Whole-of-Society Approach to Creating Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Cities: Harnessing South-South Cooperation for a Post-COVID Era

Overview: The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world what climate change has yet to, that prevailing risk governance and risk management architecture, mechanisms and approaches are inadequate when dealing with systemic, interconnected drivers of risks and cascading impacts. It demonstrated the consequences of failing to grasp and manage the drivers of risk creation and propagation in and across sectors, disciplines, geographies, scales and through time which negatively impact the health and well-being of humans and ecosystems and exacerbate vulnerabilities and exposure.(The Report of the Midterm Review of the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030)

2023 marks the midpoint in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda and other 2015 agreements which provides a major opportunity for all to review the progress and change course towards sustainable and resilient future for all. The finding from the Mid-term Review of the Sendai Framework reveals that while progress is being made, risk creating is outstripping risk reduction and the progress in risk governance and decentralization of disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies and implementation at the local level remains a challenge. Collaboration is critical not only with government offices, institutions, or entities responsible for disaster and crisis management, but also with all stakeholders, requiring an all-of-society and all-of-government engagement and partnership for its achievement. Capacity building of local risk management is a key priority that must be supported and guided by the national-level authorities and partners at all levels. It is also highly crucial to ensure inclusivity in DRR governance structure and enable whole-of-society engagement and participation.

The Buenos Aires outcome document of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40) in 2019, recognizes that local authorities as well as women and youth, play a growingly indispensable role in South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) which can take different forms, such as knowledge sharing, training and capacity building, and technology exchange in thematic areas, such as disaster risk mitigation and climate change. BAPA+40 outcome document also places need and importance to promote inclusive societies for achieving sustainable development, and to build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.

According to the UN, as of 2021, the global youth population is estimated to be 1.2 billion (16% of world population) and about 60% of world’s young people live in developing countries. Youth can play significant role in DRR and have the potential to build safer and more resilient communities through, for example, raising awareness on DRR and disaster preparedness and response, advocating for policy changes and better DRR strategies that prioritize the needs and safety of their communities, promoting youth volunteerism in disaster response efforts; developing and utilizing innovative technologies and digital and social media tools that can help in DRR, and serving as a catalyst for community engagement.

Since 2020, UNOSSC, UNDRR GETI, PAHO/WHO and WHO have jointly organized three annual certificate online training programmes focusing on harnessing South-South Cooperation, DRR and integration of health emergency response and preparedness in building resilience cities and societies, responding to different phases of the outbreak, emergency response and recovery of COVID-19 pandemic. The past three annual training series were well attended by over 6000+ participants from 155 countries and territories.

Building on the success of past three training series and learning from the pandemic, the fourth annual training was organized in June 2023 with the aim to provide a foundation of thoughts for engaging multi-governments and multi-stakeholders especially most at-risk groups such as women, youth and person with disabilities in DRR and public health emergency response and preparedness. The course emphasizes a whole-of-society approach to managing complex risk and creating healthy, sustainable, and resilient cities with practical examples and useful tools.

Course duration: Approximately 6 hours.

Certificates: A Certificate of Achievement will be available to participants who score at least 80% of the total points available across all the quizzes that appear at the end of each module. Participants who receive a Certificate of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.