Wrap-up of the Curriculum

Study Tour to Brazil on Climate DRR in Cities

The study tour ran from the 12th to the 20th of May, in Rio de Janeiro, with a focus on climate disaster risk reduction. The tour was a successful and rewarding experience, and we would like to share some information with you about the tour, and invite the ELLA participants to share their experiences and lessons learned. Please find attached a copy of the welcome pack giving details on each of the ELLA participants and local participants, and a summary of each of the meetings attended. Later, a report on the lessons learned from the study tour will be shared with all.

Charlotte and the ELLA Team

Related materials:

Study Tour Welcome Pack

Study Tour Daily Minutes


Wrap-up of the Curriculum

As the formal learning modules have been completed it is important for us to take stock of the Learning Alliance, to see what has been of the most value to you. We are interested in hearing about what you have liked about the Alliance and how it has impacted on your work.

We would like to take this opportunity to ask all you all to share with us, how you might put lessons learned from the ELLA Learning Alliance into practice or how you plan to collaborate with others on themes that we have discussed over the past 5 months. As you will remember we have looked at the role of different actors - from the government, through institutions, civil society, and down to community members. We have looked at steps that might be taken to improve urban climate resilience - including risk mapping, land-use planning, policy actions, DRR strategies, investments in sustainable infrastructure and resilient housing, and low-carbon development strategies. We have seen many good practices from a range of cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America, and many of you have already mentioned potential action plans and collaborations that you might embark upon. For those of you that have not, we would like to encourage you to think along these lines. We would like to have a little more detail on these onward plans.

Another very important point pertains to the continuity of this ELLA Learning Alliance and what we can do to continue to learn from one another in the coming months and years. Our formal learning programme has come to an end, but the alliance need not! The Networking Page will soon become the landing page for those that visit the site, and we will still have the opportunity to share documents and ideas with one another. If, however, you have any interest in keeping a structured learning exchange going and any ideas about about how we might do this in collaboration, we would be very glad to hear from you.

In summary, this week, we are interested to hear from you about:

1) How the ELLA Learning Alliance has inspired you

2) Any actions that you plan to take or collaborations that you plan to embark upon as a result of the Learning Alliance

3) Any suggestions as to how we might give a structure to our exchange now that the curriculum has been completed

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA team

 

Week 10: Summary and conclusion

Thank you all for the interesting discussion about infrastructural weaknesses in your cities. Although we heard of relatively few actions in place to improve infrastructure and make it more resilient to climate change, we did hear many suggestions that would help to improve existing weaknesses. We hope that you found the case studies and supplementary reading useful when thinking about potential solutions for your cities.

The required infrastructural improvements identified by participants were common across Africa, Asia and Latin America. These areas included:
- Water supply, treatment and distribution
- Sanitation, waste disposal and drainage systems
- Roads and transportation
- Electricity
- Housing and other buildings

When analysing the reasons for infrastructural weaknesses, an overriding message from the discussion was that infrastructure across these regions was poorly planned. Infrastructure that has been in place for decades and centuries was not designed for the reality of today; and new infrastructure that is developed often does not take environmental considerations into account – looking primarily to fulfil the present needs of the population without thinking about long-term sustainability.

Participants from Bangladesh and India explained that a major cause of the need to improve infrastructure comes from the fact that today demand for infrastructure far exceeds the capacity for which it was designed. In addition to that, in many cases, populations have rapidly settled in areas in a disorganised manner, making the installation of infrastructure challenging and also putting this infrastructure at high risk (i.e. by settling in flood prone areas). Some of you noted that the rising number of migrants in cities is something that was not planned for when infrastructure was designed.

Many of you agreed that infrastructure in your cities is outdated; a participant from Ghana explained that some infrastructure dates back to colonial times. There were many suggestions about the need to upgrade infrastructure and employ innovative technologies. Participants from Bangladesh, Ghana and Zimbabwe pointed out that the problem is not just that the infrastructure is old, but rather that it is not properly maintained. Many of you also commented on the lack of public awareness about how certain infrastructure operates, and that as times it is the local inhabitants that exacerbate existing weaknesses. One participant from South Africa commented that street cleaners sometimes sweep waste into drains thereby blocking them.

When speaking of the construction of new infrastructure two main weaknesses were identified: 1) weak planning and lack of integration, and 2) lack of finance. It was felt that a lack of coordination between stakeholders has been a major setback, as has the fact that climate change and sustainability considerations are not integrated into infrastructural design. Thus new infrastructure quickly becomes outdated or is recognised as being inefficient. Lack of finance was identified as a major barrier, which might be overcome by political will or international support. One participant from Peru spoke of how corruption often leads to the employment of lower quality materials in order to increase profit margins, thus resulting in non-resilient infrastructure.

Thinking about how to encourage ‘no-regrets’ investments in infrastructure, participants suggested the following:
- Improve awareness among leaders and the general populace
- Through advocacy show that prevention is more efficient than response, also share successful case stories from other cities
- Gain political support for development with climate change considerations in mind
- Develop an integrated strategic city development plan
- A multi-stakeholder group, that is devoid of partisanship, should work on plans and action

Additionally, some of you mentioned other means to improve the resilience of infrastructure. Suggestions included
- Sensitisation and behavioural change regarding waste management
- Employment of renewable energy sources
- Introduction, or amplification, of resilient building codes
- Improvement of natural protection through bio-engineering and the strategical plantation of shrubs and trees

Exisiting programmes to improve the resilience of infrastructure included:

Building: Ghana Green Building Council, which is working with local partners to improve the sustainability of buildings. In India, in the city of Bhuj, buildings were retrofitted following an earth quake. A participant from Zimbabwe also spoke of projects to employ eco-friendly building materials.

Energy: Ghana also has a project know as Sustainable Energy for All, which is working to encourage the employment of renewable energy sources and reduce the use of coal and charcoal.

Waste: The Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) assisted the city of Chennai with a pre-feasibility study for improving waterways and solid waste management. Chennai corporation took these projects on and some actions have been taken to improve drainage and waste management, although there is limited capacity within the corporation.

Water: In Accra, Ghana there has been the construction of a new water treatment plant. In Harare, Zimbabwe there have been actions to replace piping in water distribution systems

We would like to invite you to comment upon this summary, or use this space to add any additional information that you did not have a chance to share during the course of the discussion.

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA Team

Week 12: Exercise

1) To what extent are you seeing low-carbon development initiatives taking place in your cities? Please share any innovative cases with us from your cities. 

