One-day seminar at UNESCO 4th May 2004 UNITAR faces an increasingly pressing demand from local authorities for technical support in natural disaster and technological risk management and vulnerability reduction at the community level. UNITAR and UNOPS took the lead in convening a seminar on space- based applications – including Earth observation (EO) and telecommunications – for disaster reduction at the regional, municipal and community level. Concomitantly, the First Congress of the newly created United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) organization, product of the fusion between UTO and IULA, is held in Paris, France, from 2 to 5 May This event gathers 3000 delegates. Most of the interested participants and key players of decentralized cooperation are present, including many long- term cooperation partners of both UNOPS and UNITAR.

Agenda (1) Opening: UNESCO Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences ESA Director of Earth Observation Programme Representative of the UN-OOSA Executive Director Experience sharing Matagalpa project (ISDR/UNOPS/Geneva) on strengthening local capacity for territory management KICT Typhoon vulnerability reduction project Review of technologic applications for risk vulnerability reduction in highly vulnerable regions

Agenda (2) Opportunities: ESA presented GMES and GEO ISDR presented Kobe Conference Vehicles: UNOSAT CIFAL Discussion and validation of a possible road map for specific input by local authorities on enhancing access to vulnerability reduction enabling technologies and methods

The importance of the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction for the space sector and local authorities 1.Opportunity for building the case for capacity building at the local level (support to local governments) 2.Opportunity for refocusing on prevention in addition to preparedness and response to crisis 3.Opportunity to state the need for easier access by local actors and authorities to enabling technologies such as satellite imagery and GIS

Plan of action Agreed: Up-to 8 regional preparatory consultations organized jointly with the CIFAL network Possible locations: Matagalpa, Curitiba, Ouagadougou, Durban, Seoul, Marseille, Habitat conference in Madrid Final preparatory meeting to consolidate the outcomes of the regional fora and finalize input to WCDR in Kobe Divonne (F); Side event for local governments to be held in Kobe (Jan. 2005). The results of this event should be considered in the final documents of the conference. Agencies involved so far: UN-ISDR, UNOOSA, UNESCO, HABITAT, UNOPS and UNITAR