Enhancing City Resilience through International Collaboration

Cities are at the forefront of experiencing a host of climate impacts, including coastal and inland flooding, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires. It is in cities where the greatest economic and human costs of climate change will be felt. The cities most at risk from the catastrophic effects of climate change are those in the global south with lowest GDP levels, where weak institutional capacity, lack of integrated planning, informal communities, inadequate infrastructure, economic inequality, and rapidly growing populations limit the ability of communities to adapt and develop their resilience to the impacts of climate change as well as other shocks and stresses.

Engaging cities is crucial to the successful delivery of international agreements. Nonetheless, cities struggle to have their voices heard in these important policy debates and to shape the international agenda, particularly on issues of adaptation and resilience building.

The Medellin Collaboration for Urban Resilience (MCUR) is collaborating to strengthen the resilience of cities and human settlements around the world by supporting local, regional and national governments in achieving the global commitments set out in the SDGs, the New Urban Agenda, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The MCUR is comprised of ten international partners listed above.

The session will present the MCUR model, how it cooperates and shares knowledge and the tools it uses to enhance resilience in its focus cities: Accra, Bogota, Jakarta, Maputo, Mexico City, and New York City. The session will present the different experiences and lessons learned from an ongoing collaboration in the six focus cities to jointly support them in building resilience and adapting to climate change. City officials will also give their perspectives on how the MCUR has helped to create urban resilience and present their experiences.