Currently, there are not so much low-carbon development initiatives taking place in Ho Chi Minh city. I can name so far just few initiatives such as:

- There is national law on energy efficiency and conservation (2010).
- Also at national level, Vietnam has developed Vietnam Green Growth Strategy, which has been approved in September 2012 (more information in the attached file).
- Recently, the vice-chairman of Ho Chi Minh city's People's Committee has approved to pilot using energy efficient lighting for one street in Phu Nhuan district.
-  Green pavements in central business district of Ho Chi Minh city.
- City has plans for developing of 8 BRT lines.

2) Do you feel that any of the Latin American initiatives shared this week might be successfully adapted for implementation in your city? If so, how might you overcome any potential barriers?

I like all the Latin American initiatives shared this week, the mainstreaming of solar heating use by law in Belo Horizonte, the turning waste-to-energy landfills and the BRT in Bogota. In my opinion, they all should and can be successfully adapted for implementation in Ho Chi Minh city. Potential barriers would mostly be public awareness and, perhaps financial sources for BRT. It is because in HCMC, people are not so interested in public transport because of bad public transport service and the convenience of using individual motorbikes. I think Ho Chi Minh city should improve service quality of public transport system and should have some communications through different channels to encourage people to use public transport.

3) Do you think that the business model suggested by Enrique Rebolledo in the waste-to-energy brief might encourage actors in your city to employ low-carbon technologies?

Yes, I think so too.

• Vietnam and Green Growth:
  http://lowemissionsasia.org/sites/default/files/pdf_file/DSDS_Green%20Growth%20Session_Vietnam_FINAL.pdf

• HCMC - low carbon policy and challenges:
  http://www.iges.or.jp/en/cdm/pdf/regional/20130305/7_HCMcity.pdf

Week 12: Low-Carbon Development Strategies

This week we will be looking at some low-carbon development strategies in cities across our nations. When we speak of low-carbon development, we are speaking of long-term development initiatives that take climate change considerations into account and actively seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Low-carbon development is attractive to a broad array of stakeholders due to the ability of this type of infrastructure to offer favourable investment opportunities, to contribution to emissions reductions, and to improve quality of life in a sustainable way.

In cities low-carbon development can come in many forms, although arguably the most common initiatives are related to transportation, energy production/efficiency and waste disposal. This week we would like to share some examples with you from Latin American cities related to these three areas, but we would like to encourage you to share experiences from your cities that may go beyond these.

We would like to share with you the cases of Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit System, Belo Horizonte’s Solar Energy legislation and Monterrey’s waste-to-energy programme:

- The famous BRT system in Bogotá, Colombia, has proved to set a standard for other such systems in Latin America and beyond, reducing energy consumption, emissions and travel time for commuters.

- In order to address rising emissions from buildings ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) began the PoliCS programme to improve the sustainability of buildings, focusing on energy efficiency and low carbon technologies: one such initiative was for the employment of solar energy in Belo Horizone, Brazil, and legislation to enable this.
- In Monterrey, Mexico the first waste-to-energy project in Latin America was successfully implemented to turn waste into electricity savings. The waste-to-energy landfill technology has led to a reduction in municipal waste problems and emissions, while simultaneously creating electricity that is used to power public lighting and the subway system.

This week Enrique Rebolledo, a low-carbon expert from Mexico, and author of the brief on Monterrey’s waste-to-energy landfill, will be joining us in the discussion about low-carbon development strategies. Enrique specialises in showing the profitability potential of low-carbon, energy saving, infrastructure.

We would like to encourage you to engage with one another in a discussion around the following questions:

1) To what extent are you seeing low-carbon development initiatives taking place in your cities? Please share any innovative cases with us from your cities.

2) Do you feel that any of the Latin American initiatives shared this week might be successfully adapted for implementation in your city? If so, how might you overcome any potential barriers?

3) Do you think that the business model suggested by Enrique Rebolledo in the waste-to-energy brief might encourage actors in your city to employ low-carbon technologies?

Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities

Related materials:

Belo Horizone's Solar Legislation

Bogotá's Bus Rapid Transit System

Monterrey's Waste-to-Energy Project

Week 11: Exercise

1) Are you aware of actions in your city that are improving the climate resilience of buildings? If so, how do you think that such actions might be successfully adapted to other urban realities?

I'm not aware of actions in Ho Chi Minh city such as building codes for improving the climate resilience of buildings. There are only some training/instructions on how to stabilise housing structure for storm resilience for poor communities in Can Gio coastal district. However, there is a German funded research on climate-adapted housing and energy efficient building within the Megacity HCMC research project. And I would like to share here the result of this research, which is a useful Handbook for Green Housing. Although it is for Ho Chi Minh city but I think many of the directions can also be applied elsewhere.

2) Do you think that the approaches employed in the Latin American case studies might be adapted to your function in informal settlements in your cities?

Yes, I do think that the approaches employed in the Latin American case studies can and even should be adapted in informal settlements in Ho Chi Minh cities.

The Handbook for Green Housing

 [download english version]

 [download vietnamese version]

• http://www.cangio.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/tintuc/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?Source=/tintuc&Category=&ItemID=1714&Mode=1 

Week 11: Climate Resilient Buildings and Urban Upgrading

This week we will be looking at how improvements in building standards can increase urban climate resilience. Last week we looked at infrastructure in general, and this week, as promised we will focus in on buildings in particular. There a various measures that might be taken to make buildings more sustainable: some actions involve upgrading existing structures to make them more adaptive to climate change or to help them to mitigate greenhouse gases (GHGs); other actions include innovative designs for new ‘green’ buildings that use natural resources (such as energy) more efficiently and reduce harmful emissions.

So far in this Learning Alliance we have largely focused on how the changing climate affects vulnerable communities, and as such we have two Latin American case studies for you that explore urban upgrading in informal settlements. We are nonetheless very interested to hear about any actions in your cities that relate to increasing resilience in the built environment – be that through new building codes, green roofs, sustainable building designs, urban upgrading programmes, or any others.

Our first case this week is an interview with Mariana Estevão, the founder of an NGO that runs a project to offer architectural and engineering expertise, along with a scheme to purchase building material to families living in a slum in in the city of Niteroi, Brazil. This grassroots project helps families to upgrade housing in order to reduce health risks; such actions include raising the height of roofs to enable more ventilation and thus reduce temperatures, sealing walls so as to reduce humidity and improving roofing so as to reduce leakages. In order to purchase building supplies inhabitants exchange used TetraPak cartons for credits, thus reducing waste and raising the profile of recycling.

