Reducing future risk in the city: An agenda for integrated risk management

In African cities, orienting risk management towards a developmental agenda can confront the root causes of poverty and risk. Transition to an integrated approach has the highest chance of success when it combines interventions working on the risk culture of a city, which include planning and specific sectorial and local decision-making processes. Risk cultures that prioritise and combine integrated poverty reduction and risk management with examples of successful outcomes of decision making at sectorial and practical levels can be effective and make backsliding more difficult.

This brief also features policy pointers, such as:

• The integration of risk reduction into urban development processes can be advanced by working on urban risk planning and decision-making practices. 
• Participatory strategies for scoping risk and resilience planning are key mechanisms for shifting urban risk culture towards integrated management.
• Reducing risks can benefit doubly from approaches that reduce the urban poor’s vulnerability and exposure while simultaneously containing losses and enabling pro-poor development.
• Working on the root causes of risk, loss data management and household resilience are key entry points for the practical integration of risk management into sectorial policy and local practice.