Publications

This Report is designed to inform and provoke: to inform about concepts, their limitations, and how they are viewed in the Arab region; and to provoke new ideas and thinking for both discussion and resilience interventions in Arab cities.

This Report appears at a time when the Arab region is experiencing a very turbulent period in its history. On one hand, it is seeing extraordinary growth in urbanization which presents new opportunities for the millions of people living there. On the other hand, civic unrest and ongoing conflicts in the region are threatening to jeopardize development gains for many generations to come.

The Report was drawn up by a team of experts in close collaboration with various development partners in the Arab region. The Report was conceptualized during a regional brainstorming workshop of urban, innovation, disaster and climate experts which was held at the Dead Sea in August 2015. Further, a consultation with national and local stakeholders was organized through the Amman Resilience Forum that took place on 25-26 November 2015, in Jordan. This was attended by stakeholders from Arab cities, civil society organizations, media, youth and women’s representatives, and UNDP experts.

This Report is primarily based on secondary sources, including existing scientific and grey literature from a wide range of fields, such as disaster and climate risk management, governance, resilience, sustainable development, crisis management, sustainable urban development, risk management, and many more.