Building urban resilience and climate adaptation in African small island developing states after the COVID-19 crisis.

Other documents

Assessment report of the impacts of COVID-19 and climate change in vulnerable urban communities in Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Lucia

Learning from the pandemic recovery for a more green and resilient future for all. Cities and human settlements of Small Island Developing States

This report examines the intersections of vulnerability factors, climate change effects, urban development challenges, and disaster risks in African SIDS’ human settlements. Drawing on lessons learned from the post-Covid period, and accumulated experience from African SIDS urban and climate stakeholders, it provides recommendations to guide policymaking towards strengthening resilient, sustainable, safe and inclusive human settlements in insular contexts.

The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related hazards pose unprecedented challenges to human settlements worldwide. Despite their minimal contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and the overall acceleration of climate change, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) bear a disproportionate burden of its negative impacts. African SIDS – comprising Cabo Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Seychelles – are not an exception to this. Despite their great economic, cultural and geographic diversity, these six nations are united by the urgent need to develop integrated adaptation and disaster risk management strategies, to strengthen their resilience. Even when the virus itself had relatively limited impacts on their populations, the COVID-19 overall crisis revealed the extreme vulnerability of African SIDS to external shocks and stresses.

By examining the intersections of vulnerability factors, climate change effects, urban development challenges, and other disaster or crisis risks in these specific contexts, this report aims to provide actionable insights and recommendations, to guide policymaking towards fostering resilient, sustainable and inclusive human settlements in African SIDS.

Drawing on lessons learned by UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for Africa (ROAf) across decades of cooperation and dialogue with SIDS stakeholders, this report is also part of a broader attempt to foster constructive dialogue throughout SIDS’ regions globally. The present report is one in a set of three regional contributions, coming out of the project ‘Strengthened Capacities of African, Caribbean and Pacific SIDS for Green, Resilient and Pro-poor Pandemic Recovery’, funded by the UN Development Account.