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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13042147/00001
Notes
- Summary:
- This document examines the integration of DRR into the development plans of a number of Latin American cities. Particular emphasis is placed on community ownership and active local government involvement as foundational to comprehensive DRR for sustainable development. Conditions of risk are socially and geographically specific. Disasters are the result of local factors, with impacts mostly concentrated at the level of households and neighborhoods. Therefore, communities should be the primary actors in the risk management process. This means moving away from a focus on potential large-scale disasters towards the accumulation of risks associated with everyday hazards. This places local governments at the center of DRR. They can have a great impact addressing vulnerability through land use management and zoning policies, regulation and provision of services, health and safety standards, and prevention of unsustainable development on hazardous sites. Though the local level should be the focus of DRR and development, local processes of risk accumulation often coincide with broader forces such as deforestation, climate change, and environmental degradation resulting from policies defined outside the local context. So, coordination amongst various municipalities, sectors, and levels of government is also emphasized. The document examines the city of Manizales, Colombia, and its policies integrating urban environmental and local risk management processes; community initiatives addressing social vulnerability in the municipality of Moreno, Argentina; the emergence of a network of community organizations during the major floods of 2003 in Santa Fe, Argentina; and national government initiatives seen in Colombia and Nicaragua supporting decentralization and risk reduction at the city and municipal levels. The authors believe that DRR and development initiatives implemented by local governments must be focused around the work of community organizations. They often have an intimate relationship with the populations they serve, and critical understanding of the dynamics and conditions that shape the risks these communities face. Local governments in turn must be made formally more democratic through the establishment of elected mayors and city councils, and informally through increased community involvement in the design of these initiatives, thus increasing responsiveness and accountability. And finally, the authors call for decentralizing resources down to the local level to match responsibilities for DRR and development. ( English )
- Subject:
- Disaster Risk Reduction ( English )
- Citation/Reference:
- Hardoy, J., Pandiella, G., Barrero, L.S. (2011). Local disaster risk reduction in Latin American urban areas. International Institute for Environment and Development, Environment and Urbanization 23: 401-413.
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