The second case is from the informal settlement known as Villa Tranquila, in Argentina. The upgrading programme in this community was distinctly participative, involving multiple-stakeholders throughout the whole process. The upgrading of this community improved access to infrastructure, improved the standard of houses in some sectors and built new houses in others. Aside from the impacts on the built environment, this top-down, government-backed initiative improved complicated social relations within what was a once divided and fearful community.

This week we would like to invite you to view the video interview with Mariana Estevão and read the case of Villa Tranquila and engage with one another in a dialogue around the following questions:

1) Are you aware of actions in your city that are improving the climate resilience of buildings? If so, how do you think that such actions might be successfully adapted to other urban realities?

2) Do you think that the approaches employed in the Latin American case studies might be adapted to your function in informal settlements in your cities?

If you have any questions or would like any more information about either of these two cases we would be happy to pass on your enquiries to our Latin American experts.

Please log in to access this discussion's related materials and to add a contribution http://ella.practicalaction.org/learning-alliances-6

Best wishes,

Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities

Related materials:

Urban Upgrading Villa Tranquila

Interview with Mariana Estevão

Transcript for Interview with Mariana Estevão

Green Roofing

Week 10: Exercise

1.  What infrastructural improvements do you think are necessary in your city in order to improve climate resilience of vulnerable communities?

Ho Chi Minh city has many problems of traffic, pollution, flooding, overload infrastructure, lack of green and public spaces, bad planning pose great vulnerability to climate change. Buildings are mostly for using air-conditioner, which are not energy-efficient and at the same time often without good ventilation. Therefore, in my opinion, Ho Chi Minh city need to integrate climate change into its development, through:

- Better public transportation system, well-organized, diverse and efficient is needed for crowded HCMC. Public transportation should be more comfortable as the quality of service should be improved so that it can be more attractive and become priority in people’s choice, beside affordability.

- Walkability and cyclability should be integrated into public transportation system. Pedestrians and cyclists should be encouraged through incentive policies and programmes. On the other hand, limitation of cars and motorbikes, particularly in central downtown can help saving energy, improving environment and community sense with safer traffic, better public interaction and less pollution.

- Cleaner, renewable energies and their supporting infrastructure should be taken into consideration in the long term development of the city. Some examples can be the model of solar street lighting, solar-panel on roof of big buildings, cleaner fuels for public transportation…

- Urban designs such as green pavement, waterparks can facilitate rainwater infiltration to replenish groundwater and mitigate urban flood.

- Farm lands and green spaces should be preserved for microclimate regulation, water retention, urban biodiversity as well as food security and other beneficial ecosystem services.

- It is necessary for HCMC to start as soon as possible integrated waste management instead of current landfilling method otherwise later HCMC will inevitably face the waste crisis.

2. How is existing infrastructure being managed in the face of climate challenges?

As I mentioned, the existing infrastructure pertains many risks in the face of climate change and a lot of things need to be improved.

3. How might it be possible to encourage ‘no-regrets’ investments in infrastructure in your city? 

It is possible with strong political will and an aware public.

Week 10: Improving Infrastructure for Climate Resilience

This week we start Module 3, which will focus on improving resilience in the built environment. We shall kick off the module with a discussion about infrastructure. Infrastructure is affected by extreme events, by slow-onset climate change, and city dwellers without access to infrastructure may become further marginalised as climate challenges increase. Please read this week's post and engage in an interactive discussion with fellow participants.

This week, we will be looking at the impacts of infrastructure on urban climate vulnerability and risk. Infrastructure plays a vital economic and social role in cities. Infrastructure in the broad sense is what allows people access to water, sanitation, electricity, communication, transportation and other services. This infrastructure is important for economic development because sections of cities cease to function, and livelihoods are jeopardised, when these services are unavailable; from the social perspective access to these services are fundamental to improving quality of life. We have attached a very interested, very detailed document entitled Paving the Way for Climate Resilient Infrastructure, which provides in depth analysis of the importance of infrastructure for climate resilience.

Climate change poses a series of challenges to infrastructure, both direct and indirect. There are several ways in which cities can invest in infrastructure, these include:
- Investing in upgrading inefficient infrastructure, adapting it to cope with potential climate challenges
- Building specific infrastructure to protect from potential climate challenges
- Including climate considerations when investing in any kind of infrastructure: so called ‘no-regrets’ investments
- Building climate-resilient, low-carbon, infrastructure to both respond to potential threats, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve quality of life at the same time

Later on in Module 3 we will look specifically at low-carbon development strategies in cities, specifically focusing on waste disposal and transportation. This week we would like to focus on how improvements in infrastructure are necessary as city populations continue to grow and put increasing pressure on existing services, and how slow-onset climate change exacerbates bottlenecks (such as inefficient provisions for water and sanitation). Additionally we would like to think about how infrastructure is affected by extreme climatic events. When extreme events hit, infrastructure can be severely damaged leading to, among other things, loss of lives, required investment in recuperation operations and loss of productivity. We would like to invite you to view the short UNEP document entitled Municipalities Adapting to Climate Change, to get an overview of the effects of climate change on infrastructure and some brief Latin American solutions.

Due to the sheer enormity of this week’s theme, for the Latin American case studies, we have focused on water and waste-water treatment and management strategies. We would like to invite you to read the news article about how water management is strong in Latin America, but how water access and waste-water treatment remains weak. This week we have an Interview with Fernando Rodrígez from Bajo Carbono, Mexico, talking about good, low-carbon, waste-water treatment practices from the region and the importance of showing the profitability of such systems. As we have seen already in the Learning Alliance, one of the major barriers to improving climate resilience is how to engage and acquire commitment from local governments– Fernando's experience points to the need to direct the attention of local governments to the profitability of infrastructure upgrades and investments.

Finally, our interview with Rossana Poblet of Peru details the distinct climate change and water stresses that exist within the megacity of Lima, as well as the concerted efforts taken to address these challenges in the city by using an integrated approach to water and wastewater infrastructural management.

This week we would like to invite you to take part in an interactive discussion with one another around the following themes:

1) What infrastructural improvements do you think are necessary in your city in order to improve climate resilience of vulnerable communities?
2) How is existing infrastructure being managed in the face of climate challenges?
3) How might it be possible to encourage ‘no-regrets’ investments in infrastructure in your city? 

