Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction in Local Governance
 

Introduction 

In many Asian countries in Asia, a national-level institution or a ministry handles the subject of Disaster Management.  It is the observation of ADPC that the activities and functional responsibilities of such institutions are rarely decentralized, or the authority of such institutions has not been adequately delegated to lower levels of governments.  This needs to be viewed as a hindrance for achieving the disaster resilience at community and local levels. The ADPC advocates strongly for decentralization of disaster management subject to local government sector to facilitate building safer communities and to support sustainable development. 

While selecting the appropriate strategy that should be adopted by respective countries, it is important to identify a practical and easy approach for implementing effective advocacy campaigns for mainstreaming risk management at local government. A compromise for integrating disaster risk management into local level planning and programming therefore would require organized action or series of actions, and involve national level ministries and implementing local government institutions.  These actions should be taken to influence people, policies, regulations, practices and systems for enforcement, in order to bring about necessary changes.  Good governance for disaster reduction exists where there is adequate space for the participation of different stakeholders, especially at the level of local government.  

Objectives 

The overall objective of the course on Governance and Disaster Risk Reduction is to develop a cadre of local government professionals sensitive to issues presented by the recurrent hazards.  The course intends to increase their knowledge on urban governance and disaster risk management to be responsive to the needs of vulnerability reduction, and to create opportunities for mainstreaming risk reduction as a component of urban governance. Specifically, the course aims at building capacities of local government officials, NGOs working in urban areas and other stakeholders for more understanding of governance issues in relation to disaster risk reduction at local level.

The secondary objective of the training is to build the capacity of national training partner institutions, which will make an attempt to institutionalize the training program at national level.

Course Approach and Content 

The Training consists of a series of lectures and group discussion on various issues on governance and disaster risk reduction. The course consists of five broad issues of governance, namely: Vulnerability and Governance; City Experiences; Institutional Aspects of Local Disaster Risk Management; Approaches, Systems and Methods; and Planning for Change.  

Under those broad issues, the course consists of the following subjects:

1. Introduction to hazards

2. Concepts of vulnerability to disasters

3. Concepts of governance for disaster risk reduction

4. Decentralization and disaster management

5. Urban land administration and disaster risk reduction

6. Legal and institutional structures relevant to disaster mitigation

7. Generating information for local disaster risk reduction

8. Participatory approaches in governance and disaster risk reduction

9. Stakeholder Analysis

10. First responses at the municipal, ward and community levels

11. Dealing with informal settlements

12. Disaster risk reduction experiences at the local level

13. Attribute of gender, ethnics, minorities and migrant population to disaster risk reduction

14. Case studies and good governance practices to disaster risk reduction

Target Participants

The course is targeted at representatives of local government ministries/departments, urban emergency services and planning functions related to risk reduction from PROMISE cities, local government training institutions who can implement the course at a national level, NGOs involved in urban community development initiatives, existing city networks, and private sectors.

Course Duration: 5 days 

Course Fee

The course fee is US$ 1,500 per participant inclusive of training course materials, coffee breaks, meals and accommodation.Course fee should be paid by money transfer /international demand draft (DD) in advance or by cash at the time of course registration. Kindly confirm mode of payment. 

Language Requirements

All teaching and course materials are in English. It is essential that participants are fully conversant in English. 

Contact Address 

adpc@adpc.net