The Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on 27 September 2022 has named Makati City as the Philippines’ and Southeast Asia’s very first Resilience Hub. 

The UNDRR defines resilience hubs as local governments or authorities which have political and technical commitment to address climate and disaster risks. Cities aiming to be a resilience hub must have reached a high level of resilience-building commitments, showed sustained mechanisms for resilience investments, and have an expertise and interest in sharing their best practices to other cities in the MCR2030 network. 

The resilience hub status is renewable every three years.  

Makati Mayor Abigail Binay said, “We thank the UNDRR for granting us the honor and privilege of serving as a Resilience Hub of MCR2030 for the next three years.” 

“Over the past decade, Makati has made great strides in its journey to resilience largely aided by MCR tools made accessible to us. We are eager to pay it forward by optimizing the opportunity to share our knowledge, best practices and resources with other cities so that together, we can attain the highest level of resilience come 2030,” added Mayor Binay.  

A member of MCR2030 since 2010, Makati has mainstreamed and institutionalized various disaster risk reduction policies, plans, and programs, as well as participated in various knowledge sharing platforms joined by cities throughout Asia. In 2017, the city enhanced its resilience roadmap—the Makati Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan — using the Disaster Resilience Scorecard of MCR2030. In 2020, the city used the scorecard’s Public Health Addendum in creating its DRRM-Health Plan that to mitigate the impact of health shocks across all sectors. 

As a Resilience Hub, Makati commits to support other MCR2030 cities through the expansion of city-to-city sharing initiative in international platforms, development of the Makati DRRM Knowledge portal, and the integration of MCR2030 in the Makati DRRM Academy.  

Makati is also the second Resilience Hub in the Asia-Pacific region, following Incheon Metropolitan City in South Korea. 

MCR2030 aims to contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 by empowering cities to become inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by the end of the decade.   

Mayor Abigail Binay currently serves as the ICLEI Southeast Asia Representative to the ICLEI Global Executive Committee, chairs the ICLEI Innovative Financing portfolio, and serves as a Regional Executive Committee Member.