[by Mave Bastías | 3rd WCDRR Sendai | 16 March 2015 | Day 3]
Voices from Latin America have been heard loud in the Working Sessions today at the WCDRR, coming with messages from the frontline from two GNDR members. In the morning, José Ramón Ávila from ASONOG, gave important elements for decision makers to consider about the Underlying Risk Factors direct link with social and economic vulnerabilities caused by development and the climate change trends in Honduras. Coming with important information based on evidence from his region, at the end of the presentation he showed a picture where the communities' people are signing their commitment to work on DRR at the frontline, with their hopes and compromises with the poorest.
In the afternoon, Adolfo Millabur, Mayor of Tirua (Chile) and one of the main indigenous Mapuche Lafkenche leader, presented their communitarian intercultural perspective in the Session related to Communities facing local risks, remarking the importance to take into account the cultural capital of the indigenous people in DRR strategies at local level. On the other hand, he stated that in spite the strong potential of their heritage in building community resilience, this is not enough for the community because it is based on a balanced relationship with the nature; this balance is altered by level of risks caused by the productive systems models in his territory.
Both expositions showed the gap between the disposition and capabilities of the people at the frontline and the needs to tackle politically at national and global level the gaps for DRR provoked by the development strategies needed to really reduce risk at the communitarian level. People in the communities have been building in many cases their own collective strategies to confront disasters, whatever the back from the hit after disaster is naturalising the poor conditions.
Multistakeholder concertation at national, subnational and territorial level is seen as an urgent call, as is the recognition of the importance to promote the participation and empowerment of the communities and the leadership of their local government at the local level. The relevance of the role for the local government cannot be disputed, but them alone are un able to confront the problematics related to national development plans and the acceptable levels of risk that finally are experienced locally, affecting peoples' rights.
"Resilience" still sounds as wording lacking rights.
