ILOILO CITY — Local governments play a “critical role” in mainstreaming disaster preparedness in all sectors in the light of various disasters affecting everyone.
Kendra Hirata, director of the CITYNET Yokohama Project Office, said during Thursday’s opening of the three-day 11th CITYNET Disaster Cluster Seminar held in this city that “climate-induced disasters in addition to earthquakes and volcanoes have intensified in recent years with energies before recorded in human history.”
“We need to act in an innovative way, take bold decisions, and plan in such a way that it will help minimize the loss of lives, protect our assets and be able to share the experiences to the next generations so that preparedness can be mainstreamed in all sectors,” he said.
Among the roles he cited include risk-sensitive land-use planning, zoning, developing evidence-based action plans, and effective as well as timely information dissemination”.
“In the next three days, we will definitely look into best practices, understand the role of local governments in the global market on DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) and also learn about how foreign knowledge can be localized and translated down to the community levels to bring a positive and sustainable impact to counter disaster risks,” he added.
In a follow up interview, Hirata said CITYNET tries to “develop a strategy at the city government level” that will look into “how local governments can better be prepared and produce policies and guidelines for the residents so that community can become resilient on its own.”
“We have seen many good examples particularly in Iloilo City, which we hope to share to the remaining members of CITYNET at this platform,” he said.
Meanwhile, he acknowledged that there are still a lot of challenges that need to be responded to when it comes to disaster preparedness.
Firstly, however, is to “identify and understand the risks correctly,” he added.
“Even here in the Philippines we have realized that a lot of CDRRMOs (City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Offices) still need more capacity to prepare for better response and better preparedness, this is where we are focusing our energies so far,” he said.
At the end of the three-day seminar, Hirata said they will be crafting a resolution to be signed by all participating CITYNET members.
“It’s a commitment of all the city governments to prepare better and to disseminate the knowledge that they have gained through the seminars and trainings down to the local community levels,” he said.
CITYNET is a network of local governments and urban stakeholders across the Asia-Pacific region that promotes capacity building and city-to-city cooperation for people-friendly cities. (Perla Lena/PNA)
