Participants of the GFDRR 2023 Partnership Days had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Safer Schools exhibit, a virtual reality experience that recreated an elementary school classroom in Peru facing the impact of a magnitude-8 earthquake. Through VR goggles and a vibrated backpack, participants witnessed the importance of making buildings more resilient and ensuring the safety of school communities.

On May 15-19, 2023, the City Resilience Program, in partnership with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the City Climate Finance Gap Fund, and the World Bank's Global Practice for Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience, and Land, engaged with more than 40 officials and decision-makers from 15 African cities to enhance their capacity for urban resilience planning, including by fostering greater collaboration and knowledge sharing.

As part of the "Central Asia Resilient and Low Carbon Cities" study, the World Bank and the City Resilience Program held a series of workshops to deepen the understanding of the urban climate change challenges, enable close collaboration, input, and feedback from key national and sub-national stakeholders, and define possible actions for selected Central Asian cities. 

The World Bank Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) in collaboration with the Sustainable City Infrastructure and Services Global Solutions Group (GSG), the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), the Disaster Risk Management and Resilience GSG, and the Climate-Smart Cities Community of Practice (CoP) is organizing a Technical Deep Dive (TDD) on Cities and Climate Change from April 17 to 21, 2023.

From March 6 to 9, 2023, GFDRR's City Resilience Program held a workshop with five cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to identify and prioritize capital investment projects which integrate resilient and green urban development into the delivery of strategic urban infrastructure. Local and international experts, representatives of municipal and city authorities, and officials working on a range of disciplines gathered in Sarajevo to discuss pathways to resilient and green development.

The Program team presented recent developments and the work plan for 2024 to representatives from the European Union, the Regional Scientific-Technical Council, and National Coordinators of the Sendai Framework Program in Central Asia.