Strengthening urban resilience in African cities: understanding and addressing urban risk
This research shows that disaster risks in towns and cities are strongly linked to underdevelopment. The population of Africa’s cities is growing rapidly. But as poor people cram into towns and cities characterised by limited, weak and often under-resourced infrastructure, they are increasingly relegated to marginal, inadequately serviced, informal settlements and low-cost housing areas, leaving them vulnerable to numerous livelihood, health and security risks, such as: insecure livelihoods; a lack of basic infrastructure and services such as water and waste management; poor urban and land planning; inadequate oversight of urban planning; land-use and building standards; low accountability for the provision of infrastructure and basic services. All increase poor people’s exposure to hazards, and vulnerability to their effects. Consequently, reducing risk and building resilience to disasters in urban areas requires tackling the developmental issues that underlie it.