Cordaid and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have partnered to build an Urban Disaster Resilience framework in Freetown, in partnership with Freetown City Council. This framework ensures a sustainable and effective bottom-up approach to urban development which will be community-driven.
urban development
In a bid to ensure that at-risk communities were properly mapped out, Cordaid and CRS are designing a ‘Catchment Area Platform’ (CAP). This is an entity that links local government, private sector and communities. The design was tested during an Urban Disaster Resilience Framework workshop week at New Brookfields Hotel, where all different stakeholders were present to provide input.
The workshop started with a presentation by Freetown’s Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyer on her 4-year development plan of Freetown. Her plan will be used to align the designed framework during the workshop week so that Cordaid and CRS may complement the Urban Development plan of Freetown. Next to it, the framework will align with Sendai Framework for DRR.
This collaborative engagement between the highest levels of government and communities is unique and exciting.
Cordaid and CRS have learned that communities are connected and that programming can be scaled up to catchment level, which is an interconnected area from up to hillside to down at sea level, sharing all water run-off. In the focus catchment area there are 10 communities (Lower catchment: Kroo Bay, C.K.G, Congo Town. Middle Catchment: Dwarzak, New England. Upper Catchment: Sumaila Town, Tree Planting, Sorie Town, Leicester Road, Hill Station).
“What’s unique, exciting and sustainable about this project is the collaborative engagement between the highest levels of government and the community”, says Mohamed Sesay, Cordaid Country Director in Sierra Leone. “The community driven and managed approach gives people the skills to continue, with the support—when needed—from external partners.”
Cordaid and CRS are now working out an Urban Disaster Resilience joint program for the catchment area in Freetown. This will be in line with the Urban Development plan of Freetown, aiming to strengthen disaster coping capacities of the catchment area and its communities.
Featured image: Session during the workshop week at New Brookfields Hotel. From right to left: Cordaid Country Director Mohamed Sesay, Shannon Royden-Turner (South African consultant on urban resilience), Aminata Dumbuya (manager at Masada Waste Management, a waste management company in Freetown) and Eelke Boerema (Cordaid Intern Resilience Program Manager.
Source: Cordaid
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