Africa highlights sustainable urbanisation

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Africa
Participants at the UNISDR-convened special session on ‘Risk-Sensitive Urbanisation: Making Cities Resilient’ in Abuja, Nigeria (Photo: Emmanuel Bako)

Participants at the UNISDR-convened special session on ‘Risk-Sensitive Urbanisation: Making Cities Resilient’ in Abuja, Nigeria (Photo: Emmanuel Bako)

ABUJA, 9 March 2016 – Delegates from across Africa have met to identify the continent’s priorities for sustainable urban development, addressing a critical component of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

A UNISDR-convened session on ‘Risk-Sensitive Urbanisation: Making Cities Resilient’, held in the Nigerian capital Abuja, brought together regional, national and local-level stakeholders. Its goal was to highlight Africa’s voice in the run-up to October’s UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III).

Moderated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the session reviewed the local risk profiles of the areas represented, emphasising how structural and non-structural issues create and exacerbate disaster risk, and looked at efforts being undertaken to address disaster risk, including through planning and policy measures.

On average, almost two disasters of significant proportions have been recorded every week in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2000. Water, weather and climate hazards dominate the region’s disaster profile, affecting, on average, around 12.5 million people per year.

The fact that disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa are increasing in frequency, severity and impacts amid rapid urbanisation makes risk-sensitive development crucial.

Session moderator Dr. Daniel Eklu, Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs at the ECOWAS Commission, said there was a unique opportunity to adopt coherent approaches for a string of international agreements that are recrafting the global development agenda.

The 15-year Sendai Framework, which aims to curb disaster mortality and economic losses by tackling risk at its source, was adopted in March 2015. It was followed by accords on development financing, the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change, while this year, in turn, sees the World Humanitarian Summit in May, before Habitat III caps the process.

Dr. Eklu said there was a unique opportunity to adopt coherent approaches for the various international frameworks, with real integration taking place at the local level. Local governments are best-placed to ensure that a bottom-up approach to development is implemented to achieve local level resilience, he said.

Mr. Abdou Sané of Senegal, President of the African Association for the Promotion of Disaster Risk Reduction and a UNISDR champion, noted that the Sendai Framework advocates for the empowerment of local authorities and communities and the engagement of women and youth in leadership.

The UNISDR-convened session was part of a wider meeting hosted by the Nigerian government on Habitat III, where participants issued a joint Abuja Declaration highlighting the agreements including the Sendai Framework and calling for “infrastructure that is resilient and which will reduce the impact of disasters especially in slums and informal settlements and building institutional capacities and mechanisms, and disaster risk management and mitigation including early warning systems and urban observatories.”

Participants also shared lessons from the UNISDR-supported Making Cities Resilient campaign, a global network of almost 3,000 communities, more than 70 of them in Africa.

Self-assessment based on a series of benchmarks known as the Ten Essentials is the core of the campaign, along with sharing best practice among participating cities. Areas under scrutiny include a city’s budget, how critical infrastructure is handled, policies to ensure all members of the community are included in risk planning, the safety of schools and health facilities, risk-compliant building regulations and land use, protection of ecosystems, and early warning systems.

The campaign, designed to support the achievement of the Sendai Framework target of substantially increasing the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020, aims to raise the profile of resilience and disaster risk reduction among local governments and urban communities worldwide.

Ms. Muthoni Orlale, representing Kisumu in Kenya, said the campaign has helped her city face major challenges such as urban fires, flooding and waste management. The city’s resilience strategy includes peer-to-peer learning on best practices, pursuing sustainable funding and enacting local rules on disaster and emergency management.

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