USAID Supports the United Nations’ Campaign for Resilient Cities

The United Nations' Making Cities Resilient Campaign involves over 1,550 cities in over 94 countries committed to incorporating “resilience” into city management practices.  In Bangkok on October 29-31, the USAID-funded Mekong Building Climate Resilience in Asian Cities (M-BRACE) program participated in the Campaign’s steering committee meeting, co-hosted by the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Asia Disaster Reduction and Response Network.

M-BRACE has been supporting UNISDR in rolling out the Local Government Self-Assessment Tool for facilitating city stakeholder dialogue and assessing institutional capacity for disaster risk reduction and climate change resilience.  M-BRACE has already rolled out the tool in Hue and Lao Cai, Vietnam and Udon Thani, Thailand, providing an institutional capacity benchmark to help identify priority resilience actions in those cities.  

At the steering committee meeting, members agreed to promote use of the tool in other cities. They also prioritized contributing to the UNISDR State of Disaster Risk Reduction at the Local Level Report 2014, which will inform the post-2015 international agreements on disaster risk reduction.

Source: USAID/RDMA Regional Environment Office Weekly Update