Desarrollando ciudades resilientes 1 Millón de Escuelas y Hospitales Más Seguros
 

Brazil scores at DRR too!


Colonel José Roberto Rodrigues de Oliveira, Coordinator of the São Paulo State Civil Defence received from UNISDR Senior Programme Advisor David Stevens the Certificate of Completion of the LGSAT (Local Government Self-Assessment Tool ) report for the second cycle. (Photo: UNISDR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Luara Lopes

SÃO PAULO, 12 June 2014 –Football fans from all over the world were joined in São Paulo this week by officials representing the hopes and aspirations of 37 million people who live in 59 municipalities which are now members of UNISDR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign. 

Brazil has emerged as a flag bearer in Latin America for the four-year-old campaign which now has over 1,800 adherents around the world including 194 in Brazil; all committed to implementing a ten point checklist of actions for building urban resilience called the “Ten Essentials”. 

David Stevens, head of UNISDR’s Centre for Excellence in Brazil, said: “Brazil sees the Cities Campaign as central to the development of a successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action. Municipalities across the country are being galvanised by the campaign and they want disaster risk reduction strengthened at community level. 
Tuesday’s meeting was organized by UNISDR together with the São Paulo State Civil Defence Coordination Office and the National Secretariat for Civil Protection and Defence and was held at the seat of the state government, the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, bringing together campaign focal points, local authorities and researchers keen on sharing experiences and contributing to the definition of the future of the campaign in Brazil. 

Colonel José Roberto Rodrigues de Oliveira, Coordinator of the São Paulo State Civil Defence, in his welcoming remarks highlighted the importance of the campaign for the work carried out in São Paulo including the Green-Blue Seal awarded to municipalities which demonstrate a commitment to sustainable development and DRR. 

Sidnei Furtado, Head of Civil Defence of the municipality of Campinas and Campaign Promoter, in his keynote presentation reviewed the exponential growth of the campaign in Brazil from only 17 cities that had joined by the end of 2012 to the current 194 cities. Mr Furtado said that "the key factor of this growing commitment is the unconditional support and involvement of all levels of government in Brazil”. 

Mr. Furtado also highlighted the fact that the vast majority of the municipalities participating in the campaign have a complete and updated online profile. The Campaign’s Local Government Self-Assessment Tool (LGSAT), an aid to measuring progress in building urban resilience, has been completed by almost 30 municipalities, demonstrating a strong commitment to the Campaign´s goals and strategies. During the event all municipalities present that had already completed the LGSAT report received from UNISDR a Certificate of Completion. 

Paulo Andresson, from the small North-eastern municipality of Sairé with 11,000 inhabitants, summed up the importance of the meeting: “We had an opportunity today to learn of the successes of the campaign in other parts of Brazil and interact with other municipalities. We will be able to bring back what we learnt to other cities in our region” 

Participants also discussed extensively the continuation of the campaign after 2015 as a Global Programme. Colonel Marcio Motta, Civil Defence Coordinator for the municipality of Rio de Janeiro and member of the Campaign Steering Committee, will bring feedback from the gathering to the next Campaign Steering Committee meeting next September in Manchester, United Kingdom. 

Brazil is seeking to become a world champion in promoting DRR as well as being one of the hot favourites to lift the football World Cup - for a record sixth time.
Date:
12 Jun 2014
Sources:
  • United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – Regional Office for the Americas (UNISDR AM)

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Keywords

Themes:
Governance, Disaster Risk Management
Countries:
Brazil
Regions:
Americas