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At a meeting in Kobe, Japan, a consensus to launch a Global Forum on Urban and Megacities Risk was reached among a group of city associations, including the United Cities of Local Governments, Metropolis, CityNet, ICLEI and EMI, UN agencies (UNDP, UN HABITAT,UN/ISDR, UNCRD), ProVention Consortium, the World Bank, and representatives of governments and representatives from highly risk prone municipalities (Mumbai, Quito, Manila, Tehran). Organizations like WHO, OCHA and OECD had also expressed their interest in this subject.

The Forum, which will be launched during the ISDR Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, should focus its activities on bringing tools and commitment to cities on how to implement risk reduction measures to address the root causes of urban vulnerabilities and filling the current gaps in knowledge, policy, organization, and practice related to urban and megacities’ disaster risk reduction. Furthermore, the gathering in Kobe served to advocate for the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction in the urban context, with the city associations and to integrate an urban disaster risk reduction agenda with state and international obligations related to poverty alleviation, sustainable development and environmental management – also proposing to adapt the Hyogo Framework for Action to cities for adoption and promotion among city authorities.

The Forum could be envisioned as a thematic cluster of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in urban areas, similar to the Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning Platform or the International Recovery Platform.

Source: ISDR Highlights, April 2007 Contact: Mr. Hossein Kalali, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it