Building Urban Resilience by Empowering Communities

In a rapidly urbanizing world, cities are increasingly prone to natural hazards and climate shocks.
The Habitat III conference is an opportunity for national and city leaders to discuss ways to make cities and communities more resilient to these hazards and shocks.
One way that the World Bank has helped is through community-driven development (CDD), an approach that gives control over planning decisions and investment resources to community groups and local governments.

Ahead of the next Habitat conference, the urban world we want

There is no better way to mark this year’s World Cities Day than reflecting on the adoption of the New Urban Agenda at the recent Habitat III conference in Quito. The agenda reaffirms the political commitment to sustainable urbanization and provides a framework to guide global urban development over the next 20 years, based on a shared vision of cities that are inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Next week the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development—Habitat III—will reinvigorate international commitment to sustainable urbanization.

54 percent of the global population lives in urban areas. Cities can be the drivers of sustainable development, but many are growing so fast they can’t keep up with citizens’ demands for services.

The World Bank Group delegation will lead and participate in a number of sessions at Habitat III. GFDRR will present a report about the human and financial cost of disasters and climate change.