Today, the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction (UNDRR) and the Government of Belize signed on to the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative. This unique cross-stakeholder project aims to enhance local resilience by building partnerships between cities and encouraging knowledge sharing. UNDRR Regional Chief Nahuel Arena Garcia explained how the organization plans to create a roadmap for urban resilience in Belize City, helping the city better prepare for and respond to natural disasters. This collaboration marks a significant step towards a safer and more resilient future for Belize’s urban areas.
Nahuel Arena Garcia, Regional Chief, U.N.D.R.R.
“We support countries at national level, but also local level to implement what’s called the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction. The Sendai framework is the global blueprint for reducing disaster risk. So it was adapted in 2015 by the General Assembly and it supports countries or provides guidance for countries to enhance risk knowledge, to enhance disaster risk governance to make sure that every investment, be public or private, contributes to resilience and not to create any new risk and to ensure that countries and the national systems have the right capacities to prepare and response effectively and build back better from disasters.”
Britney Gordon
“So it’s not necessarily the launch of a program, but more so signing on to a commitment.”
Nahuel Arena Garcia
“Exactly. You put it very well. So this is a commitment to engage in a systematic and methodical path to develop the vision, the strategies, the plans that will put both Belize City, but also the national level in a path to resilience. The government of Belize at national level is doing very good advances. However, it requires a strong governance across different sectors. Different ministries need to be involved. The private sector needs to be involved. Reducing disaster risk definitely has to be a whole of society approach. So we are here to support the government of Belize in that in that endeavor.”