Publications

Along the course of Tomorrow’s Cities, dialogues around gender equity and intersectionality within urban development have persisted. Now, after nearly five years of engagements in several cities and with multiple communities, it is time to distil and comprehend the insights we gained but also to analyse the overarching aspects of our Decision Support Environment and methodological approach, exploring how to accommodate diverse perspectives and open spaces for inclusivity.

This publication provides an overview of the deployment of the Tomorrow’s Cities framework in Rapti, Nepal. It discusses the engagement of diverse community groups in city planning processes and the importance of co-production of city plans to ensure equity and resilience. The socio-ecological diversity and multi-hazard risks of the Rapti/Deukhuri valley are highlighted, along with the involvement of local communities in the decision-making process. The text outlines the aspirations, land use plans, and policies envisioned by various community groups, emphasizing the integration of social and spatial aspects in future cities. It also proposes policy recommendations for local authorities to promote socialization and resilience in future cities.

The report, available in Turkish with English translation, outlines the methodological process of the TCDSE and highlights key findings for each step. Istanbul, as one of our Learning Cities, has played a pivotal role in refining the TCDSE approach and offering valuable insights for local and national urban risk management planning.

Between September 28-30, 2023, around 40 participants joined the peer learning event hosted by the Municipality of Temeke and Ardhi University in Dar es Salaam. The exchange was the result of a collaboration between Tomorrow’s Cities Urban Risk Hub, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and UCLG Africa. This collaboration builds on UCLG’s city-to-city learning approach and the ongoing efforts by local and regional governments in Africa to localize the global agendas for sustainable development (Agenda 2030), resilience and disaster risk reduction (Sendai Framework for DRR), and climate action (Paris Agreement). Complimenting it with the research and methodologies developed around future-oriented participatory riskinformed urban planning within the Tomorrow’s Cities hub, and the “pathways to equality” coming out from the GOLD VI report.

This booklet encapsulates the outcomes of the ‘Future Visioning Workshop’ held on December 29-30, 2021 that explored the change and development of Khokana over the next two decades through the eyes of the local community.

Tomorrow’s Cities is now recruiting up to six new cities to experience the TCDSE and to help understand
the consequences of current decisions on the futures of your city for hundreds of years. This booklet explains the process of engagement for new cities.

This policy brief provides recommendations for building long term urban resilience by leveraging existing domestic institutional frameworks, facilitating collaborations across governance levels and co-produced, evidence-based, decision-making. This brief is developed as part of, and contributes to, the overarching research conducted through the Tomorrow’s Cities Hub, which engages with cities of the Global South to reduce disaster risk for the poor and marginalised communities in future cities.

In the face of rapid urbanization and increasing climate induced disasters and other natural hazards this policy brief provides an overview of some of the governance barriers and enabling mechanisms to support future urban planning strategies in Nepal. Poor policy implementation, technical inadequacies, fragmented decision making, and imbalance of priorities were highlighted as key governance challenges by representatives of various ministries of Nepal. Enabling mechanisms to build long term urban resilience were identified by community members of Khokana, representatives of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC), and national level policymakers. These include urban planning led by municipal governments, collaborations among governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, building technical capacity and communication strategies of national and local governments, effective management of disaster related information and redesigning existing policy frameworks making them more holistic. Furthermore, based on our observation’s relevant domestic non-governmental actors such as research organisations, civil societies and media should actively engage with future urban planning processes.

Like many other developing cities, Nairobi is experiencing rapid urbanization and increasing disaster risks especially for the poor. The city historically has strong institutional focus on emergency response both at the practice and regulatory levels. With a focus on the present response, planning for the future of the city and associated risks remains unclear and unconsolidated with little consideration of the consequences of today’s decisions on tomorrow’s Nairobi. Despite their vulnerability, the Nairobi urban poor, mainly living in the informal settlements such as Kibera are rarely integrated or considered in urban and risk decision/planning processes. These two concerns impede adequate planning to support DRR for the poor and vulnerable groups in Nairobi. Through the Tomorrow’s Cities Decision Support Environment (TCDSE), this report highlights some of the aspirations of different social groups within Kibera that could make the area safe from disaster risks in the future. The report is based on a series of stakeholder consultations that culminated in a two-day visioning workshop bringing together different groups within Kibera