Factsheet for young people: Urban development and city resilience

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Introduction

The urbanization rate in Africa has increased rapidly over the years. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the fastest urbanization rate globally, with about 40% of its population living in urban areas, up from 22% in 1980. However, the increasing population is not in tandem with available infrastructure, and this contributes to exposing the population to urban disasters and climate shocks. The vulnerability of African countries to climate change, relative to their readiness to adapt, ranks them among the lowest on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN): 16 of the 20 countries ranking lowest in the Index are in Africa.

A total of 15 African capitals, and many of the continent’s key commercial hubs, have significant combined risk factors stemming from rapid population and economic growth and climate risk. In urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, climate risks include floods, droughts, sea-level rise, heat waves, tropical cyclones, and increased chances of contracting diseases. The impacts are mostly experienced among the urban poor living in low-income neighbourhoods. They are the least protected against climate impacts because of the high levels of social vulnerability and limited access to safeguarding means.

While climate risks and vulnerabilities abound in African cities, there nevertheless remains a unique opportunity to get things right, as approximately 40% of Sub-Saharan Africa is still in the early stages of urbanization. Climate risk assessments can help decision-makers understand the climate risks associated with current and future urban development, and identify, prioritize, and implement low-cost actions.

Barriers and opportunities to city resilience and urban development in Africa

• A combination of high levels of social vulnerability among Africa’s rapidly growing urban poor, coupled with the increasingly frequent impacts of extreme weather events, is creating an urgent need for adaptation responses.
• Current low levels (40%) of urbanization of the region and the low density of its large cities offer opportunities for low-cost adaptation actions that can prevent locking-in errors made by other highly urbanized regions of the world.
• African cities can undertake a range of adaptation opportunities that require fewer financial resources and can generate immediate and significant benefits. The following activities are key elements for building resilient cities: (I): rapid climate risk assessments that gather recent disaster information, (II) infrastructure bottlenecks and information gaps, (III) community engagement, including young people, for resilient action, (IV) basic urban planning to manage areas with high climate risk, (V) early warning systems by connecting the city to the national warning systems and hydrometeorological agencies, and (VI) enhance land and property rights and (VII) urban planning.
• Understanding the current context of climate-related risks is fundamental to all strategies aimed at adapting to climate change.
• It is in this context that the Rapid Climate Risk Assessment (RCRA) methodology has been developed and implemented. RCRAs are meant to develop an overall picture of the city, including background information of the city and country relevant to expected climate change and its impacts and risks; and they provide rapid insight into what has been done in the city regarding climate hazard and risk assessments as well as more locally focused assessments of vulnerability and adaptive capacity.

Key policy recommendations

GCA’s research State and Trends in Adaptation reports indicate that African cities need to undertake comprehensive adaptation and resilience strategies. This can be achieved through the following activities:

1. Conduct scenario planning, based on continuous data collection and partnership with scientific bodies and others with experience in robust planning and climate projections at the local level.
2. Seek new alliances to ensure adaptation and resilience. The ability of municipal administrations to connect vertically with higher and lower levels of government, and horizontally with sectoral ministries and neighbouring municipalities, is critical. Equally important are the partnerships with expert bodies, universities, and researchers, as well as international financiers, city networks, and UN agencies.
3. Strengthen the capacity of all city stakeholders through early planning, preparedness programs, community engagement, and rapid reconstruction using ’build-back-better’ principles to minimize the economic impact of disasters.
4. Incorporate inclusive approaches to adaptation to ensure that socially vulnerable groups, from persons with disabilities to unemployed youth, migrants, and internally displaced populations, are all part of the resilience plans and programs of the city.
5. Foster multi-level government coordination, as many of the city’s climate risks require coordination and action with other jurisdictions such as neighbouring municipalities in metropolitan areas, or river basins for watersheds providing water to the city or flood protection.
6. Deepen the resilience of the private sector. The municipality can take an active role in encouraging and supporting plans for climate disasters through information and training, ideally in partnership with enterprises with more knowledge and capacity.
7. Explore new financial mechanisms for enhanced resilience, beginning with simple ones such as insurance for the most critical municipal assets, public-private partnerships for resilient infrastructure, and land-value capture to finance flood control infrastructure.
8. Leverage new technologies and bring the best elements of smart cities and disruptive digital technologies such as smart metering to improve the preparedness of citizens and enterprises for climate disasters, expand the data and knowledge base of climate risks, and reduce the cost of adaptation measures.

Suggested citation

Gomez, N.S., and Han, S. (2024) Factsheet for young people: Urban Development and City Resilience. Global Centre on Adaptation brief.