City Resilience Program, Phase II

The combination of climate change and urbanisation leads to an increasing exposure of cities to disasters. The large majority of cities is located near rivers, mountains, or coastlines which makes them vulnerable to negative climate change effects and extreme weather events. Natural disasters thus pose a big threat to the overall functioning and economic development of cities as well as to the surrounding regions. In order to become more resilient, more awareness, information and smart infrastructure investments are needed to mitigate losses and enhance socioeconomic growth.

The program's objective aligns with the overall objective of its Umbrella TF, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), which helps low- and middle-income countries better understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. With a specific focus on urban resilience in municipalities, the program will contribute to this overall objective with technical assistance and capacity development activities for the development of urban resilience interventions. CRP aim to mainstream resilience into the development of infrastructure investments at an early state and supports to shape resilience projects and individual components and link them to a wide range of financing sources.

Cities have increased awareness of resilience challenges and potential mitigation actions as a result of CRP support, and are committed to improve their resilience.

Cities have better access to technical assistance to effectively plan for resilience and are informed about targeted/possible interventions and investments to mitigate their risks. Cities have designed interventions that help them to prepare, withstand, and recover from extreme events.

Cities have increased access to financing from private and public sources to implement urban resilience investments.

Expected results:  

Cities have better access to innovative knowledge products on urban resilience.

Peer-to-peer learning between cities on urban resilience topics is enhanced and CRP experience and knowledge is shared with partner cities globally.

Cities and/or World Bank TTLs received urban resilience screening analytics.

Cities receive advisory support to deepen understanding and design of resilience investments identified through the program.

Urban infrastructure investments have a clearer focus on climate change resilience.

Potential business models for resilience investments are developed and shared with cities.

Resilience investments advance to full structuring, procurement / contract and transaction.

Results from previous phases:  

The implementation of Phase I was externally evaluated in summer 2022 and confirmed satisfactory results across the OECD DAC evaluation criteria. The program has successfully triggered a dialogue on resilience issues in a large number of supported cities and created awareness and commitment to tackle urban resilience through planning and infrastructure investments. Since 2017, CRP has supported the development of 21 World Bank resilience operations with an investment volume of USD 3.1bn in loans. Although achieving private capital mobilization into urban resilience is challenging, the support provided by CRP Finance has proved to be highly relevant and has the potential to yield significant results. Already now, the potential to lead to over USD 850 m of private investment, largely through land-based development. Beyond that, CRP has helped unlock over $4m of additional technical assistance to support resilience related engagements.