During May 2022, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in collaboration with the Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA) and), and with the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), facilitated City Resilience Assessments (CRA) in My Tho and Nam Dinh cities, Viet Nam. The participatory workshops were important to assess the urban resilience levels of the target cities. The assessment workshop was held on 17 May 2022 in My Tho city and on 25 May 2022 in Nam Dinh city.
Workshop participants were given an introduction to the URCE program, as well as the CRA, its objectives and the method of assessment. During the assessment, participants were split into 4 domain discussion groups (health and wellbeing, society and economy, infrastructure and environment, and governance, leadership and strategy). The group discussions involved identifying past urban resilience initiatives, and presenting capacity challenges, gaps and needs focusing on urban resilience and how this might be achieved.
The CRA was adapted from the City Resilience Index (CRI) developed by Arup with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. The CRI consists of several goals and indicators within four domains, which are 1. health and well-being, 2. economy and society, 3. infrastructure and environment, and 4. leadership and strategy. Under the URCE program, modifications were made to the CRI to better reflect the characteristics of the program, and the disaster risk reduction & climate change issues of the target cities. Thirteen indicators of CRI linked with the URCE program outcomes and were used for further assessment of city resilience level to climate extremes in the My Tho and Nam Dinh cities.
The main objectives of the CRA workshop were to:
- Understand the current level of city resilience of the target cities, with a focus on disaster preparedness, emergency response of mental health and psychosocial support systems, water sanitation and hygiene, nutrition in emergencies, transport and energy, and urban risk governance systems.
- Set up a baseline and end line parameters for the target cities linked to the URCE program outcomes, and to measure the effectiveness of the program interventions.
- Identify current challenges, gaps and needs of all relevant sectors in regard to urban resilience to climate extremes and disaster risk.
The nature of the CRA is multi-dimensional and depended on the active participation of national, provincial and city level stakeholders. There were 47 participants in the My Tho City workshop, and 23 participants in the Nam Dinh City workshop. Participants included officials from agencies such as the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Construction, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Transport, and organizations such as the Red Cross Society and the Women’s Unions, and commune and ward health clinics, among others.
