Cities and their residents are at the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than half of humanity live in urban settings. Conditions in cities have fanned the pandemic and the pandemic has deeply impacted cities.
The link between healthy populations and healthy economies could not be more obvious. The pandemic is expected to lead to 15 to 25 percent less revenue of municipal authorities around the world in 2021. This is expected to reach a staggering 30 to 65 percent in African cities. Cities are also suffering from the devastating impact of lockdown measures on informal economies, the lifeblood of many urban areas in developing countries, compounded with inadequate safety nets to soften the blow for the workers. Moreover, cities coping with economic shocks, aging infrastructure, and declining populations and cities relying on tourism, hospitality, transport, or logistics, are particularly affected. Like in any human setting, existing socio-economic inequities in cities have surfaced and further fanned the flames of the pandemic. The poorest, most excluded city dwellers have been the hardest hit.
Course Objective
This training serves as an introductory training and aims enhance urban leaders and planners by:
- Increasing the understanding, and capacities in disaster and risk reduction, for effective and equitable public health emergency response, and South-South cooperation.
- Better prepare stakeholders for the re-opening cities following the COVID-19 pandemic and better prepare for future crises – especially health emergencies;
- Facilitate city-to-city partnerships in South-South and triangular cooperation (SSTC) towards sustainable development.
By the end of this training, participants shall be able to:
- Describe and understand disaster risk reduction, public health emergency response and South-South and triangular cooperation;
- Explain SSTC trends and policies in disaster risk reduction, Sendai framework and other disaster risk reduction frameworks, public health responses at urban levels.
- Provide examples of cities’ COVID-19 responses, share relevant solutions on DRR and health emergency responses, and exchange cities’ SSTC experiences and good practices on DRR and health emergency responses;
- Use tools related to disaster risk reduction planning, public health response and SSTC.
Date and Time
8 – 29 June 2021 (Tuesdays, 4 weeks)
Session 1: Tuesday, 8 June 2021
Session 2: Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Session 3: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Session 4: Tuesday, 29 June 2021
Total of 4 online sessions and 1 self-paced assessment.
All online sessions will be held for 90 minutes from 7:30 am (New York) and 8:30 pm (Incheon).