Related materials:

Water Management in Latin America

Municipalities Adapting to Climate Change

Paving the Way for Climate Resilient Infrastructure

Fernando Rodríguez Interview

Rossana Poblet Interview

Paving the Way for Climate Resilient Infrastructure by Daisy

Week 9: Exercise

Thank you ELLA and all for the knowledge and experience shared! They would be useful for me as I'm also working with community participation approach in our project for adaptation to climate change in the coastal areas. I would like to share here one example from the current work that we are doing here (GIZ Vietnam) in Soc Trang Province in Vietnam. Our GIZ project has supported the provincial government of Soc Trang to implement coastal protection measures including: afforestation, rehabilitation, conservation and management of mangrove forests using co-management methods; stabilisation of banks and rehabilitation of mudflats by building protective structures or breakwaters. What I would like to emphasize here is the method of mangrove co-mangement, which is an example of community-based DRR and more. 

 "Co-management in a natural resource context is a partnership arrangement in which a resource user group gets the right to use natural resources on state owned land (a defined area) and the responsibility to sustainably manage the resources (including protection). Resource users and local authorities jointly negotiate an agreement on who can do what where, when, how and how much in a particular area of resources which is then implemented and monitored primarily by the resource users themselves. The aim is to provide local communities with benefits through legal and secured access to natural resources in protection forests and at the same time to ensure sustainable use of the resources and effective protection of the mangrove forests." 

Effectively managed and protected mangrove forests protect communities from waves, erosion, storm and flooding and provide food, shelter and nursery ground for aquatic species. Moreover, further benefits of mangrove co-management are livelihood improvement, involvement of resource users in resource management decision-making, reduced workload for authorities and benefit sharing as part of an Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) approach. More information on mangrove co-management can be seen on our project website below.

• http://czm-soctrang.org.vn/en/home.aspx

• http://www.iucn.org/fr/nouvelles_homepage/nouvelles_par_date/?10583/Disaster-Risk-Reduction-through-school-education-IUCN-and-GIZ-work-together-to-assist-disaster-prone-communities-in-Southern-Bangladesh
• http://www.undp.org.mz/en/Newsroom/News/Latest-News2/Innovative-approaches-for-natural-disaster-risk-reduction-in-Vietnam-Mozambican-delegation-brings-home-best-practices
• Vietnam
• http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/SSP/EAP/vietnam-disaster/
• http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/SSP/EAP/vietnam-disaster-2/

Comments

Samuel Adoboe, Ghana

Posted April 02 at 11:26 (GMT-6)

Wonderful approach of Co-management plus responsibility to manage sustainably! thank you for sharing this with the group. I would like to find out what the outcomes have been so far and what is the duration of the partnership agreements? 

Jyotiraj Patra, India

Posted April 02 at 19:52 (GMT-6)

Dear Thuy,
This is indeed an innovative approach to build disaster resilience through natural resource management. I shared a similar initiative being implemented around the Bhitarkanika Mangroves, a Ramsar Site in the coastal state of Odihsa, at the interface of mangrove conservation, disaster risk reduction and livelihood opportunities. One of the major challenge is with regard to identifying and ensuring the involvement and ownership of ‘local resource users’. In recent times coastal Odisha has witnessed large-scale conversion of mangroves and coastal vegetation for commercial shrimp farming and there have been massive financial investments by seafood exporters and other business groups all of who are ‘outsiders’. Community-based initiatives in such situations are often heavily influenced and impacted by these actors who perceive community-management and ownership as a potential threat to their business operations. Wondering if you came across such situations in the mangrove co-management project in the Soc Trang Province.

Thuy Duong Pham, Viet Nam (Vietnam)

Posted April 03 at 18:29 (GMT-6)

Thank you all for your comments!

Dear Samuel, about the outcomes so far, we had the model developed first in Au Tho B village in Vinh Chau. Due to the success of mangrove co-management in Au Tho B village, since the end of 2011 the co-management model is being expanded to two more coastal villages. More information on the co-management in the pilot village is on the file attached here.

Attachments:

http://czm-soctrang.org.vn/Publications/EN/Docs/Co-Management%20Au%20Tho%20B%202010%20EN.pdf

About the duration of the partnership agreement, for my understanding, it is open-ended.

Dear Jyotiraj, we also have some problems with outsiders. But here in Soc Trang, mostly the outsiders are also the poor people who want to catch the aquatic resources (not the rich business groups). Yes, i know it is hard...

Week 9: Conclusion of Module 2

As we come to end of Module 2, we would like to take some time to look back over the lessons that we have learned about Climate Disaster Risk Reduction in urban areas. In the same way that we had a discussion at the end of Module 1, we would like to invite you to start thinking about cases that have been shared, and discussions that have been had, that have given you inspiration to drive for change. It would be very interesting to see if any of you have thought about, or are making plans to collaborate with other members from the ELLA community, or whether any of you have started thinking about, or actually getting in contact with stakeholders in your cities in order to share lessons or come up with new initiatives to improve DRR. It would be fantastic to share these ideas, as this might inspire others!

In Module 2 we looked at disaster risk management strategies, early warning systems, and involvement and capacitation of local communities. In each of those discussions we could see that there is significant room for improvement in order to make urban communities more resilient to climate change, able to prevent extreme events turning into disasters, and respond quickly when events occur. It was very interesting to see that in many participants’ cities, disaster risk reduction measures consist of preparation for how to deal with the aftermath of extreme events rather than working to reduce risks and vulnerabilities so that extreme events do not turn into disasters.

Among others, the main barriers that were identified included:
- Lack of long-term planning, which leads to a focus on reactive rather than preventative measures
- Lack of political commitment, and a lack of coordination among actors
- Lack of inclusion of local communities
- Lack of funding, and as such, a lack of technology and local capacity
- Ineffective awareness raising and communication techniques

In the Latin American case studies that were shared and in the responses of participants from Africa and Asia we did see some means to overcome these barriers, and some cities or communities significantly reducing disaster risk. You will remember how the city of Bogotá in Colombia has integrated DRR into city level planning; the inexpensive technologies utilised in the Latin American early warning systems such as radio, internet and mobile phone messaging have proved to effectively raise awareness; the Guardianas de la Ladera and the NUDECs which we discussed last week showed effective methods of involving the local community and building local capacity to reduce disaster risk.

Attached is a summary of the three discussions that we have had related to DRR. This week we would like to invite you to:

- Share any additional good practices that you feel might be successfully adapted to other urban contexts
- Share how the cases that you have read about on ELLA have sparked your interest – this could be in the form of a thought, a conversation with a colleague, more detailed research into any of the cases, a plan to collaborate with a particular participant, or a plan of action, among others
- Share what ideas you have, if any, on how you might work to improve climate disaster risk reduction in cities in your region

Looking forward to a fruitful discussion!

