Purpose:

This report summarizes the results of the Building Urban Resilience Workshop organized on 30-31 July 2013, in Bangkok, Thailand, by the Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), with support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Overview:

The workshop brought together more than 40 participants from eight Red Cross/Red Crescent (RC/RC) National Societies as well as government counterpart agencies and partner organizations to share learning and insights on building disaster preparedness and resilience in urban settings in Asia.

The workshop looked at existing experience within the RC/RC and at where national societies want to be in the future in supporting communities to achieve resilience in urban settings. Many of the points raised in the workshop were in line with recent studies on this topic in Asia and elsewhere by the RC/RC and other organizations.

The workshop built on lessons from a related event held in Arusha, Tanzania in February 2013. will be followed by a third workshop in Latin America in September 2013. The workshop itself was captured live on Storify at https://storify.com/SM4Resilience/building-urban-resilience-july-30th-31st-2013

Conclusions of the workshop include:

1. Integrated approaches are needed across sectors to reduce duplication, maximize efficiencies, and benefit from community synergies that strengthen resilience.
2. It is too ambitious to assume the RC/RC can or do it alone to support community resilience in isolation from other partners that can help to bring a focus on such areas as economic and investment, infrastructure, and business continuity.
3. Effective strategies are needed to ensure that the RC/RC does not spread itself too thin and can focus on its core strengths in community programming. The use of coalitions at local, national, and global levels can help ensure effective partnering for community service delivery, advocacy, and resource mobilization.

Usage: Learning from experience

Audience: National Society managers and staff