Making Cities Sustainable and Resilient: Lessons learned from the Disaster Resilience Scorecard assessment and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) action planning

‘Making cities sustainable and resilient: Implementing the Sendai Framework for DRR at the local level’, is a three-year initiative (2016-2019) supported by the European Commission to improve understanding and capacity to address disaster risks and build resilience at local levels, with a focus on crisis-prone cities. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and implementing partners have worked with over 200 cities and local governments to assess gaps and progress in addressing local resilience; and with 20 pilot cities in developing and implementing climate and disaster resilience plans.

This report seeks to capture the cities’ experiences and lessons learned by reviewing the opportunities and challenges faced by those who took part and their recommendations for improving the process. It shows how, through the completion of scorecard assessments and DRR action plans, cities raised awareness and understanding of issues and their connectedness. The process built local capacity, generated awareness and interest, and created or strengthened stakeholder partnerships.