Managing natural disaster risks in cities tomorrow: how can multilateral and bilateral financing institutions contribute to urban resilience, through financing, knowledge and technical expertise?

There is a growing consensus in the post-2015 international development agenda that disaster risks reduction in cities can reduce losses, contribute to shared economic prosperity, poverty reduction and enhanced natural resources management. There is a great need to improve coherence and integration of sectorial decisions to achieve long-term sustainable development goals regarding the reduction of disaster risks in cities. Successful investment in urban resilience thus requires active cooperation between the different layers of governments, the private sector, civil society, multilateral and bilateral financing institutions, and the international community at large.

The contribution of this event to the commitment of the New Urban Agenda regarding environmentally sustainable and resilient urban development will be multifold. First, the event will raise awareness of the challenges of disaster risks reduction in cities among different stakeholders. Secondly, the event will improve the collective knowledge of sustainable solutions to manage disaster risks in cities: it will foster the exchange of experiences on disaster risks prevention and management in cities of different regions. Finally, the event will increase coordination between different stakeholders - notably donors - for the implementation of sustainable solutions and policies on disaster risks reduction in cities. As such, the event will particularly be relevant to advance on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 11 - related to sustainable cities and communities - and 13 - related to climate action.