LocationsHow risk-informed planning, investment and local action are making urban communities more resilient.
Safer homes, stronger cities
October 30, 2026
Flooding and water pollution threaten the livelihoods of fishing communities around Lake Hawassa in Ethiopia.
Photo: UNDP Ethiopia
A safe home depends on what surrounds it: drainage that carries floodwater away, reliable water and electricity supplies, schools and hospitals that can withstand storms, and services that keep working when disaster strikes.
By 2050, an estimated two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Yet today, up to 3.4 billion people lack adequate housing, including over 1 billion living in informal settlements and slums–facing insecure tenure, overcrowding, environmental hazards and limited basic services.
As cities expand, decisions about land, housing, infrastructure and finance shape who is protected and who remains at risk. Building urban resilience means bringing risk-informed development into these decisions. This requires understanding each city’s hazard exposure, vulnerability, institutional capacity, infrastructure gaps and fiscal constraints.
Understand a city’s risk and development context
A shared assessment establishes where risk is concentrated and what drives it. It identifies who and what are exposed, and where systems and capacities are weakest–by examining physical and climate hazards alongside urban growth, infrastructure and services, socioeconomic conditions, institutions and financing constraints. This diagnostic identifies which risks matter most and where action can generate the greatest resilience dividend.
In the Ethiopian city of Hawassa, Meselech Hayiso leaves her home each rainy season as floodwaters rise. “When we return after months away, our house is unusable,” she says, as repeated flooding forces her to rebuild again and again.
To address this risk, Hawassa has developed a comprehensive risk profile and a multi-year resilience strategy and investment plan, through the Resilient Urban Futures Initiative, supported by Denmark, Luxembourg and the Republic of Korea. A ten-year water master plan, heatwave resilience strategy and institutional reforms speed up implementation.
Meselech Hayiso, a resident of the Ethiopian city of Hawassa, faces repeated displacement as seasonal floods damage her home and belongings.
Photo: UNDP Ethiopia
Maps of urban growth and exposure to hazards inform Hawassa’s resilience planning, helping authorities identify risks and prioritize investments to protect communities.
Photo: UNDP Ethiopia
Across Africa’s Sahel region, seven municipalities have developed resilience frameworks through the Sweden-funded Sahel Resilience Project, with support from UNDP and UN-Habitat. The city of Kaédi in Mauritania used this process to secure World Bank support for solid waste management. Such experiences inform the Africa Urban Resilience Programme, helping cities bring risk management into planning and investment.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, cities including Banja Luka, Doboj and Prijedor receive real-time weather information from newly installed automatic stations. Supported by the Green Climate Fund and UNDP, these stations enable authorities to forecast hazards, issue warnings and manage flood risk.
Protecting livelihoods and food security is central to strengthening climate resilience across the Sahel.
Photo: UNDP Mali
A weather station in Trnovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, gathers real-time information to support early warnings.
Photo: UNDP BiH
Prioritizing the systems and risks that are most consequential
A clearer picture of risk can reveal several urgent needs competing for limited resources. Cities must set priorities, rather than attempting to address every vulnerability at once, focusing on the critical systems, geographic areas and populations groups where disruptions can have the greatest development consequences.
For some cities, this means protecting critical infrastructure and public services or improving conditions in informal settlements. For others, the focus is drainage and flooding, water security, heat or coastal exposure. Protecting livelihoods, strengthening emergency preparedness and improving municipal financial resilience also guide these choices.
Along the coast of the Egyptian city of New Damietta, a 600-metre walkway combines protection against coastal inundation with recreation, incorporating indigenous plants, seating and solar lighting into public spaces. Financed by the Green Climate Fund, the work brings together UNDP and the government to integrate disaster risk reduction while developing public spaces.
Native plants line a coastal walkway in the Egyptian city of New Damietta, where a Green Climate Fund-financed project combines coastal protection with public space for recreation.
Photo: UNDP Egypt
Bhutan’s capital Thimphu is upgrading more than 30 kilometres of stormwater drains. Designs informed by two decades of extreme weather records incorporate retention ponds and permeable surfaces to slow and store runoff during heavy rain. Bhutan’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is implementing the work with UNDP, financed by the Global Environment Facility and the Royal Government of Bhutan.
Where disasters have damaged essential services, recovery creates an opportunity to reduce future risk as communities rebuild.
Workers upgrade stormwater drains in Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, as part of efforts financed to manage seasonal flooding.
Photo: UNDP Bhutan/Dechen Wangmo
In the Mozambican city of Beira, Manga Secondary School reopened following rehabilitation after Cyclone Idai. Its rebuilt roof, reinforced walls and improved electrical, water and sanitation systems serve around 9,000 students. UNDP and Mozambique’s Post-Cyclone Reconstruction Office delivered the work through the Mozambique Recovery Facility, supported by the European Union, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, India, China and Norway.
Restoring water supplies was urgent in Port Sudan after Arbaat Dam collapsed in 2024, cutting off half the city’s supply. UNDP worked with national and state authorities to drill and rehabilitate 15 boreholes and lay 17 kilometres of pipeline. The work restored supply sufficient for almost 230,000 people, with solar-powered pumping keeping water flowing during power cuts.
“Most of the population regained access to affordable drinking water,” says resident Ishag Mohamed Ishag.
The wider national water-security effort is funded by the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, Italy, Japan, King Salman Relief, the Qatar Fund for Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
At Manga Secondary School in Beira, Mozambique, rehabilitation has restored learning facilities damaged by Cyclone Idai.
Photo: UNDP Mozambique
Solar panels power pumping at the restored Arbaat water system near Port Sudan, helping maintain water supplies during power cuts and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Photo: UNDP Sudan
Making resilience affordable
Households also need affordable ways to build and protect their homes.
In the Uruguayan city of Paysandú, the ADAPTA revolving fund offers accessible loans and subsidies for flood-resilient improvements: raised electrical installations, water-resistant materials and better drainage. Supported by the Adaptation Fund, the initiative brings together UNDP, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), and government authorities.
Samson Totoo, a resident of Honiara, the capital of Solomon Islands, received two insurance payouts quickly after heavy rain damaged his crops, and flooded roads limited access to his handicrafts shop.
TrigaCash, the country’s first parametric microinsurance product, pays automatically when predefined weather thresholds are met. It was developed through the Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme, supported by Australia and New Zealand.
“Rain will always come,” says Samson. “This is a way to prepare.”
Work underway on Ecoparque Mburucuyá in the Uruguayan city of Paysandú, transforming land exposed to flooding into public space as part of a wider climate adaptation programme.
Photo: Corporación Nacional para el Desarrollo (CND), Uruguay
Samson Totoo in Honiara, Solomon Islands, received two TrigaCash insurance payouts after heavy rain damaged his crops and disrupted access to his handicrafts shop.
Photo: UNDP
Resilience beyond the next disaster
These experiences demonstrate that different cities may require different interventions. Priorities should be guided by risk, vulnerability, development impact and feasibility.
Cities need support to understand their risks, identify the most consequential vulnerabilities and strengthen the institutions managing them. They also need to translate priorities into investable interventions and mobilize appropriate financing.
Together, these efforts can help cities reduce existing risk, avoid new risk, prepare for shocks and recover more effectively, safeguarding the homes, services and livelihoods people depend on.
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