Rio de Janeiro strengthens municipal capacity for urban and climate resilience
Public servants from 77 of Rio de Janeiro's 92 municipalities, 84 % of the state, can now factor disaster risk reduction into the decisions their cities make on land use, infrastructure, budgets and public policy. More than 130 of them built that capacity through a virtual course linking the principles of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction to the choices local governments make every day.
Entitled Building Resilient Cities: the Ten Essentials in Action, the course was delivered by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) from January to April 2026. It was the first of five courses in a broader capacity-development pathway for municipal and state public servants.
The training pathway forms part of the Ambiente Resiliente programme, carried out under the partnership between the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, through its Secretariat of State for the Environment and Sustainability (SEAS-RJ), and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). Classes were hosted on Universidade do Ambiente, Inea's online learning platform.
The course centred on Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) and introduced participants to its Ten Essentials and its approach to local resilience planning. This global, cross-stakeholder initiative helps local governments reduce risk and strengthen resilience. Its three-stage roadmap connects cities with practical tools and with other local governments facing similar challenges.
A local route through the Ten Essentials
The Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient translate the priorities of the Sendai Framework into an operational framework for local governments. Participants were also introduced to the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities, a self-assessment tool that helps municipalities examine their capacities and identify areas for improvement.
The course covered how cities organize for resilience, identify and use present and future risk scenarios, strengthen financial capacity and guide risk-sensitive urban development. It also addressed the protection of ecosystems, institutional and social capacity, resilient infrastructure, preparedness and response, and recovery and building back better.
The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) contributed showing municipalities how to tag resilience spending in their own budgets, a practical bridge between risk knowledge and public investment. Case studies from Campinas and Brazil’s National Secretariat for Protection and Civil Defence (SEDEC) informed discussions on early warning, preparedness and anticipatory action. UN-Habitat also delivered an additional session on its Strategic Plan and global urban resilience challenges.
Participants also explored the Sendai Gender Action Plan (GAP) and scorecard tools on gender equality and disability inclusion. These tools reinforced that urban resilience must work for everyone, particularly people who experience disproportionate disaster risk, including women, older persons, persons with disabilities and people facing socioeconomic vulnerability. The GAP also emphasizes the importance of involving these groups in policies and decisions intended to protect them.
By the end of the course, the share of participants who understood that "disasters are not natural" had risen by 65 %, a shift in mindset that underpins everything the training set out to achieve.
Building a common foundation for local action
The learning cycle was introduced through a public masterclass in October 2025 led by Adriana Campelo, UNDRR National Programme Officer and MCR2030 Coordinator for the Americas and the Caribbean, who managed UNDRR's contribution to the project. The session addressed risks faced by Brazilian cities, including floods, landslides and other extreme events, and presented the Sendai Framework and MCR2030 as references for reducing risk before disasters occur.
Marie Ikemoto, Undersecretary for Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation at SEAS-RJ, highlighted the course’s contribution to strengthening technical capacity across the state: "We will have an even better prepared technical workforce to face extreme events, reduce risks and protect people and territories," Ikemoto said.
In the municipality of Paracambi, the course fostered strong collective engagement, bringing together municipal staff members from different departments.
Mariana Oliveira da Costa, Superintendent for Climate and Extreme Events at the Secretariat for Environment and Climate of Paracambi, highlighted that the climate agenda has changed the municipality’s approach to management. "We can no longer think of management as each department working within its own silo. When we are dealing with a cross-cutting issue, such as climate change, our response must also be cross-cutting. We are now working to put the knowledge we have gained through the course into practice," Oliveira said.
For municipalities that choose to join MCR2030, the course provides a foundation for assessing their position on the resilience roadmap and identifying possible next steps. More broadly, it has expanded the number of public servants able to connect risk information with municipal planning and investment. How that knowledge is applied will depend on the hazards, institutions and priorities of each municipality, but the training has established a shared basis for advancing safer and more resilient urban development across Rio de Janeiro.