Second Volume of the Resilience Learning Module Launched at the Innovate4Cities Conference

Second Volume of the Resilience Learning Module: Strategies and Actions, which provides practical approaches to resilience-building for local, metropolitan, and regional governments, is launched during the #Innovate4Cities Conference. The second volume of the Learning Module which was authored by CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer and Barcelona Tech’s Borja Iglesias, discusses the importance of Enhancing Social Resilience, Managing Resilient Urban Development, Fostering Regional and Ecological Resilience and Effective Response, Recovery and Building Back Better.

The Learning Modules were developed by UCLG in partnership with UN-Habitat and UNDRR as a contribution to the Making Cities Resilient 2030 Initiative. More information about the Learning Modules and its learning activities can be found at https://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/resilience-learning-modules-tools-advance-development-system-based-strategies-and-action

The Role and Challenges of Local Governments in Achieving the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure

The availability of robust and resilient infrastructure influences the sustainable and resilient development of cities and territories. This paper, jointly written by CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer, UNDRR’s Abhilash Panda, and University of Huddersfield’s Dilanthi Amaratunga, examined the role of local governments in addressing resilience of critical infrastructure and the barriers that they face in doing that. It positions the concept of resilient infrastructure within the context of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR), and its localization through the Making Cities Resilient Campaign. The paper examines some of the barriers and challenges in updating and/or building resilient infrastructure at the local level. You can access the full paper at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-73003-1_8

Traditional Knowledge for DRR and Resilience

Traditional knowledge for disaster risk reduction develops through the close relationship of communities with their environment. This accumulated knowledge based on the direct experience with disasters enables the communities to not only build resilience against impending disasters but also respond and recover in post disaster situations. However, rather than merely rediscovering the traditional knowledge, we need to find practical ways of adapting it to contemporary context and mainstreaming it as part of disaster risk management practice. Ebru Gencer attended a webinar organized by the International Centre for the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) based on the “Words into Action Implementation Guide” on this topic that is currently under development as joint initiative of ICCROM and UNDRR.

Presenting the New Learning Module on Resilient Cities

CUDRR+R participated at the Fourth Forum of Territorial Managers and Training Institutes in Africa to present the new UCLG – UN-Habitat- UNDRR Learning Module on Resilient Cities and Territories. The learning module authored by Ebru Gencer aims to support local governments and their associations to fulfill the localization of the Sendai Framework for DRR in order to reduce risk and sustainable and resilient communities.

The first volume of the learning module on the localization of the Sendai Framework discusses the fundamentals of resilience building and their potential integration into local and regional governments’ (LRGs’) policy cycle, providing a base framework for LRGs to understand risk and resilience, enhance risk governance, identify available finance mechanisms and opportunities, and formulate their DRR and resilience building strategies and action plans while building capacities for implementation.

The module can be downloaded at https://lnkd.in/giTXK3c

Berlin Security Conference

CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer was a panelist the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Session on Climate Change and Urban Displacement at Berlin Security Conference on September 2020. The Session moderated by IIED’s Lucy Earle focused on risks and opportunities rising from the new reality of climate change displacement. Interesting case examples included Uganda, Somalia, Kenya and Bangladesh. Ebru Gencer made a presentation on “Inclusive Planning for Climate and Social Resilience in Cities” and provided examples from CUDRR+R’s recent project in Santa Ana, El Salvador.

Seed Grant from Royal Academy of Engineers

We are very happy to announce that CUDRR+R and partners’ project on “Low-carbon seismic resistant building model for Istanbul” received seed-funding from the UK Royal Academy of Engineers.

We look forward to working on this project along with partners Robert Gordon University, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Leeds, Ozyegin University and Bogazici University in Turkey.

Last Steering Committee Meeting of the Making Cities Resilient Campaign

CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer attended the final Steering Committee Meeting of UNDRR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign. The Campaign which was originally launched in 2010 is moving into a new phase to allow for addressing the complex and dynamic risks facing urban areas. To that end, the newly redesigned MCR2030 will have a new global partnership to address implementation in cities.

Along with Ebru Gencer, the final MCR Campaign Steering Committee meeting was attended by Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat; Ms. Mami Mizutori, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for DRR; Mr. Esteban Leon, the Head of UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Program; Mr. Braulio Eduardo Morero, Resilient Cities Network, Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga, University of Huddersfield, Ms. Violeta Seva, Makati City and other Steering Committee Members.

CUDRR+R Statement on Racial Injustice and Equitable Resilience

CUDRR+R Statement on Racial Injustice and Equitable Resilience  

The Center for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (CUDRR+R) is a non-profit research center with a mission to produce knowledge and undertake practices and partnerships that will advance urban risk reduction and resilience building to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change.

Our mission is more important than ever as we are facing complex disasters and stresses in our society. The COVID-19 pandemic and its cascading impacts on all aspects of public life, as well as social stresses rising from systemic racial injustice have exposed the vulnerabilities in our communities. It has become apparent to all that African American, indigenous, and other communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic as well as other shocks and stresses.  Furthermore, the pandemic has currently intersected with social unrest rising from systemic racial injustice, amplifying the complex vulnerabilities and risks of the African American populations in the United States.

In its short existence, CUDRR+R has strived to bring forth research on resilient and equitable urban development. We denounce racism and discrimination in all its forms and commit to developing knowledge and practices that will support resilience-building, particularly of the most vulnerable groups. As academicians, researchers, and the built environment professionals, we will continue seek and disseminate evidence-based knowledge and practices, while ensuring that they advance equity for all.

Executive Director

Ebru A. Gencer

Right-to-Heal

Esra Akcan, CUDRR+R Board Member and Cornell University Professor of Architecture received the prestigious Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship. During her time at Harvard, Akcan researched her next book project, Right-to-heal: Architecture in Post-Conflict and Post-Disaster Societies, which explores architecture’s role in transitional justice after intense upheavals and internal conflicts, such as state violence, environmental disasters, civil wars, ethnic cleansing, and economic meltdown. This book aims to critically examine opportunistic responses to crises that foreclose the right to heal and pinpoint best practices that move toward a more meaningful reconstitution.

Listen an excerpt from Esra Akcan’s upcoming book in this lecture at the Radcliffe Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZE4mZoq7tc

Also see Akcan’s discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on cities and future of architecture and planning in this interview at the Radcliffe Institute https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ideas/how-to-build-a-better-world

Resilience Learning Module: Localizing the Sendai Framework for DRR

United Cities Local Governments (UCLG) the international organization that represents Local Governments and their Associations tasked CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer to develop a Resilience Learning Module that will support Localization of the Sendai Framework across Local Governments and their Associations.

The Learning Module that was developed in partnership with UN-Habitat and UNDRR aims to support local authorities in the creation of an enabling environment for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Resilience Building. The module aims to foster learning and raising awareness about the links between local action and the achievement of the global agendas, particularly that of the Sendai Framework for DRR.

The first volume of the learning module on the localization of the Sendai Framework discusses the fundamentals of resilience building and their potential integration into local and regional governments’ (LRGs’) policy cycle, providing a base framework for LRGs to understand risk and resilience, enhance risk governance, identify available finance mechanisms and opportunities, and formulate their DRR and resilience building strategies and action plans while building capacities for implementation.