What we did
Around the world, cities are fighting the pandemic against a backdrop of multiple existing shocks and stresses, and emerging vulnerabilities, while striving to put equity, economy, and climate action at the centre of their recovery approaches. Declining revenues create budgetary shortfalls for cities around the world, forcing local governments to defer infrastructure projects and capital investments. This stifles job growth and local economic activity and impacts cities’ abilities to deliver essential services. On the other hand, the compounding impacts of COVID19 and climate change are shining a new light on the deep inequities confronting cities around the world, revealing immense problems, and highlighting opportunities for new approaches.
As cities plan for recovery and investment in key services and infrastructure, they must also address the underlying stresses exposed by the pandemic. Smart, green investments and interventions with resilience principles in mind can create a triple dividend: helping cities boost their economies; improving equity; and preparing communities for inevitable climate and health threats. In the midst of the greatest global economic downturn in nearly a century, progress on sustainable development needs to be regalvanised. Now is the moment for national and local governments to build back stronger, fairer, and greener than before. Cities drive national economies, while the urban poor were particularly hard hit by COVID-19. Therefore, urban centres must be at the heart of a long-term plan for sustainable and inclusive development.
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How we tracked
At the end of the project implementation period, the main aim, namely to advance engagement of cities in the green recovery policy debate, will have been achieved in both target countries.
Four (selected local governments’ staff will have a better understanding on green recovery and resilience opportunities in their cities, with priority actions (green recovery/resilience) identified.
At least two transformative projects per country will be submitted to the TAP project pipeline and presented to potential funders/project preparation facilities for further development.
Training of local governments will be provided virtually, addressing topics identified that are relevant to the countries and cities.
In addition, lessons learnt, and best practices are disseminated through the partners’ respective dissemination opportunities. Further, the ReCAP21 cities have been connected to a global community of resilience practitioners and cities for peer-to-peer support.
The project will comprise a resilient recovery deep dive in Kigali. Together with the city administration, the CRO and his/her team, R-Cities will develop a portfolio of transformative actions to be further developed and implemented. Due to prevailing travel restrictions work in city will be implemented through the resilient office and local implementation partners. The international team of resilience experts will oversee and manage the work remotely and through virtual and remote engagement and technical assistance. In case travel restrictions are lifted and the secure travel of international staff can be ensured, the international team will be able to travel to the cities for in city work on short notice.
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What we achieved
Selected cities are better able to implement plans and measures for a resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Increase the capacity for combatting future public health threats (including primary health care, health management, public life).
• Identify priority recovery action packages (short-term and medium-term planning) cross-sectoral with high resilience value.
• Support the implementation of small-scale measures (with positive reciprocal effects between pandemic resilience and ecological, social, economic goals).
• Global knowledge exchange on resilient recovery in cities.
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