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA Team

Module 2 Summaries

Second National Learning Group Meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dear participants,

The second National Learning Group meeting was held in Dhaka in the 9th of March, and we would like to share information with you about the discussion that was had and the future actions that were planned. We hope that these plans might inspire you to work with one another to formulate similar plans in your cities.

During this meeting, the participants focused on the issues of:

- Vulnerability and risk mapping
- Urban planning

The participants had a very fruitful discussion and decided to work together to re-assess the vulnerability of one coastal urban area and provide recommendations for the city plan. The participants also agreed that it would be valuable to involve more stakeholders in further discussion on Climate Resilient Cities, particularly involving the media in their efforts.

We would like to share a summary of that meeting with you, and invite you to share any comments, questions or suggestions. Many of the members of that National Learning Group meeting are also members of the online discussion space, so we would like to encourage you to use this space for dialogue.

The next meeting will be held on the 6th of April. 

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA Team

 

Related materials:

Second NLG Meeting Report

Week 8: Summary and Conclusion of Discussion on Community Involvement and Capacity Building for DRR

This week as Module 2 comes to an end will look back at the themes that we have covered and start to think about what potential actions we might put in place to improve climate disaster risk reduction in our cities.

 As always we would like to thank you for this week’s discussion, it was very interesting to hear about some specific initiatives that are taking place in your cities. It was great to see you interacting with one another and sharing experiences and ideas. That is exactly what the Learning Alliance is about, so it is fantastic to see you thinking about potentially adapting practices shared on the Alliance and implementing them in your own local contexts!

The topic of community involvement has been a recurrent theme throughout the Learning Alliance thus far, and this week’s discussion was an eye-opener as we saw few concrete climate DRR community actions in existence in cities across out nations. In general participants agreed that much could be done to improve community involvement, and that community involvement would ultimately improve urban DRM. Throughout the course of the discussion we did see participants sharing examples of community participation in projects in rural and urban areas, some specifically related to DRR, and others with a more broad environmental focus, a short summary which can be found below:

Bangladesh: participants shared that there are many community projects in rural areas. In urban areas there are programmes such as waste disposal and road cleaning. One great example came from the city of Chittagong, where Action Aid trained 450 volunteers to assist in community rescue in times of hazard.

Ghana: in the rural north of Ghana, Action Aid was involved in a project to build DRR awareness though schools. The Enchi project in the Aowin Suaman District, funded by the Africa Adaptation Programme, moved artisans from frequently flooded areas, to work in an area that was not affected by floods. We also heard of the existence of Community Action Plans and the National Centre for Civic Education, but did not hear of any specific projects or programmes which are capacitating communities to reduce disaster risk.

India: we heard of initiatives in the urban areas of Bihar, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Coimbatore. In Bihar, UNICEF and ECHO have invested in DRR specifically to help 25,000 families deal with flooding; in Bhubaneswar the government and UNDP are working on emergency response training; in Chennai community programmes have now largely been dropped; in Coimbatore a DRR plan is being developed with the involvement of the community.

Nepal: participants from Nepal stated that community involvement in DRR projects is very common. One participant gave some specific details about such programmes mostly taking place in rural areas; the actions in urban areas are largely related to earthquakes; there is significant community involvement in a dyke management along the border with India. More information can be found in the attached PDF.

Nigeria: we heard of projects involving women in environmental projects such as road cleaning, we also heard of cleaning days being held on the last Saturday of each month.

Peru: the GRIDE Ancash experience brings together many stakeholders, including the community, in order to empower and capacitate them in DRR.

South Africa: the government project Working for Fire employs youths to work in fire prevention.

Trinidad & Tobago: the Community Emergency Response Team programme, funded by the government, trains volunteers to act as first responders in the case of disasters. Initial training is given, however after this training without the occurrence of a disaster, interest is likely to wane. There is also a bottom-up approach from the Red Cross called Community Disaster Response Training, which capacitates volunteers to become first responders. Both of these programmes coordinate with regional Disaster Management Units.

Uganda: like in Nigeria we saw the existence of a communal clean up day, on the last Saturday of each month. Plus we were heard about Plan Uganda which is DRR focused at children.

Vietnam: the People’s Committee on Implementation of DRR in Ho Chi Minh City was implemented between 2007 and 2012, focusing on training communities and increasing awareness of risks through the use of the radio and distribution of flyers. Please find attached more information on community action to address climate change in Vietnam.

Zambia: the Livingstone Green Initiative helps 100 women vegetable marketers to manage their solid waste.

Zimbabwe: we did not hear about specific community DRR programmes, but heard that various NGOs are working on issues such as water and sanitation.

Many participants felt that the Latin American examples of the Guardianas de la Ladera and the NUDECs could potentially be adapted to their local realities. Some felt that the best model was to involve the government and pay community members to take part in DRR, while others felt quite the opposite believing that membership should be voluntary and should be inclusive – arguing that hiring people makes these actions individualistic. Many participants agreed that a combination of the two approaches might have the most meaningful results.

Generally participants felt that the challenges of community engagement in urban climate DRR included:
1) The need to involve communities from the start, even in the identification of risks
2) The need for guidance and documentation of actions
3) There is no “one size fits all” therefore actions really must be local
4) Projects are often unsustainable, they are not invested in (time and money) and maintained
5) The need for a certain level of remuneration to encourage participation
6) The need for the government to be more actively involved
7) The constant need for funding

In order to make community capacitation programmes a reality, participants suggested that advocacy and awareness raising would be an important place to start.

We would like to invite you to comment upon this summary, or use this space to add any additional information that you did not have a chance to share during the course of the discussion.

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA Team

Related materials:

Vietnam responding to Urban Climate Change Risks

Community Based DRR in Nepal

This week's key materials

Module 2 Summaries

Week 7: Summary of Discussion on Early Warning Systems

Dear All,

Thank you to everybody that contributed to the discussion on Early Warning Systems (EWS): it was very interesting to see the practices that are working effectively in different regions, and to see which methods from the Latin America case studies might be adapted to your local contexts. For those of you that did not have a chance to take part, or any of you that would like to add any further analysis, please use this space to do so.

The majority of participants shared with us that they do not have fully effective EWSs in their cities. However, even in those cases, participants spoke of national meteorological departments monitoring weather, media houses disseminating information and local communities creating informal warnings. From the comments that participants shared, countries that fell into this category included: Ghana, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. As our participants reside in different cities in these countries, we did see that the city of Chennai (India) the city of Cape Town (South Africa) do have city level EWSs. Also there was mention of Harare (Zimbabwe) having a fragmented EWS.

