Summary

The health of the world economy is increasingly dependent on well-functioning cities. However, climatic changes and new population patterns are making them increasingly vulnerable to shocks (e.g. flooding) and stressors (e.g. sea-level rise). Robust and timely policy actions, such as finding creative new ways to incentivise cross-institutional cooperation, are needed to address this challenge. This paper highlights four complementary approaches for attaining longer-term resilience: getting the basics of sound governance within city operations right, ensuring effective responses in close coordination with neighbouring jurisdictions, designing win-win partnerships with the private sector, and harness the power of open data sharing to improve decision-making. For each recommendation, successful interventions will require context-specific designs based on consultations with all stakeholders, resulting in deeper understanding of the local policy and socioeconomic environments. Rigorous impact evaluations are needed.

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