Built Environment Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean (BERLAC)

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the second most disaster-prone region globally, with 1,534 disasters affecting approximately 190 million people during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The region’s vulnerability stems from its complex geographical and socio-economic conditions, characterized by rapid urbanization, inequality, poverty, and limited infrastructure resilience. Earthquakes, intensified by the region’s location within the seismic “Ring of Fire,” have caused substantial casualties, widespread displacement, and extensive damage to buildings and to the critical infrastructure, significantly impacting economic development and community livelihoods. Recognizing the urgent need for effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures, UNESCO, with support from the Japanese Government, developed and implemented the Built Environment Resilience Latin America and the Caribbean (BERLAC) project. This pioneering three-year initiative aims to enhance disaster resilience by adopting a holistic and community-driven approach. Rather than relying solely on standardized approaches, BERLAC emphasizes the integration of international technical expertise with context-specific solutions, promoting resilience strategies that are sustainable and locally embedded. Structured around four interconnected components—securing safer housing, enhancing school safety, retrofitting existing structures, and fostering risk-informed policy development—BERLAC not only strengthens local resilience but also establishes a scalable and adaptable model capable of bridging policy and practice. By actively engaging communities and stakeholders at all levels, BERLAC emphasizes capacity building, knowledge transfer, and participatory planning processes. This paper details BERLAC’s methodologies, presents key findings from its implementation, and explores the policy implications derived from its successes and challenges, thereby contributing valuable insights to the global discourse on DRR and resilience strategies.