysafety zones, insurance schemes, and the pre-locationand financing of humanitarian resources for rapid distribution.As part of their contingency plans, governmentsmust establish mechanisms for delivering emergencyservices after a disaster has occurred, especiallyimmediate healthcare, to prevent the outbreak ofdiseases among displaced populations. DevelopedBox 12.2 The Habitat Agenda: International commitmentsfor action to reduce urban disaster riskThe following commitments directly address disaster risk reduction. Many other commitmentsfor action impact indirectly upon vulnerability and risk through targeting urban poverty, infrastructureand service provision, pollution, land-use planning and urban governance.Commitment 40 (l):Promoting shelter and supporting basic services and facilities for education and healthfor the homeless, displaced persons, indigenous people, women and children who aresurvivors of family violence, persons with disabilities, older persons, victims of naturaland man-made disasters and people belonging to vulnerable and disadvantagedgroups, including temporary shelter and basic services for refugees.Commitment 43 (z):Preventing man-made disasters, including major technological disasters, by ensuringadequate regulatory and other measures to avoid their occurrence, and reducing theimpacts of natural disasters and other emergencies on human settlements, inter alia,through appropriate planning mechanisms and resources for rapid people-centredresponses that promote a smooth transition from relief, through rehabilitation, toreconstruction and development, taking into account cultural and sustainable dimensions;and rebuilding disaster-affected settlements in a manner that reduces futuredisaster-related risks and makes the rebuilt settlements accessible to all.Source: Habitat Agenda, 1996countries should establish a far more systematic financialmechanism for disaster response, includingcontingent credit investments for individual countries.The Habitat AgendaThe 1996 Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements 8endorses ‘the universal goals of ensuring adequate shelterfor all and making human settlements safer, healthier andmore liveable, equitable, sustainable and productive’. Inparticular, paragraph 4 reaffirms commitment to integratedurban development:To improve the quality of life within humansettlements, we must combat the deteriorationof conditions that, in most cases, particularly indeveloping countries, have reached crisisproportions. To this end, we must addresscomprehensively … planning; growing insecurityand violence; environmental degradation;and increased vulnerability to disasters.This integrated approach to urbanization presented in theHabitat Agenda is entirely compatible with disaster riskreduction, which takes disaster risk to be a product of theunsustainable trends identified in paragraph 4 of theIstanbul Declaration. The United Nations General AssemblyResolution S25.2 of 9 June 2001 9 reaffirmed that theIstanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda provide thebasic framework for future sustainable human settlementsdevelopment.The Habitat Agenda is the sister document to theIstanbul Declaration and the main political document directinginternational work on urban development. Thedocument recognizes the World Conference on NaturalDisaster Reduction (which took place in Yokohama, in 1994)and includes disaster risk reduction among its commitmentsfor action (see Box 12.2). In addition to commitments, some31 recommendations are made that cover all aspects of disasterrisk reduction, including building partnerships betweenlocal organizations, government and the internationalcommunity; risk mapping (including hazardous waste);investing in human capital for risk management; emergencyplanning; early warning; land-use planning, including thelocation of dangerous industrial plants; recognizing theneeds of women and children; and planning for reconstruction.As the leading United Nations agency for humansettlements issues, UN-Habitat has a commitment to reducedisaster risk and build this into the reconstruction of humansettlements. It seeks to influence partners and, in particular,to provide guidance at the national level, as well as throughurban professional practice. Building on the commitments ofthe Habitat Agenda and on dialogue with its partners duringthe second and third World Urban Forums (2004 and 2006,respectively), UN-Habitat has developed a conceptualFramework for Sustainable Relief and Reconstruction. Thisframework identifies priority areas for action in makingurban areas more resilient in the face of disaster risk (seeBox 12.3).