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Consultation Especially Helpful for Urban Resilience

This week heads of state will formally adopt a ‘New Urban Agenda’ in Quito, Ecuador. This will aim to set the narrative for development in human settlements for the next 10-20 years, and strengthen links between urbanization and sustainable development.

Most urban growth is after all expected in the developing world; in the expanding cities and informal settlements of Africa and Asia. A significant proportion of this urban expansion is occurring in fragile and conflict-affected places. Here, the risks of unplanned and poorly managed urbanization resulting in inequitable, exclusionary, fragmented, and violent cities are significant.

International Alert and the Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) have been working together to examine the interaction of environmental and conflict risks in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest informal settlement, and the impact of three major housing and infrastructure initiatives on building future resilience.

What lessons do these projects hold for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda? How can we strengthen urban resilience in contexts where conflicts, environmental risks, and disasters collide?

Ninara

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