Background

 

Over the past 20 years, disasters have affected 4.4 billion people, causing USD 2 trillion of damage and killing 1.3 million people. Over 95% of people killed by disasters are from developing countries. The Asia and the Pacific region is the world’s most vulnerable region when it comes to weather-induced natural hazards. According to the World Disaster Report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, as many as 85 % of the people reported as affected by disasters belonged to the Asia and the Pacific region.  
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While vulnerability to weather-induced hazards is on the rise, cities ​are particularly vulnerable. Today, 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66% by 2050. Rising sea levels, storm surges, floods and droughts have enormous impacts in urban areas, which are likely to intensify over time. Unfortunately, planning and development of cities has given little consideration to the consequences of climate-related and natural hazards. This requires countries to focus their collective energies to create a safer world for urban dwellers and develop a series of innovative approaches to address these challenges. In this regard, building resilience and adapting to climate change is crucial for cities, especially those in the Asia and the Pacific region.
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Better urban planning and management is imperative to reduce disaster risk and climate change impacts in cities. Efforts to build resilience in urban areas can benefit from integrating climate change adaptation with existing disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts and development planning processes. Doing so demands new approaches, mechanisms, sets of skills and competencies to ensure increasing public support and political commitment. Lack of knowledge on the subject, insufficient government commitment, and inadequate integration of climate change adaptation and DRR issues into governmental and organizational strategies are among key challenges to address.

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About the Training Programme​

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A practical Regional Training Workshop will be convened to assist city governments in building greater resilience to climate and disaster risks by integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into wider city development plans and strategies.  

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This workshop has been designed and will be executed by the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific at the Asian Institute of Technology (RRCAP-AIT) with partners. Financial support for the event is provided by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ).

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 Objectives

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• To enhance cities and local governments' capacities to effectively develop and implementing city resilience action plans;

• To provide a space for in-depth learning, knowledge sharing and exchange of good practices among participants, and a venue for city-to-city cooperation for building resilience in cities, by integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction principles into cities' wider development strategies, policies, plans and programmes;

• To integrate information and contact details of participants trained at this workshop, together with the tools, materials, case studies, assessment reports, and action plans with the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Information Platform (AP-PLAT), , to ensure open data access.

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Expected Results

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Upon the completion of the regional training workshop, participants will have:

• Acquired skills in conducting city vulnerability assessment and drafting Resilient City Action Plans;

• Developed Draft City Resilience Assessment Reports

• Developed Draft City Resilience Action Plans

• Elaborated Draft Strategy/Roadmaps on how to finalize, ensure endorsement and implement the Resilient City Action Plans

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The Asia-Pacific Adaptation Information Platform (AP-PLAT) website will be used for hosting and storing learning materials, case studies and tools to ensure knowledge sharing to all countries in the Asia and the Pacific region.

Targeted Training Participants

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High-level authorities and experts from national and local city governments, Civil Society Organisations, cities’ and mayors’ associations, Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation experts and consultants who are involved with planning and advising on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework at local level.

Methodology and Training Approaches

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This regional training workshop will utilize a two-tier approach:

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• to provide participants with a solid theoretical basis from which to approach the issues;

• to enable participants to apply the acquired knowledge through practical exercises and group work. 

 

The training workshop will be based on principles of adult learning and comprise a combination of content presentations, panel discussions, group work exercises to master the use of proposed tools and approaches as well as peer-to-peer learning through sharing of good practices, experiences and lessons learned in the local or country context. 

 

The training workshop is designed in a way to model a variety of effective and interactive learning methodologies, including demonstrations, practices, group exercises and discussion, brainstorming, presentation of case studies, role play, games and quizzes.

 

Proposed tools to be introduced and used at the workshop include:

• Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities (a tool for disaster resilience assessment, analysis and planning)

• Country and City Resilience Action Planning Template/Matrix

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