ANNEX 6: MEXICO CITY CASE STUDY
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Key Constraints
Key constraints in dealing effectively with climate change, disaster risk, and the urban poor include: INSTITUTIONAL COORDINATION—Despite significant progress in establishing an interinstitutional commission, the main challenge continues to be coordination and cooperation. Even though the program is designed to cut across institutional boundaries, limited ownership by the participants might hinder its success. COMMON DATA PLATFORMS—Currently multiple agencies are taking actions but with limited communication or information exchange among concerned agencies. Furthermore, each agency has its own information platform, which hinders data sharing. This signals a strong need to develop a single common interface that all government agencies can use for data storage and use. LIMITED BUDGET ALLOCATION—Although the execution of the MCCAP has an estimated cost of approximately US$5 billion, most of which is budgeted for mitigation, there has been limited transfer of money. The only instrument that could specifically provide resources for the action plan is the Environmental Public Fund, while the remaining identified actions would have to be financed through each respective agency’s annual budgets. Looking Forward
A few basic principles can guide the way forward for addressing climate change, disaster risk, and urban poverty in Mexico: • The consolidation of an institutional framework able to drive the mediumand long-term challenges posed by climate change and natural disasters is instrumental for protecting the most vulnerable. This framework must specify clearly each agency’s role while fostering synergies and collaboration. • A common language (for example, technical terms and concepts), as well as a common strategic direction for assessing challenges and progress toward adaptation and resilience, is critical for mainstreaming this agenda in metropolitan governance. • The strategies for climate action plans should explicitly include reducing and mitigating the impacts of meteorological events to the most vulnerable. • Community-based social prevention is an important component of disaster prevention • Further work is necessary to unlock barriers in the development of the earlywarning system.