Although this question was not posed, many participants spoke of National EWSs, it would seem that the following countries have national systems: Ghana, Jamaica, South Africa, Nepal, Saint Lucia and Zimbabwe.

Most participants were following the examples of the Latin American case studies and looking at sudden-onset climate related events such as cyclones, heavy rains, flooding, landslides etc. Although two participants spoke of EWSs for cholera; it seems that both Uganda and Zambia have effective EWSs for this. We did not share cases from Latin America on EWSs on illnesses, the incidence of which might potentially increase with climatic changes. There are however many EWSs for out breaks of dengue and other vector-borne illness in Latin America and we would be happy to do some more research into that for anyone that is interested.

The cities that we saw with valuable EWSs in place included Cape Town (South Africa), Chennai (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Montevideo (Uruguay). These cases shared several innovative approaches. In Cape Town we saw the use of CCTV, in Montevideo we saw the use of targeted text-messaging to community members in the most vulnerable areas, in Dhaka we saw the use of an Interactive Voice Response System – where subscribers can call and hear up-to-date warning messages. The posts from select participants that shared information on these systems can be found attached to this post, in case you missed them.

Most participants shared that the monitoring component of EWS in their cities/countries was carried out by the national meteorological department. Information was largely said to be disseminated by the media, namely television, radio and newspapers. In emergency situations this is complemented by sirens, loud speakers, and phones. The majority felt that communication and dissemination of information is severely lacking in their cities. In the case that national meteorological departments warn of coming extreme weather, does this really mean anything to an unprepared population? Especially for members of the population that do not have televisions, or where illiteracy rates are high. Are people genuinely looking out for these warnings? Plus, even if the warnings reach them, how will they know what to do, and where to go? Participants felt that the training offered by the Civil Defence in Rio de Janeiro would be very useful in their local circumstances.

Many participants mentioned that they felt that the use of radio, mobile phones and the Internet, as in the Latin American case studies, might be successfully adapted for early warnings in their communities. We saw there are barriers to the effectiveness of such media according to local circumstances. In countries such as Ghana, there is 100% saturation of the mobile phone market, thus the use of SMS might be very effective; but in other countries in many people remain unconnected. In Zimbabwe we heard that the radio is seen as a male possession that roams with men where they go, thus potentially leaving women and children no better warned of imminent disasters.

The major challenges that were listed, for improving local EWSs, included many of our usual suspects:
- Lack of government commitment
- Lack of funding
- Lack of coordination between actors
- Lack of modern monitoring technology
- Lack of local capacity
- High illiteracy and poverty among most affected

We did see this week, that it is not only formal warning systems with a heavy technology base that can have a significant impact on warning local communities of coming disasters. Community level responses are extremely valuable. The discussion for Week 8, which just started, is looking specifically at that: how communities can be capacitated and work together to reduce disaster risk.

Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities 

Attached file(s):
	POSTSFROMWEEK7DIS23246.pdf

Week 7: Exercise

Take part in an interactive discussion with one another about:

1) Whether your city has Early Warning Systems in place to reduce climate related risks – be they formal or informal;
2) How the Early Warning System in your cities works in practice – according the four facets listed above;
3) Whether you think that any of the Latin American initiatives might be successfully adapted for implementation in your cities – specifying which in particular, along with the enabling factors or barriers .

Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC) does not have formal EWS. However, the idea of establishing EWS for the city has been proposed.

[For your more information, Vietnam plans to install a Tsunami Early Warning System that will cover the coastal areas, more populated islands, and 13 cities and provinces nationwide (Ho Chi Minh city is not in the list), which are most at risk of being hit by a tsunami and high tidal waves. There will also be a tsunami information network run by the Global Physics Institute; Central Steering Committees; and local disaster management centres, set up by local authorities and residents. The Global Physics Institute will serve as an exclusive monitoring agency responsible for transmitting tsunami warnings, besides supervising and analysing tsunami threats in Vietnam. The Tsunami Early Warning System is expected to be complete by 2016].

Informally the city also has plans, activities for warning of climate induced events though they are still not very effective. In terms of Risk Knowledge, Department of Transportation conducted surveys and warning of landslide risk sites along rivers, canals. In terms of Monitoring and Warnings, Sub-Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environment in the city is in charge with their monitoring stations scattered around the city. In terms of Dissemination and Communication, daily weather forecast on televisions, radios play important role in warning people of storms, hurricane... In terms of Response Capability, rehearsals of risk response in communities, rescue training skills for staff, etc... involve many stakeholders from government agencies such as DONRE, DARD, Fire Service, Health Department, High Command to local communities, Youth Unions. Department of Construction also provided Construction Guideline for building to prevent tornado in high-risk communities in Can Gio district.

I like the ideas of using sms, email, social media and electronic EWS in the Latin America initiatives, which i think can be applied successfully too in Ho Chi Minh city. Actually, the People’s Committee of HCMC has recommended the expansion of the use of mobile phone messages for warning natural disasters nationwide.

•  http://www.dtinews.vn/en/news/017004/22065/vietnam-to-build-tsunami-early-warning-system.html
•     http://talkvietnam.com/2012/11/mobile-phone-messages-may-be-used-for-disaster-warnings/#.UUSH51f-v1I

Week 7: Early Warning Systems for Climate Induced Events

This week we are looking at Early Warning Systems (EWS) for climate related extreme events. Please read the cases from Latin American cities, and engage with one another in discussion about the value of EWS and the strengths of successful systems that might be replicated in other cities.

This week we will be looking at Early Warning Systems (EWS) for climate related events.

Natural disasters and extreme events kill, dislocate and affect thousands of people and cause millions of dollars of damage each year. Extreme events caused by climate variability, that become human disasters as a result of ineffective climate change adaptation, need not have such sever human losses. The events in themselves would not be considered disasters if they occurred in uninhabited areas, thus the important question is getting people out of harm’s way in a timely manner. In many cases, coordinated action and investment only comes after a disaster; in 2010, Brazil spent 14 times more in disaster response and damage repair as a result of heavy rainfall, than on preventing such devastation.

EWSs provide a means to manage and reduce risk, by improving understanding and increasing a community’s ability to anticipate and then react to extreme events. According to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR) an effective early warning system should be made up of four facets:

• Risk Knowledge: the collection of data to identify vulnerabilities in order to minimise the negative social, economic and environmental effects of unavoidable events

• Monitoring and Warning: rigorous scientific monitoring of the parameters with a potential to trigger disasters, together with the ability to predict changes in a timely manner

• Dissemination and Communication: effective communication networks with the ‘right’ amount of information for the receivers to understand the implications of the warning

• Response Capability: well developed action plans involving the full range of stakeholders, from the government to the community

Often it is the occurrence of a disaster, or multiple disasters, that motivate national, regional and municipal governments and institutions to invest in EWSs. Sudden-onset extreme events cannot be avoided, but preparedness would reduce the human fatalities of such an event.

