Building urban resilience in southern Africa
Thursday, Dec 03, UTC 10:00 to 10:55
Organizer: World Bank, SADC, DIMSUR
| Africa is undergoing rapid urbanization and, by 2050, almost 1.3 billion people will be living in areas defined as urban, compared to 470 million today. Urban risks are frequently exacerbated by the increasing unpredictability and severity of climate change-related hazardous events that impact on a range of urban sectors. Withing Southern Africa, taking a regional perspective to building urban resilience in the member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is increasingly important and calls for an integration in regional policies and programs. The session will bring together city leaders, government representatives, SADC and UNHABITATS’s DIMSUR center to: • Present the Regional Assessment of urban vulnerability and resilience in the SADC region; • Introduce the City Resilience Action Planning (CityRAP) planning tool, other innovations and collaborative efforts for resilience planning in six SADC countries; • Share experiences and best practices on climate change adaptation, DRR and building urban resilience between cities in the region and discuss opportunities for knowledge exchange and collaboration. • Consider existing regional strategies and frameworks and discuss gaps, linkages and implementation mechanisms in the context of formulating recommendations for a regional framework on urban resilience. • Reflect on the changing DRR landscape in Africa in light of the dual challenges of climate change and the wide-ranging impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. |
