ECLAC participates in the IV edition of the Resilience School of Mercocities

Villa Maria, Cordoba, Argentina, May 30, 2022.

Within the countries of the region, cities have become one of the fundamental actors for urban planning with a focus on climate action and disaster risk reduction. This circumstance is especially relevant for a region such as Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) where around 82% of its population lives in cities, and in which a large part of production and consumption is concentrated. In this context, it is essential that cities carry out processes for economic, social and environmental sustainability specific to their territory, with a multidimensional approach. In this sense, ECLAC has been supporting the establishment of comprehensive policy guidelines for the sustainable development of the countries of the region.

Mercocities Its mission is to enhance regional identity and integration to ensure the development of cities and well-being in South America. As part of its activities, it generates spaces for training, articulation and international cooperation, for which the School of Resilience responds to the interest of promoting these spaces, which allow facing the main challenges of cities, such as disaster risk management and building urban resilience. In its IV Edition, the theme of “inclusive and creative education for urban resilience” was addressed, with hybrid participation, on May 30 and 31, 2022, in the city of Villa María, in Córdoba. , Argentina, the hosts of the eventan initiative managed within the framework of its Integrated Development Program.

The host mayor, Mr. Martín Rodrigo Gill, emphasized that “it is in the territory where this different capacity is given, because one feels questioned every day and knows that what happens affects him directly”, adding that “resilience translates into in concrete problems, on which it is necessary to prevent, intervene and plan”. The opening day was also accompanied by the president of Mercocities and mayor of Esteban Echeverría, Fernando Gray, the director of Strategic Alliances of the Resilient Cities Network, Eugene Zapata, and the president of the White Helmets of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, Sabina Frederic.

Next, and as part of the opening program, they discussed “the importance of local actors in the construction of the resilience strategy” whose panel was made up of Estefani Rondón Toro, Research Assistant of the DDSAH of ECLAC, Lautaro Lorenzo, executive secretary of Mercocities and Luis Bonilla of Resilient Cities Network. Estefani Rondón Toro’s presentation began by highlighting the aspects of climate change in the LAC region, emphasizing the asymmetry between emissions and vulnerability, the high inequality in the countries, and the inevitability and urgency of adaptation. At the same time, he emphasized that it would be necessary to establish a clear vision of urban policy that is adequate for present and future challenges, to help solve the challenge of creating resilient cities and local governments with greater capacity to resist crises such as that of the pandemic and other socio-economic stresses, which are likely to recur in a predominantly urban world.

For two days different activities were carried out, which brought together actors from local governments from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay. Within the program, Mrs. Rondón presented the document on “Tools to accelerate the implementation of climate action plans in Latin America and the Caribbean”, as a methodological input for decision-making by local governments in the field of climate action.

During the second day, three cases of cities in the region were analyzed, with the aim of knowing specifically the impacts of climate change already identified in their local contexts, to generate a resilience strategy in the short, medium and long term. The feedback experience was very fruitful based on the solutions provided by professionals from the different participating countries.