ISSUE48: FEBRUARY-APRIL 2007
network of research and training centres/programmes
City officers attend UNU-EHS Urban Training Programme
Nineteen municipal officers from seven Latin American capitals attended the Urban Training Programme in San José Costa Rica organised by UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS).
Participants came from La Paz, Quito, Bogota, Tegucigalpa, San Salvador, Managua and San José where they are involved in municipal activities such as water and sanitation, social welfare, development, environment and disaster management. The seminar was hosted by the municipality of Belén, one of the districts of the greater San José Metropolitan area, and was supported by the Federation of Municipalities of the Central American Isthmus (FEMICA) and UNDP-BCPR.
Lectures and plenary sessions were complemented with field trips to the flood-ravaged areas of Desamparados and Belén, where participants inspected damage to houses, private and public infrastructure caused by torrential rainfall last year. They saw the problems caused by urban modification of river channels and basins and discussed emergency measures carried out by municipal authorities and by the National Emergency Commission of Costa Rica.
The workshop also included presentations on vulnerability, environmental degradation and risk management by UNU-EHS experts Dr. Fabrice Renaud, Dr. Joern Birkmann and Dr. Villagran de León. Their presentations focused on identifying similarities in the problems cities are facing as well as risk management practices being used by different municipal divisions.
The municipal officers discussed practices that lead to risks, such as the building on land situated on river banks and high slopes, as well as vulnerabilities arising as an outcome of social processes like migration from rural to urban areas or limitations related to poverty and lack of experience.
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