This week we would like to invite you to view the cases about the Latin American cities of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), La Paz (Boliva), Medellín (Colombia), and San Juan (Colombia). These cases show how Latin American cities are addressing the four facets of effective EWSs. After viewing the cases we would like to encourage you to take part in an interactive discussion with one another about:

1) Whether your city has Early Warning Systems in place to reduce climate related risks – be they formal or informal;

2) How the Early Warning System in your cities works in practice – according the four facets listed above;

3) Whether you think that any of the Latin American initiatives might be successfully adapted for implementation in your cities – specifying which in particular, along with the enabling factors or barriers .

Related materials:

Landslide Risk Reduction in Rio de Janeiro

EWS in Rio de Janeiro

EWS in Cities in Bolivia and Colombia

Week 6: Summary and Conclusion of Discussion on Urban Disaster Risk Reduction

Last week’s discussion on Disaster Risk Reduction showed us that in very few cities across our regions are there specific formal DRR strategies in place. In many cases, the strategies that are in place on paper are arguably achieving relatively little in practice. Another overwhelming response was that it is in emergency response that strategies and actions are effective, rather than prevention. As we saw in the introductory material, response is just one aspect of DRR, to actually reduce disaster risk would entail reducing vulnerability to extreme events, which would necessarily involve all stakeholders in a location specific manner. One of the main barriers or challenges identified was the lack of long-term planning, commitment and executive capacity of city officials. Many participants spoke about the need for DRR to be integrated with climate change adaptation (especially when talking about climate related disasters – as we are here). Participants from Ghana shared with us that they already have an Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (2011 -2015).

Cities with formal DRR strategies:
Participants from South Africa, Stefan Raubenheimer and Riaz Jogiat, shared with us that their cities do have formal DRR strategies. Riaz Jogiat felt that in his city the strategy was ineffective, due to flawed risk identification among other reasons, which we will explore shortly. However, the city of Cape Town is said to have taken a ‘proactive and integrated approach’ to DRR, the link below gives more details of the strategy. Manas Dwivedi from India, shared with us that Shimla also has a formal DRR strategy. It was very interesting to see that participants from Ghana disagreed about the existence of formal city level DRR strategies, with answers ranging from a definitive no, to the fact that some aspects of DRR are being dealt with, to the idea that every city in Ghana has a formal DRR strategy. One reason for this may be that communication on this issue is not effective, or perhaps that plans exist on paper but that actions to genuinely reduce disaster risk are not particularly evident. It would be interesting to see some responses from our Ghanaian participants about the reality of DRR in cities.

Where city strategies are extensions of national strategies:
Participants from Bangladesh explained to us that national plans empower local city corporations, and a range of national acts and programmes, plus the specific Ministry for Disaster, coordinate disaster risk reduction actions. Ho Chi Minh City, Vitenam, has a city plan which is based on the national plan.

Countries with national strategies that should trickle down to cities, but as of yet do not do so effectively:
From the various responses from participants it seems that Ghana, India and Nigeria could well fit into this category. Responses showed that these countries have many national departments and acts, but few concrete city level disaster risk reduction achievements. Participants from these countries spoke of ad-hoc actions, namely response to disasters.

From the discussion we could see that most of our countries do have national DRR strategies (Uruguay Zambia, and Zimbabwe are currently working on theirs). It seems that there is a very strong relationship between the national strategy and any kind of action at the city level, especially where city-level strategies are lacking. As we have seen the challenges posed by climate change affect different localities in very specific ways, and as such to really reduce disaster risk (rather than responding to disasters as they occur) local plans and strategies are arguably a necessity. For that reason it was interesting to see that many participants felt that national government institutions were the main actors in city level DRR, and that local actors such as the community and NGOs have not been having more of an impact on local DRR .

The challenges to effectively reduce disaster risk in cities across our nations were very similar. Many participants converged on the view that the following were the main challenges:
- Lack of long-term planning
- Lack of coordination between actors
- Lack of inclusion of local populations in creation of DRR strategies
- Lack of local capacity
- Lack of governance
- Lack of awareness
- Lack of political commitment
- Lack of funding
- Climate change is seen as a rural issue
- Too strong of a focus on relief, rather than prevention
You will notice that these challenges are the same as those that we witnessed in the Module 1 discussions.

As always we would like to invite you to comment upon this summary, or use this space to add any additional information that you did not have a chance to share during the course of the discussion.

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA Team

Week 6: Exercise

1) Does your city have a formal DRR strategy? What do you understand to be the relationship between this and a national DRR strategy?

Our national strategy on disaster risk prevention, combat and reduction up to the year 2020 has been approved in November 2007. Then, Ho Chi Minh city developed the agenda for implementation of this national strategy in December 2008. The implementation plan for Ho Chi Minh city has been issued in August 2010. So, the city DRR strategy is based on and as the implementation plan of the national strategy on disaster risk prevention, combat and reduction.

2) Which actors are most prevalent in DRR in your city?

Actors most prevalent in DRR in our city are:

- Police department

- Fire service

- High command of Ho Chi Minh city

- Department of health

- Department of natural resources and environment

- Department of transportation

- Department of construction

- Sub-department of quality management and aquatic resource protection (DARD)

as well as local agencies of all districts.

3) What are the main challenges that your city faces in terms of significantly reducing disaster risk?

Main challenges that our city faces in terms of reducing disaster risk are:

- Problems related to compensation for resettlement, relocation of underground works.
- The high tide/storm/tropical depression forecast is still not acurate.

References

• http://vietnam.resiliencesystem.org/
• http://moitruongxanhhcm.org.vn/index.php/Tai-nguyen-moi-truong/ho-long-phi-chien-luoc-kiem-soat-ngap-khu-vuc-tphcm-can-giam-thiet-hai-hon-la-giam-nguy-co.html
• http://www.phongchonglutbaotphcm.gov.vn/?id=11&cid=4093
• Chiến lược phòng chống và giảm thiểu nguy cơ thiên tai quốc gia
• 2 Nguyên tắc và 4 hành động Tp.HCM cần làm để ứng phó với BĐKH và Thiên Tai

Week 6: Urban Disaster Risk Reduction

EXCHANGE AND LEARNING: Reducing climate related disaster risk

This week we begin Module 2, that will focus specifically on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), a topic that has been mentioned innumerous times in our discussions to date. As far as possible we would like to try and keep the focus on specific city-level plans and actions, and upon climate related disasters. This week however, in order to fully understand the forces that impact upon city level DRR, we will consider national policies and institutions where appropriate.

