A city launch workshop was organized on Friday the 23rd June 2017 at the SANMA Provincial Headquarters for the COASTAL CITIES Resilience PROJECT. The day concluded with a speech from the Municipality Mayor and the Sanma Province Acting SG and 9 new signatories to the MoU for working together on building urban resilience. The project was endorsed by the NAB and NDMO in Vila in May.
Vanuatu Red Cross Society with support from American Red Cross, Global Disaster Preparedness Center, IFRC and USAID have selected Luganville to pilot this exciting 18 month project. Luganville will represent the “Pacific” context, while two cities in Indonesia represent the “South East Asia” context. In second phase, the project would roll out in other countries based on our leanings.
In Luganville, through this project, a sub-working group was formed to complement the Provincial Disaster and Climate Change Committee and will draw in wider support from local businesses, universities and other stakeholders in Luganville. They will undertake a city wide risk assessment will draw together existing knowledge and anchor the start of the work.
The end result of the assessments will be a listing of priority risks facing local communities, households, businesses, community, and government structures in Luganville.
Coastal Cities face a higher risk of exposure to flooding, cyclones and extreme weather events caused by climate change. Because of this higher risk, the traditional actions may not be enough. For this reason, the project will, target climate smart resilience and coastal risk reduction in particular.
If you wish to be part of the project or assessments, please contact Jeff, the supervisor on luganvilleprojectsupervisor@redcrossvanuatu.com or come and see us in the SANMA Branch Office, on top of the Provincial HQ.