This week marked the inauguration of a brand-new Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) Resilience Hub – i.e. a city with a history of resilience-building, and a mandate to share their experiences with other communities. During the MCR2030 Resilience Hub and Local Governments Forum at ICLEI’s flagship Daring Cities conference this week, ICLEI Member Bonn (Germany) received its official MCR2030 Resilience Hub designation.
MCR2030 is co-chaired by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and ICLEI, and supports cities in their resilience and disaster risk reduction work. Bonn’s new role as a Resilience Hub signifies the city’s advanced level of resilience and climate action planning, and also marks the start of a new role: mentoring other cities as they create and implement resilience plans to become “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by 2030”.
When presenting Bonn Mayor Katja Dörner with the designation, Mami Mizutori, Special Representative, United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head, UNDRR expressed: “I want to congratulate the city and the Mayor Katja Dörner, because the city has a long history of leadership in promoting resilience. As a Resilience Hub… I really believe that your work will inspire and enhance this MCR2030 further.” Mizutori went on to credit the collaboration between UNDRR and ICLEI as a “core component of the grand alliance” that makes up MCR2030.
Mayor Dörner accepted the new role and referenced the city’s plans to: “share and exchange our experiences in the fields where our resilience is challenged, like heat waves, wildfires, flooding, and heavy rain.”
Discussion flowed straight away following this exchange, with Bonn joined by numerous officials from other MCR2030 cities and Resilience Hubs, like Mayor Katrin Stjernfeld-Jammeh of ICLEI Member Malmö (Sweden); Lize Ramos representing ICLEI Member Makati (the Philippines); and Laura Osorio from ICLEI Member Medellín (Colombia). Special invitees Mayor Manuel de Araujo of ICLEI Membr Quelimane (Mozambique), and Mayor Tunc Soyer of ICLEI Member İzmir (Turkey) also joined to animate a wider discussion about how Resilience Hubs can put their experiences into action across the MCR2030 partnership.
Rather than setting up a new Resilience Strategy, Dörner noted that Bonn will continue to strengthen its existing Sustainability Strategy, and ites Integrated Climate Plan and Flood Protection concepts. Mayor Dörner went on to remark that Bonn’s new status as a Resilience Hub was a significant milestone in its ongoing journey toward climate adaptation and resilience, saying: “This is an appreciation of the work we have been doing on the ground, with ICLEI, within our networks and with UNDRR for many years. We equally take the title as a motivation and a responsibility. Challenge accepted: We are all in.”
For more informaiton on MCR2030, visit: https://mcr2030.undrr.org/.