On 26-28 June 2019, Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) will be hosting Resilient Cities 2019 in Bonn, Germany.
Resilient Cities 2019 will be the 10th anniversary of the Global Forum on Urban Resilience and Adaptation, taking place over three days. The core objective of the Resilient Cities congress series is to serve as the global resilience implementation forum. Therefore, this special edition aims to discuss the state of local resilience, evaluate its progress and encourage all stakeholders to take action under the lens of the Paris Agreement and the resilience targets of the 2030 Agenda.
The forum offers an opportunity for engagement among political leaders and representatives from the private sector, international organizations and research institutions. Through a mix of high-level plenaries, trainings, Reality-Check Workshops, debates, and parallel thematic sessions, they will explore multiple approaches to unlock resilience at the local level, which allow for innovation and improved social cohesion.
The core themes of Resilient Cities 2019 are:
1. Paving the way and financing resilience
- Connecting science-policy-dialogue for evidence-driven, data-based action
- Building bankable resilience projects and financing adaptation
- Disaster risk reduction and management plans, from reactive to proactive responses
- Multilevel governance and resilience planning
- Effective partnerships for delivering local resilience
2. Advancing resilience
- Tracking local implementation of adaptation to climate change: Monitoring, evaluating, and reporting, including the localization of the SDGs
- Widening resilient development pathways: Circular economy and resource efficiency
- Achieving resilient city-region food systems
- Preserving cultural and natural heritage
3. Innovation for resilience
- Risks and opportunities related to automation, digitalization, tech solutions for local resilience
- Opportunities and risks of disruptive digital technologies and building ‘future-ready’ local skills
- Resilient and adaptive infrastructure, including nature-based solutions and ecomobility
- Emerging ideas and solutions to achieve local resilience, including urban tinkering and blockchain
- Social innovation and new methods of citizen engagement and improved social participation, including gamification
4. Building resilient societies
- Forced migration and resettlement in the context of climate change
- Social cohesion and inclusion of marginalized groups in decision-making
- Responding to external shocks, such as civic conflict, cybercrime, and terrorism
- Resilience contributing to happy and healthy societies
- Citizens’ voluntary emergency response and leveraging on social capital