Jorgelina Hardoy

Urban poverty and vulnerability to climate change in Latin America

This paper considers who within the urban population of Latin America is most at risk from the likely impacts of climate change over the next few decades. It also considers how this risk is linked to poverty and to the inadequacies in city and municipal governments. It discusses those who live or work in locations most at risk (including those lacking the needed infrastructure); those who lack knowledge and capacity to adapt; those whose homes and neighbourhoods face the greatest risks when impacts occur; and those who are least able to cope with the impacts (for instance, from injury, death and loss of property and income). Adaptation to climate change cannot eliminate many of the extreme weather risks, so it needs to limit their impacts through good disaster preparedness and post-disaster response. This paper also discusses the measures currently underway that address the vulnerability of urban populations to extreme weather, and how these measures can contribute to building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Local disaster risk reduction in Latin American urban areas

It is widely acknowledged that disaster risk reduction is a development issue best addressed locally with community involvement, as an integral part of local development. Yet there are many constraints and realities that complicate the attainment of this ideal. This paper reviews the experience in disaster risk reduction in a range of cities, including Manizales, Colombia, which has integrated risk reduction into its development plan and its urban environmental management. The city government has also established an insurance programme for buildings that provides coverage for low-income households. The paper further describes and discusses the experiences of other city governments, including those of Santa Fe in Argentina and Medellín in Colombia. It emphasizes how, in order to be effective, disaster risk reduction has to be driven locally and must include the involvement of communities at risk as well as local governments. It also has to be integrated into development and land use management. But the paper emphasizes how these key local processes need support from higher levels of government and, very often, inter-municipal cooperation. Political or administrative boundaries seldom coincide with the areas where risk reduction needs to be planned and implemented. The paper also includes some discussion of innovations in national systems and funds to support local disaster risk reduction.

Incorporating climate change adaptation into planning for a liveable city in Rosario, Argentina

As climate change impacts are felt within growing numbers of cities in low- and middle-income countries, there is growing interest in the adaptation plans and programmes put forward by city authorities. Yet cities face considerable constraints on this front. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of these constraints by analyzing the case of Rosario, in Argentina. The city has a strong coherent governance system, with a commitment to decentralization, transparency, accountability and participation. Its long tradition of urban planning has evolved to include a broad vision of urban challenges and responses, a commitment to environmental sustainability and a strategic plan that has involved multiple stakeholders. This paper describes the many measures implemented in Rosario over the last 18 years, which provide a solid foundation for more systematically addressing adaptation. It also describes the significant challenges faced by the city’s administration, especially around funding, data and the challenge of responding to pressing and competing interests.

Governance for water and sanitation services in low-income settlements: experiences with partnership-based management in Moreno, Buenos Aires

Over the last 10–15 years, there has been a heated debate about the ability of private companies to provide adequate water and sanitation services to low-income households and their neighbourhoods. There have been a few successful examples of private provision to low-income areas but it has generally not proved possible to replicate these. This paper considers how sparsely populated, low-income and largely unserved urban settlements might obtain full coverage of formal water and sanitation networks under a private concession contract, drawing on the case study of Moreno municipality in Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area. The paper describes an initiative implemented by IIED–América Latina that seeks to address deficiencies in water and sanitation provision through partnership-based management, a participatory process whereby different types of actors collaborate with each other, bringing their own particular strengths. Through awareness-raising and a participatory assessment of water and sanitation provision in the municipality, a local partnership-based management unit was formed. It is hoped that this will be institutionalized into a local water authority. Given that extending conventional water and sewerage services to the many unserved settlements is unrealistic in the short term, the paper suggests that providing both water and sanitation services to the poorest areas like Moreno is likely to happen only if all the actors involved – the public sector, private company, regulator, NGOs and communities – are committed to working together towards a solution.

Institutionalizing climate change adaptation at municipal and state level in Chetumal and Quintana Roo, Mexico

This paper is a report on one of three related case studies in Latin America and shows the progress in the city of Chetumal, and the larger state of which it is the capital (Quintana Roo), in disaster response, especially with regard to cyclones. It also shows the progress in land use and ecological planning through the development of certain tools, which have changed the approach from one of prohibiting action to suggesting alternatives. Rather than stopping development, the focus has been on taking full account of its impacts and trying to make development compatible with environmental protection. There has also been progress in ecosystem conservation and water management, coordinated between different levels of government and different stakeholders. While much of this has taken place within the formal framework set by government, participatory processes have increased civil society awareness and commitment to environmental issues, and its capacity to participate and take a position, especially during the planning stages.

Learning from young people and from our own experiences in Barrio San Jorge

This paper brings together the perceptions of three youths from Barrio San Jorge, a low-income settlement located in the municipality of San Fernando in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, and the more technical views of three adult researchers working in the same barrio with the Instituto Internacional de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo—América Latina (IIED—AL). It highlights youth’s perceptions and aspirations within a context of neighbourhood upgrading and transformation, and discusses some ideas on how best to approach and work with youth, addressing the challenges of integration, participation and commitment.

Una mirada de la gestión de riesgo de desastres desde el nivel local en Argentina

Este documento contiene aportes de la mesa tematica de riesgo de desastres -terremotos, inundaciones, entre otras amenazas naturales enfocada en la construccion de estrategias y en la identificacion de casos que permitan contribuir con esa mision en sus tres dimensiones: identificacion y reduccion del riesgo, asi como respuesta a la emergencia. La mesa tematica busco reconocer casos donde la sociedad civil -en sus multiples formas- haya intervenido en desastres dentro del territorio, preferentemente a nivel municipal, con el proposito de reflexionar sobre la problematica y generar sinergias con ideas que contribuyan al dialogo de politica entre el BID y el gobierno argentino.

Re-thinking “Biomanizales”: addressing climate change adaptation in Manizales, Colombia

This paper reflects on how the city of Manizales, Colombia, is incorporating climate change adaptation into its plans, and how this can build on the foundations of the city’s long-established urban environmental policy (Biomanizales) and local environmental action plan (Bioplan) that have guided urban development and have developed incorporating disaster risk reduction into local development policies and local land use plans. The success is rooted in coherent, multi-level governance, including capacity to integrate disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, land use and territorial planning within a holistic view of development that includes the views and capacities of multiple stakeholders. As the process matures, an acknowledgment of weaknesses leads to improved ways of addressing climate-related risks and adaptation challenges.