Making Cities Resilient for the Philippines
October 30, 2022
CDIA provided insights on preparing bankable and climate-resilient infrastructure projects to local governments in the Philippines during the urban resilience training workshops held on 19-20 and 25-28 October, respectively. The activities were part of the Making Cities Resilient (MCR) 2030 initiative.
Organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Global Education and Training Institute (GETI) and other MCR 2030 partners, the courses aimed to increase the knowledge and capacities of local governments on disaster risk reduction and resilience.
On 20 October, CDIA Program Manager Ramon Abracosa served as a resource person for the introductory training on urban and local resilience for the Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense, local government units, and affiliated organizations. The two-day event was held virtually with more than 60 Philippine officials in attendance.
On 28 October, Capacity Development Specialist Kathleen Jovellanos served as a speaker for two Philippine cities – Baguio and Ormoc, as 20 of their government officials representing various city departments underwent MCR2030’s fundamental training on urban resilience. In addition, representatives from the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City and Vadadora in India as well as Suva in Fiji attended as observers during the four-day activity, which was held in-person in Incheon, Republic of Korea.
Ramon and Kathleen focused on CDIA’s work in integrating climate resilience into infrastructure project preparation and making climate-resilient projects bankable to increase their chances of accessing finance for their implementation.
They shared the vast financing opportunities post-COP26, with private capital committing to align investments with net-zero ambitions and international development financing organizations considerably enlarging their climate resilience portfolio.
Cities must be able to take advantage of these opportunities, and therefore, CDIA highlighted the critical elements in attracting funds for urban infrastructure projects: capacity of the city as a viable investment partner by creating an enabling environment, feasibility of the investment project, and alignment with financiers’ priorities.
Project preparation facilities such as CDIA can provide technical assistance to cities to help them define, study, refine, and develop their infrastructure concept to a point that it becomes bankable and attractive for implementation financing from public and private sources.
MCR2030 is a unique cross-stakeholder initiative for improving local resilience through advocacy, sharing knowledge and experiences, establishing mutually reinforcing city-to-city learning networks, injecting technical expertise, connecting multiple layers of government, and building partnerships.
CDIA has been a participating entity and service provider of MCR2030 since 2021.
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