The urban population of sub-Saharan Africa will triple in absolute number by 2050 as compared to 2015. In most cases, both central and local governments of the region are ill-prepared for such an extraordinary growth. Rapid land use change at the outskirts of cities and towns due to uncontrolled urban sprawl, combined with growing socio-economic inequalities, lack of urban planning and management capacity and weak financial mechanisms, will undermine the aims of the Sustainable Development Goals without action now to prepare for the future. A future where urban growth is too often accompanied by an accumulation of urban risk, which has consistently been observed across the continent, favoured by inadequate urban development interventions and exacerbated by the impact of climate change. How to plan and manage interventions for building resilience in this context? The lecture will give insights into the work of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) in sub-Saharan Africa, presenting the City Resilience Action Planning (CityRAP) Tool, and its application in Lusaka, Zambia.
The lecturers
Fruzsina Straus has over 16 years of experience with the United Nations, International NGOs, and the private sector. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a focus on socioeconomic development, public governance, post-conflict national development planning, institutional reform, urban resilience, disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. She currently leads the urban resilience portfolio in UN-Habitat`s Regional Office for Africa.
Alexander Chileshe is an urban development and resilience specialist with UN-Habitat with over 20 years’ experience in development and public policy, participatory planning, climate change and disaster risk reduction focussed on Southern Africa. Alex is currently supporting the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Africa in initiating and introducing community led climate resilience and adaptation initiatives in urban centres in Southern Africa. He is also pursuing a PhD at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town focusing on the political economy and public policy implementation in Zambia.
Katharina Rochell is an international consultant with over 10 years of experience in international development. She has focused on issues of sustainable urban development with a focus on climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently she works as urban development specialist at UN-Habitat on questions of financing sustainable urban development in low-income countries. She is also pursuing a PhD at Utrecht University focusing on the governance of nature in sub-Saharan African cities.
Date and Time
Monday, 7th June 2021
14:00 – 15:30 CEST
Webex link
https://unistuttgart.webex.com/unistuttgart-en/j.php?MTID=m528e7bfd8fdeea9f5100c649d820c524
WebEx ID: 121 763 3119
WebEx Password: IUSD2021