The existence or inexistence of national DRR strategies does have an effect on city level DRR, some feel that it is necessary to have a national strategy before developing city level strategies, while other cities develop comprehensive DRR strategies regardless of the existence of a national plan. Our Interview with Dr Alberto Maturana who chaired the Chilean National Emergency Office for 12 years, gives examples of the lack of emergency preparedness due to the fact that the government does not prioritise climate DRR. In this first week we will begin to examine the factors that enable, or impinge, cities to develop comprehensive DRR solutions. Looking at cities in your countries and whether city level climate disaster risk is being addressed due to the existence of institutions linked to the government, or civil society and community movements.

As we have already discussed in Module 1, climate risk and vulnerability are location specific and as such local DRR is an extremely important issue. In conjunction with, or in the absence of government mandated city level DRR strategies, in many cases we see very effective civil society movements significantly reducing disaster risk. The ELLA Brief Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Areas, attached below, highlights some Latin American examples of civil society and community movements effectively reducing disaster risk.

Often, hazard and risk reduction considerations arise in cities as the result of disastrous experiences. What is more, many times the focus of these efforts is on reconstruction and recovery, rather than risk reduction and management. However, the uncertainty of climate and disaster risk and the increasing vulnerability of urban areas in the global South, arguably leads to the need for cities to develop climate and disaster risk reduction initiatives which maintain a long term vision for improving local resilience. The article attached below; Practical Experiences for Risk Reduction in Bogota, D.C., highlights how city level planning, legal and political actions have been instrumental in the development and standardisation of disaster and risk reduction actions of the city of Bogotá, Colombia.

Thinking about the similarities and differences between your cities and the Latin American examples highlighted in this week’s reading, please focus discussions around the following issues:

1) Does your city have a formal DRR strategy? What do you understand to be the relationship between this and a national DRR strategy?
2) Which actors are most prevalent in DRR in your city?
3) What are the main challenges that your city faces in terms of significantly reducing disaster risk?

Both the author of the ELLA brief, Jojo Hardoy, and Dr Alberto Maturana will be available to answer any eventual questions that you may have.

Extra readings about Latin American cases for any of you that would like to learn more have been placed in the Resource Library.

Please log in to access this discussion's related materials and to add a contribution http://ella.practicalaction.org/learning-alliances-6

Best wishes,

Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities 

ELLA Brief on Urban Disaster Risk Reduction in Latin America

Practical DRR Experiences from Bogotá

Interview with Dr Alberto Maturana

This week, as we begin Module 2, we will shift our focus to climate related Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in cities. We would like to invite you to read the case studies that have been provided from Latin America, and encourage you to engage with one another in a discussion about DRR in your cities. Drawing out good practices, similarities and differences from cities across our regions.

ELLA BRIEF

January, 2012 

Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Areas

Urban expansion in marginal city areas increases the risk of fatalities and home devastation when extreme weather occurs. But many Latin American cities are successfully tackling disaster risk, driven by effective urban governance.

In the context of urbanisation, disaster risk increases from badly planned and managed urban development, degraded ecosystems and poverty. The disaster risk reduction (DRR) processes developed in several Latin American cities show the benefits of making risk reduction an integral part of local development. The importance of good information for risk assessment, government-civil society collaboration, and links between local, national and regional levels is also evident.  Latin America’s DRR experiences can offer a wealth of lessons for African and South Asian counterparts embarking on their own urban risk reduction processes.

Key Lessons:

• Embedding disaster risk management within overall development efforts has yielded positive results
• Competent city and municipal governments have been key players in DRR, and their effectiveness has been enhanced when they have collaborated with local communities and civil society
• Support from higher levels of government proved crucial, as many DRR initiatives need coordinated action across government levels and sectors

Practical experiences for Risk reduction in Bogota by

Interview With Dr Alberto Maturana by

Study Tour to Brazil

We are delighted to announce that applications for the Climate Resilient Cities Study Tour are now open. Attached below you can find details on the purpose and content of the study, and the application form. The deadline for all applications is Monday the 18th of March. All applications should be sent to brazilstudytour@ella.practicalaction.org

As previously communicated, the tour will take place in Brazil between the 12th and the 20th of May. The tour offers an opportunity for 12 Learning Alliance members to meet in person and interact with each other and a range of Brazilian stakeholders that are addressing and being affected by climate change challenges in urban areas in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Before applying to take part, please review the Study Tour Advert which outlines which themes we will be focusing on during the visit.

Applications will be evaluated according to: 1) the quality of participant’s online participation to date, and 2) the participant’s relevant experience and extent to which they will be able to make use of the knowledge and experiences gained on the tour once they return to their own country. Therefore, we encourage applicants to take the time to submit a well thought-out application that gives focused answers to all of the questions.

The mandate of the ELLA programme is to share good practices from Latin America with practitioners and researchers from Africa and Asia, and as such only members working in cities in these regions are eligible to apply. Of course, during and after the study tour, lessons will be shared with all Learning Alliance participants.

Should you have any questions or comments we encourage you to use the announcement post on the Learning Space.

We look forward to receiving your applications.

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA Team

Related materials:

Brazil Study Tour Advert

CRC Study Tour Application Form

 

 

First National Learning Group Meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dear Participants,

As we explained in the introductory weeks, in addition to this online learning space, face-to-face meetings are being held in Dhaka, Bangladesh to discuss issues of urban climate resilience. These meeting are known as National Learning Group Meetings, and the first one was held on the 15th of February. We would very much like to share the outcome of that with you. Dr. Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, an expert in Bangladeshi climate change issues facilitated the meeting and is contactable via this site should you have any questions or suggestions. Attached below is a file summarising the content and outcome of the meeting.

Over the course of the Learning Alliance three topical meetings will be held, and during this launch participants decided upon the most important themes in their context. The following discussion topics were decided upon:

- City level climate change planning and governance & climate vulnerability and risk mapping
- Local adaptive capacity building & flood management
- Low carbon development strategies

The next meeting will be held on Saturday 9th of March.

If you would like to interact with this group, sharing any good practices from your regions or asking any questions to the participants. Please do use this space to do so.

All the best,
Charlotte and the ELLA Team

Related materials:

National Learning Group Launch Meeting Report