Local Leadership for Disaster Resilience: Profiles from Asia and the Pacific

Author(s)
Gupta, M. & Viswanathan, V.
Publication language
English
Pages
28pp
Date published
01 Jul 2020
Type
Research, reports and studies
Keywords
Local capacity, Disaster preparedness, resilience and risk reduction, humanitarian action, Humanitarian Principles, NGOs, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Organisations
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Disaster risks are growing more intense, complex, and unpredictable. This growing unpredictability and intensity of extreme events, in the midst of increasingly complex socio-economic dynamics fuelled by growing inequalities, call for a new approach to resilience building and planning. This is a challenge that cannot be addressed by formal institutions alone.

With a deep understanding of their contexts, local leaders are a vital cog in the wheel of resilience building. They have a unique ability to reach excluded communities who lack access or fall outside the gambit of large-scale programming. Local leaders often possess the capacity to innovate and have a strong understanding of local systems, politics, and culture. Put together, this means a strong position to link preparedness, response, and long-term recovery. 

Local leaders also have a direct role in helping achieve Target E of the Sendai Framework, which aims to ‘Substantially increase the number of countries with national, and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020’, and are among the most influential drivers in achieving the SDGs.

There are countless success stories across Asia-Pacific and the local champions behind them and this publication aims to highlight a few of them.

Authors: 
Gupta, M. & Viswanathan, V.