Urban disaster management

Urban Disaster Management Workshop | 18-21 August 2014 | Manila, Philippines

The Urban Disaster Management workshop organized by Philippine Red Cross and IFRC, with the support of Norwegian Red Cross and Swedish Red Cross on 18-21 August 2014, in Manila, the Philippines, was a direct response to the many voices raised by National Societies to address urban Disaster Management issues with a progressive strategic and operational approach to urban preparedness, response and recovery.

The workshop brought together representatives from 15 National Societies from Asia-Pacific region, in addition to Partner National Societies, IFRC Secretariat, the ICRC, a range of representatives from Government authorities, UN, NGOs, academic and private institutions.

Objectives of the workshop:

Increase knowledge on emerging urban Disaster Management issues & sharing of National Societies good practice.
Provide directions for future strategic work – including a framework for the Asia Pacific zone on urban DRR and DM strategy.
Identify needs and opportunities for innovative approaches to urban Disaster Management.
Provide inputs to RCRC Asia Pacific statutory conference in Beijing, October 2014.
Provide inputs to the IFRC Global Approach and Guidelines on Urban DRR/DM.
Provide informed discussion on operational tools and services within the RCRC.

The various sessions throughout the workshop, including presentations, panels, group discussions and technical breakout sessions, discussed a range of various themes key to the urban environment, including, but not limited to:

Contingency Planning in Urban contexts
Urban Volunteer Management
Cash Transfer Programming
Urban Risk Assessment
Disaster Law in urban contexts
Violence in urban contexts
Engaging with multiple stakeholders
Environment and climate change
Lessons learnt from the Haiyan response

Following the feedback and prioritized discussion topics of the Disaster Management Reference Group, the workshop was structured with the guiding questions, including:

Where do we come from?
Where do we want to go?
How do we do it?

Climate change and urbanization – Background paper, prepared for 9th Asia Pacific Regional Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Beijing, China, 2014

Purpose:

The background paper seeks to inform the position of the IFRC on the key priority areas of intervention in the coming years in the field of climate change and urbanization to ensure that future evolving risks are effectively integrated into resilience building activities.

The paper was prepared for 9th Asia Pacific Regional Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Beijing, China, 2014.

Overview:

The document outlines:

Brief description of the background to this issue in the International Federation
Current situation/activities of the National Societies in respect to the topic
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats analysis from National societies on the issue
Reflections and lessons learned
Looking into the Future

Usage: Policy reference

Audience: National Society Leaders and Managers

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AP09_WS2_Climate-Change-Urban_FINAL-EN-2014.pdf

Programmatic directions for the Red Cross and Red Crescent in building urban community resilience in the Asia Pacific Region

Purpose:

This report is submitted following the contractual obligations of EMI to the IFRC Asia Pacific Zone for the project titled “Research Study to Identify Red Cross and Red Crescent Niche in Urban Community Resilience Programming in Asia Pacific.”

It presents the results of EMI’s analytical study and provides guidance to IFRC in determining its role in urban disaster risk reduction. It also provides additional information, materials, tools, methodologies and approaches that can be included in the existing Federation DRR and response materials/tools and highlights areas that require amendment to suit the urban context.

Overview:

The study identified four key issues that characterise existing RCRC programmes and activities in urban areas:

Most of the DRR programmes and approaches have been designed for rural communities or adapted from rural experiences.
There is limited experience in establishing systematic processes that access, gather and integrate information on city-level hazard, vulnerability and risk into programmes and policy formulation.
National Societies lack adequate experience in working with local authorities, professional organisations, private sector, academia, and other local urban actors. They are also not integrated and active in global urban DRR/CCA initiatives.
IFRC guidelines, training materials and manuals have been mostly designed for rural communities and National Societies face difficulties in adapting them to their national/local contexts.

Below is the proposition made by the study on several strategies to addres the gaps identified and build on RCRC strength and capabilities (for more information, see Executive Summary of the report, p. vi).

Usage: Policy reference

Audience: National Society leaders and managers

See also: The inception report of this research study [pdf, 0.83 MB]

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Download: https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EMI-IFRC-Study-FINAL-VERSION-April-30-2012.pdf