Introductory Workshop “Urban Resilience”

On June 25, 2021, the city of Yakutsk hosted the introductory workshop “Urban Resilience” in the offline and online formats as part of the Eurasia Local and Regional Governments Congress. This workshop was organized by UCLG-Eurasia jointly with the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Yakutsk Administration. UCLG Learning team with the headquarters in Barcelona (Spain) provided the organizational support in preparing the seminar.

The main objective of the event was to raise awareness of global agendas and urban resilience programs among local and regional governments. 

The workshop was moderated by Project Coordinator of UCLG-Eurasia Tansylu Nurieva.

Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia Rasikh Sagitov delivered a welcome address and highlighted that, according to the New Urban Agenda, urban resilience is defined by the city’s ability to prepare for, respond to, adapt to and rapidly recover from the effects of hazards, including shocks or latent stresses.

Irina Oltyan, Scientific Secretary in the rank of Deputy Head of the All-Russian Research Institute for Civil Defense and Emergencies of the EMERCOM of Russia, presented the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction for 2015-2030, the UN global campaign "My City is Getting Ready!" and the “Sendai – Russia” website. “The Sendai Framework contains 7 global goals and 4 priority areas that should be implemented on a voluntary basis at the local, national, regional and global levels,” stressed Irina Oltyan.

Sara Hoeflich, Learning Director of the UCLG World Organization, and Juan Carlos Uribe, Learning Officer of UCLG, presented Resilience Learning Modules. The first module includes information on the fundamentals of resilience: the Sendai Framework, its link to the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as definition of such notions as “disaster risk reduction” and “resilience”. Talking about resilient management, Juan Carlos highlighted the importance of not only responding to emergencies by local governments, but also building resilience to disasters. The second module will focus on building resilience through cultural, social and economic policies.

The next speaker was Amaya Celaya, Senior Expert of UN-Habitat on the City Resilience Profiling Program. She delivered a speech dedicated to this Program and presented "Recommendations of Actions for Resilience and Sustainability of Yakutsk" developed jointly with the city of Yakutsk.

For the city of Yakutsk, the issue of resilience is relevant due to the melting of permafrost. Severina Arkhipova, Head of the Department of Urban Development and Transport Infrastructure of the Yakutsk Administration, told the participants of the introductory workshop about the involvement of Yakutsk in the City Resilience Profiling Program, as well as the activities of the Department.

At the end of the introductory workshop, the open discussion was organized, during which the Deputy Rector for Analytical and Expert Activities of the Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University Aleksandr Kugaevskyand Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia Rasikh Sagitov took the floor.

07.07.2021

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