Resilience and sustainability

As local and regional governments and communities around the world are faced with fast-paced changes, social, economic, and ecological sustainability becomes paramount. Resilience, including absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities to respond to threats and challenges, is at the core of our work.

This domain of change aspires to equip key stakeholders to promote sustainable development at the local level, while facing multiple crises and stressors, and considering structural challenges in multi-level governance systems.

Local Governments play vital mandated roles for sustainable development. In addition to basic services, they spearhead mobility, environmental services, planning the physical environment and supporting local economic development. These are all central preconditions to being resilient in face of complex development challenges. Deteriorating services undermine the quality of life in local communities, hinder economic growth, and erode trust between communities and Local Governments. It also exacerbates inequalities.​ There is increased urgency to find sustainable solutions. Resilience strengthening offers a key pathway to navigate such changing conditions.

Through this domain of change we strive to:

• Improve the living environment and quality of life in cities through holistic and integrated strategies and system solutions.
• Strengthen environmental protection and climate resilience, mitigation and adaption at the local level.

• Advancing LED approaches and strategies towards thriving and more sustainable local communities and economies.
• Working towards greater resilience and sustainable development of local communities through crisis preparedness, management and response.