Blogs

Fulmati Mijar, a mother of three living in Nuwakot district in Nepal, learned carpentry and earthquake-resistant techniques for housing reconstruction after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal in 2015. The catastrophe destroyed Fulmati’s house and made her family more vulnerable, but it did not dent her resolve.

There are three key ingredients necessary to achieving the goals of the New Urban Agenda: multiple sources of financing, operational definitions, and embracing incremental transformation.

Since 2013, the Government of Uttarakhand, with support from the World Bank and GFDRR, has helped the people of Uttarakhand, India, restore their homes, build better roads, and better manage future disaster risks.

At the One Planet summit, mayors from cities around the world, big and small, will take center stage to discuss how to mobilize the financing needed to accelerate climate action and meet the Paris Agreement goals.

During an All Saints’ Day mass in Lisbon in 1755, an 8.5-magnitude earthquake collapsed cathedrals, triggered a 20-foot tsunami, and sparked devastating fires that destroyed nearly 70% of the city’s 23,000 buildings. In the years to follow, careful studies of the event would give rise to modern seismology. But how is a disaster that occurred centuries ago still relevant today?

The Climate Vulnerability Assessment - Making Fiji Climate Resilient report measures the impact of climate change and includes a clear plan of action of how Fiji can strengthen climate resilience.

Unless we find effective ways to include the private sector in making urban infrastructure climate-resilient, the dream of a resilient future for our cities will remain elusive.

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice, sits down with Dr. Shazia Siddiqi, Executive Director of Deaf Abused Women’s Network (DAWN) for a conversation on the disability dimension of inclusion and how we should conceive and design cities that are truly inclusive of all, including persons with disabilities.

While land size, borders, and coordinates are essential to providing secure land and property rights, we must remember that humans use and access land in three dimensions – whether through mineral or water rights beneath the surface or the addition of levels to a home or other property above the ground.

This fast-developing technology is great for disaster resilience in remote locations, such as the Pacific, and UAVs are currently being field tested in Fiji and Tonga.