Resilient Cities Asia – Pacific

Resilient Cities Asia-Pacific (RCAP) series provides an Asia-Pacific platform for urban resilience and climate change adaptation where dialogues are conducted to forge partnerships, with the ultimate goal of identifying implementable solutions and creating lasting impacts for cities in the region. RCAP serves as a platform:

• To share and learn about good urban resilience practices.
• To show-case innovative ideas, solutions and initiatives.
• To provide local governments with exposure and access to tools and processes that help mainstream resilience considerations into policy and practice.
• To provide a networking platform to promote concerted and coordinated action in Asia Pacific among the main players in the field of urban resilience.
• To facilitate improved dialogue and integration between science, policy and practice.
• To explore tangible opportunities for increasing partnerships between local governments, the donor community and the private sector.

The 1^st Congress was held in Bangkok, Thailand – February 11-13, 2015, hosted by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, bringing the event and the focus to Asia-Pacific, catering to the situation, challenges and opportunities of local governments specifically in this region. This Congress was attended by over 300 international participants from 30 countries, including representatives from 65 local governments, 13 national government offices, 28 international organisations, 65 academic institutions and 30 universities and NGOs. The key themes covered in the Congress included resilience in the Asia- Pacific, understanding urban risks and risk reduction, urban nexus, climate compatible development and financing urban resilience.  The second Congress was held in Melaka from March 2-4, 2016. This Congress marked the participation of over 500 international participants from 98 cities across 31 countries in the Asia- Pacific. This congress was attended by 48 mayors. The sessions saw participation of more than 75 speakers. The key themes covered in this Congress included resilience and informality, implications of UN outcomes and sustainable development goals, financing urban resilience, youth and resilience, resilience and biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, resilience and small island nations and resilient infrastructure.

Objectives and Outputs

Key Activities:

• Organising the annual event.
• Liasoning with host city.
• Liasoning with donors.
• Developing the congress program and session.
• Speaker selection and coordination
• Coordination with participants from cities across the Asia- Pacific.
• Communication and outreach through website, social media and proactive engagement.
• Website management.
• Administering the event.
• Developing the congress proceedings.