Building urban resilience: Latin American cities share DRR strategies at High-Level panel
Latin American MCR2030 Resilience Hubs convened in Brasília, Brazil, to exchange knowledge on local initiatives aimed at reducing disaster risks and bolstering urban resilience. The panel, titled 'Climate Resilience: Disaster Risk Reduction on the Urban Agenda', was conducted as part of the Second Meeting of the Green and Resilient Cities Program, which was promoted by the Brazilian Government. The panel was supported by UNDRR-ECHO to expand the reach of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction through risk awareness, strategic coordination, and support for partnership engagement.
The goal of the event was to contribute to the discussion on climate resilience, focusing on the perspective of subnational governments and highlighting critical aspects of governance and preparedness. Discussions were rooted in the Call from Geneva 2025, addressing fundamental elements necessary for constructing resilience, DRR preparedness and recovering drawing directly from the experiences of local governments.
Ambassador Antonio da Costa e Silva (Chief of International Affairs at the Brazilian Ministry of Cities), who served as the moderator, stressed the crucial leadership role of local governance, asserting that "Cities must lead the international agenda because they are the ones closest to the citizens".
A paradigm shift in urban planning
The world is currently navigating a period of paradigm shift and incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) must be integral to decisions concerning both for the sustainable development and the urban agenda. Effectively confronting the climate emergency necessitates robust actions encompassing mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk reduction. Adriana Campelo (Representative of UNDRR) pointed out that resilience can only be achieved by linking climate adaptation to disaster risk reduction, and by tackling inequality through social inclusion, emphasizing that inequality is a driver of risk. She also noted that the MCR2030 (Making Cities Resilient 2030) initiative offers tools that helps local governments organize their governance.
City representatives and resilience hubs
The panel featured representatives from several cities, many of which are designated as MCR2030 Resilience Hubs. The presence of these Resilience Hubs-Barcarena (Brazil), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cali (Colombia), Campinas (Brazil), Quito (Ecuador), and Recife (Brazil)-signifies a commitment to strengthen resilience and risk reduction agendas by mentoring other cities. In addition to the Hubs, the event also saw the participation of Belém (Brazil), the city scheduled to host the UNFCCC COP30 in November.
Challenges in risk scenarios and governance
Participants underscored the necessity for cities to recognise the risks they face in order to effectively plan adaptation and risk reduction measures. Maria Alexandra Pacheco Muñoz - Secretary of Emergency and Disaster Risk Management of Cali, Colombia explained that city's geomorphological characteristics, being situated between two mountain ranges and close to the ocean, already present inherent risks that are amplified by climate change. Patricia Carillo, Director of Risk Management of Quito described her city as a multi-threat city, surrounded by seven distinct volcanoes. The city has developed a Metropolitan Risk Management System involving several agencies, employing governance and planning tools to prepare. Discussing metropolitan governance regarding to preparedness and recovery, Vitória Passos Manager of Innovation, Risk, and Urban Control of Recife, Brazil highlighted that Recife is highly vulnerable due to being a densely populated coastal city, surrounded by canals and rivers, with over 68% of its area consisting of hilly terrain.
Following a major disaster in 2022, the city began rethinking the process of "rebuilding better," recognizing the need to involve multiple agencies beyond civil defence and addressing the challenges of governance across the metropolitan region, because "disaster knows no borders". Juliana Nobre, Municipal Secretary of Environment and Climate Change of Belem discussed the importance of participatory processes to establish governance and explained how Belem adopted this approach for the Municipal Risk Reduction Plan which identified 389 risk areas in the municipality, developed with the active participation of communities residing in vulnerable areas. The Director General of Civil Defense Alberto Carita reported that Buenos Aires maintains a master plan that lists 20 potential daily threats, alongside a hydrological plan and an Alert System designed to notify the population of risks such as forest fires and floods.
Integration and preparation for recovery
A central focus, based on the Call from Geneva 2025, was placed on resilient recovery, which should use a person-centred approach to enhance the resilience of affected communities. This aligns with improving readiness for Resilient Recovery, which is Priority 4 of the Sendai Framework. This requires governance arrangements, policies, funding mechanisms, and technical/human capacities to be established before disasters strike.
The growing complexity of risks mandates the breaking down of "institutional and political silos" and the promotion of a comprehensive risk management approach to integrate the implementation of climate change adaptation, DRR, and social and environmental protection. Rodrigo Perpétuo (ICLEI) referred to the risk reduction prevention agenda as an exercise in "structural cross-functionality," requiring implementation across all public policy sectors. Maria Alexandra Pacheco (Cali) added that risk management is a cross-cutting process requiring environmental components and territorial planning.
Education and social inclusion
The panel addressed the vital role of education in bolstering resilience. The Secretary of Education Ivana Ramos from Barcarena shared the city's experience of integrating basic concepts of resilience, ocean literacy, and sustainability into the curriculum across urban, rural, and island schools, from preschool through elementary school. And, the Director of Civil Defense Sidnei Furtado presented the "safe school project," where more than 200 schools address all risks within a 2 km radius of their surroundings, covering adverse situations such as floods or diseases that students might face when leaving school.
Looking ahead
Ana Carolina Câmara, Director of GIZ highlighted that it became clear that cities must actively decide to change, innovate, and do things differently-technically, technologically, culturally, socially, and managerially. She further stressed the need to make efforts to engage a much larger number of cities on this path to sustainable development.
The event was part of a series promoted by UNDRR, in partnership with the Ministry of Cities and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, intended to leverage DRR knowledge concerning climate resilience and adaptation for local governments leading up to and during COP30. The panel was also broadcast on the Chamber of Deputies' YouTube Channel.