UNDRR ROAS Making Cities Resilient 2030 Webinar: Empowering Local Governments in Tunisia

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) and the Ministry of Local Affairs and Environment in the Republic of Tunisia organized a national webinar under the title “Resilient Cities: Introduction to the Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030).” The webinar came as a part of a series of actions to raise awareness and develop competencies of the Arab cities and to empower local governments and support their efforts to reduce risks and build resilience through the MCR2030 programme.

Mayors and representatives of different municipal councils attended the webinar, which aimed to encourage Tunisian municipalities to join the MCR2030 programme and contribute to the implementation and achievement of the objectives of the Sendai Framework 2015-2030, thus allowing the creation of a network of resilient cities at different levels (national, regional, continental, and international).

“The local governments and municipalities in Tunisia are committed to joining the resilience roadmap and contributing to the achievement of sustainable development on the local level,” said Mohamed Ali Bin Yamsek, Director of Ecology and Nature in his remarks. “We look forward to continued collaboration and coordination with UNDRR ROAS in this regard.”

“Why MCR2030? Simply, because rapid and informal urbanization is a major risk driver,” said Rania Hammad, External Relations Officer, UNDRR ROAS, in her opening remarks. “With more than 55% of our population living in urban areas, cities are on the front line of both climate impact and climate action.” For the record, in 2018, 32 out of 33 megacities were highly vulnerable to disaster-related mortality from at least one of the six types of natural disasters.

The MCR2030 Resilience Roadmap guides cities through sustainable development towards resilience. It helps cities understand where they are on their resilience journey and provides insight and partnership opportunities to ensure they are safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

An overview of the MCR2030 programme’s strategic objectives, its benefits for cities, the role of local governments and the private sector, as well as guidelines on the signing up process were presented in the webinar.

Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) is a unique cross-stakeholder initiative for improving local resilience through advocacy, sharing knowledge and experiences, reinforcing city-to-city learning networks, injecting technical expertise, connecting multiple layers of government, and building partnerships.

Source: United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Arab States