ICLEI Europe has joined the European Regional Coordination Committee of “Making Cities Resilient 2030”, a new initiative launched by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in October 2020 to support a network of cities in planning, implementing and monitoring disaster risk reduction actions.

Operational since January 2021, Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) will bring together a coalition of local government practitioners, thought-leaders, policymakers, technical agencies and donors with a collective commitment to delivering and implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The coalition will link planning, policy and strategy with on-the-ground support for implementation and delivery of specific actions.

Through its involvement in the European Regional Coordination Committee of the initiative, ICLEI will promote the engagement of European cities in MCR2030, provide them with technical guidance, contribute to foster peer-to-peer learning and enhance partnerships in support of resilience- building at the local level.

Urban systems are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as extreme weather events and sea-level rise, which can disproportionately affect cities' poor and disadvantaged populations. In addition, local governments must respond to a vast array of non-climate related issues, such as earthquakes, economic crises, and socio-political conflicts. Multi-stakeholder planning can help cities to finance and boost local resilience, and to leverage nature-based solutions in order to adapt to climate change and improve people’s quality of life.

“To safeguard their populations against climate-driven and human-induced risks, cities need know-how and guidance on effective planning for systemic risks, while learning to prioritise green investments in local response and recovery plans. The work ICLEI will conduct as part of Making Cities Resilient 2030 will be instrumental to assist cities in this regard”, said Vasileios Latinos, Senior Officer for Urban Resilience and Climate Adaptation at ICLEI Europe.

ICLEI Europe will tap its expertise in urban adaptation and resilience and its engagement with a number of initiatives to deliver technical support and guidance to cities, such as its role in the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy; the Community of Users for Safe, Secure and Resilient Societies; the annual European Urban Resilience Forum (taking place in October 2021 in ICLEI Member Malmö); and its active role in standardisation activities on the European and international levels.

“ICLEI is a proud partner to the MCR2030 initiative! Linking MCR2030 with ongoing standardisation processes is a great opportunity to support cities and community decision-makers align their local resilience actions with resilience approaches across the EU, as well as with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. We will support this work by contributing our expertise to the development of frameworks, guidance documents and supporting tools which will be made available to the MCR2030 participating cities", said Holger Robrecht, Deputy Regional Director at ICLEI Europe and Convenor of the CEN Technical Committee 465 ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’.

MCR2030 members will be provided access to strategic resilience planning tools co-developed by ICLEI as part of completed and ongoing projects such as Smart Mature Resilience, RESIN, RAMSES, ARCH, CLEVER Cities, Grow Smarter, EXCESS and SONNET.

For more information on MCR2030, click here.