Local Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean

Direct  beneficiaries: i) Local and national government institutions responsible for disaster risk reduction and local development; ii) Municipal authorities and planning departments in small and medium-sized cities; iii) Community-based organisations, grassroots leaders, local academia and technical practitioners engaged in municipal planning; iv) Regional integration organisations and national DRR platforms committed to multilevel coordination and knowledge exchange.

End  beneficiaries: populations living in high-risk neighbourhoods across targeted LAC small and medium-sized cities.

Outcome 1 Mainstreaming DRR in municipal planning (city/municipal level): city governments will have updated data, high-quality risk maps and digital tools, and local staff will know how to use them.

Outcome 2 Local solutions integrating DRR (neighbourhood level): selected vulnerable neighbourhoods will design and implement practical resilience measures and solutions to multi risks.

Outcome 3 Governance and capacity building (national and regional level): institutional capacities will enhance to integrate DRR into municipal planning within policies and budgets.

Principaux résultats attendus:  

• 16 cities across 8 LAC selected countries developed updated risk maps, and conducted detailed risk analyses and digital risk inventories.

• At least 8 neighbourhood-scale master plans are co-created to guide the transformation of high-risk precarious settlements into safer, more resilient spaces.

• 1 regional guide on neighbourhood-level DRR solutions will be developed, compiling replicable practices and pilot results for scaling across LAC.

• Capacity building reaches 240 municipal staff across the region (50% women), empowering them with skills in munipal planning including DRR.

• 10 high-quality knowledge products (case studies, tools, manuals, and policy briefs) will be published to support decision-makers and practitioners.

• 2 regional and 8 national urban forums are organised facilitating South-South learning and regional policy dialogue.

• An estimated 2.3 million people directly or indirectly benefited from improved municipal planning, risk reduction infrastructure, and institutional frameworks delivered by the programme.

Principaux résultats antérieurs:   The present initiative has been developed based on lessons learned from previous international cooperation initiatives in local development and disaster risk reduction, particularly responding to the need to shift from project-based interventions to institutionalised, multi-level approaches. Gaps such as weak disaster risk reduction integration into town growth planning, fragmented data systems, and limited coordination are issues that explicitly will be addressed through this new initiative focusing on embedding riskinformed tools in municipal processes, formal capacitybuilding agreements, and harmonisation with national and regional frameworks. Peer learning, successful in earlier interventions, will now be systematised across cities, while local ownership is reinforced through co-design and knowledge transfer protocols. Thus, past lessons shape both strategy and delivery mechanisms and hence ensuring that this intervention consolidates and scales what worked, while tackling structural limitations previously identified.

Organisations: UNDRR, ECLAC, IDB, CAF, CABEI, AECID, GCF.

Regional  integration  organisations: SICA/CEPREDENAC, CAN/CAPRADE.

Projects  and  Initiatives: Regional Hub Lima Portfolio (CALAC+,CEELA, Water in Emergencies), MCR2030 (led by UNDRR).

Swiss Allies: Swiss Representations (responsible for Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba), SECO (Colombia, Peru).

Phase 1 06.10.2025 - 05.10.2029   (Active)