Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Role Model Cities Highlight Campaign Benefits

Role Model Cities Highlight Campaign Benefits


Role model cities from around the world are meeting for two days in Geneva to brainstorm the next phase of the campaign “Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!” and have agreed on extending it to 2015.

The 17-month old campaign which now has over 900 members was praised by city representatives from India, the Philippines, Ecuador, Italy and the United Arab Emirates who singled out the aspects which had encouraged their local governments to get involved.

Piyush Ranjan Rout, founder of the Local Governance Network, in his home state of Orissa, said that when his city, Bhubaneswar, won international recognition for its disaster management efforts by receiving a certificate of distinction from UNISDR, it triggered enormous interest from other municipalities throughout India.

He told the UNISDR meeting: “It really brought us into the limelight and other cities wanted to know more. Disaster management was not much discussed before. The Campaign is opening up debate and triggering discussion. There are now 125 cities and municipalities in the campaign and more will join. It is a very good thing that the campaign is being extended to 2015.”

Lourdes Rodriquez, the Secretary for Safety in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, said joining the campaign had helped the city to promote risk management as a central focus of planning and land use.

She said: “We are building a culture of prevention and strengthening our capacities. A good example is the relocation plan we have for 1,000 families living in an area of high seismic risk. We are also improving the safety of 100 schools.”


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