Cities more resilient to socio-natural disasters

Are our cities prepared to manage risk in the face of socio-natural disasters?

 The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently published “Ciudades a prueba de futuro: fortalecer la resiliencia ante desastres”  (Future-Proof Cities: Strengthening Disaster Resilience), a report in Spanish that summarizes a collaborative process with 16 local governments in the Southern Cone. This initiative aimed to strengthen institutional capacities in territorial planning and risk management to address the growing challenges that cities face due to extreme natural events and climate uncertainty.

In this particular instance, IDOM collaborated with the IDB to orchestrate and operationalize the program, thereby contributing to a comprehensive capacity-building process that amalgamated a plethora of methodologies, the generation of applied knowledge, and opportunities for exchange among cities. This approach integrated different dimensions of urban resilience, promoting an integrated perspective on planning, prevention, governance, and disaster risk management.

The program included developing specialized knowledge modules to transfer key concepts and applicable methodologies, conducting synchronous sessions to strengthen criteria and tools for informed decision-making, and collaborating in meetings to facilitate the exchange of experiences, lessons learned, and best practices among participating technical teams.

Thus, this publication serves as a strategic resource for subnational governments and urban professionals by offering concrete tools to integrate resilience into planning, strengthen local-level risk governance, and prepare cities for disasters.