Building resilient infrastructure in Dominican Republic. Component ll : Social infrastructure

Abstract

Vulnerability has different definitions, but generally refers to socioeconomic factors that diminish the ability of a community or social group to cope with or survive stress, crisis or shock (SSHAP, n.d.). Resilience and community vulnerabilities are interconnected, as attaining community resilience advocates building the capacities and resources for communities to prepare for and respond effectively to an emergency. In turn, it proactively prevents and reduces the shock generators and systemic issues that drive vulnerability. Within this framework, the proposal for a Community Resilience Center in Cristo Rey arose as a result of the synergy between Columbia World Projects, the National District Municipality, the Universidad Iberoamericana and INTEC. UNIBE plays an important role in the formation and implementation of the Resilience Center. The social infrastructure component, coordinated by the Universidad Iberoamericana, was designed with the objective of finding an effective link between social and urban indicators, in order to understand how the physical environment and its vulnerability affect the social structure of the community and to plan a strategy that gives a sense of belonging to the Resilience Center to be set up by the National District Municipality. There are two other components that were developed in parallel to the social infrastructure component: a Digital and Physical Infrastructure component, and a Public Policy Infrastructure component. The main objectives of the Social Infrastructure component during Phase I, described in this document were: - Conduct an overall assessment of the level of community resilience in Cristo Rey to understand community needs. - Design a stakeholder strategy and community education and communication plan to link the community to external synergies. - Produce and disseminate lessons learned so that other jurisdictions can execute a similar process.