Cities face a ‘perfect storm’ of crises warns UNISDR and UN-Habitat

The increasing global trend of diminishing finance for local authorities combined with growing demand arising from urbanisation defines a ‘perfect storm’ for urban failures. The warning came from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Dr Joan Clos, during a meeting of UNISDR’s ‘Making Cities Resilient Campaign’ held in Geneva today.

Hosting a mayors’ lunch, attended by 40 mayors and city officials, Dr Clos recognised the participating mayors’ concerns on increasing vulnerability, capacity gaps for integrating risk reduction and resilience planning, among other critical concerns.

“More people are at risk and the number of casualties and affected people in cases of disasters is increasing,” said Dr Clos. “The challenge of addressing disasters in developed countries is that there is a tendency towards diminishing resources, and countries abandoning services to maintain infrastructure in case of a disaster whereas in developing countries, the challenge is lack of urban planning or weak urban planning.”

He encouraged mayors to take advantage of the Global Platform to send a bold message through their national representatives to the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in 2015, the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) dialogues, and to the Habitat III Conference in 2016, demanding a stronger role in a renewed Hyogo Framework for Action, sustainable urban development goals, and a revised Habitat Agenda.

Among the new cities to sign up to the ‘Making Cities Resilient Campaign’ were Amadora, Portugal; Cetinje, Montenegro; Lezhe, Albania; and Wellington, New Zealand. In addition, the Mayor of Mashhad, Iran, Seyed Mohammad Pezhman, was recognised as a Campaign Champion for his efforts to promote disaster risk reduction and further increase the resilience of communities through, among other actions, the renovation of many schools, hospitals and mosques, and the establishment of a dedicated Disaster Management Department, making the city of Mashhad the first major city in Iran with more than 500,000 inhabitants to establish such a department.

Recognising the new signatories, Helena Molin Valdes, UNISDR Deputy Director and Chief of the Campaign, said: “The large representation of mayors and local governments during this Global Platform highlights the political will and important role of local leaders in building the resilience of communities to disasters, particularly in the face of rapid urbanisation.”