Paper short abstract:

As climate change takes toll on the health and well-being of the urban poor, campaigns for coherent actions to address the impact are gaining solidarity globally. Yet, at local level, policies to address these vulnerabilities remain fragmented and less inclusive.

Paper long abstract:

Climate change has become a visible threat to the world particularly the poor and most vulnerable. With the accelerated speed of urbanization, poor urban residents are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts due largely to poor housing, inadequate infrastructures and the loss of livelihoods which exacerbates health risks. However, state response to climate disasters in most low-income countries is still ad-hoc, and often fail to address the core drivers of vulnerabilities faced in poor informal settlements.

In this paper, we present a contextual outlook of policy and response to climate change hazards and disaster response. We argue that while Sierra Leone has variously been identified as one of the most exposed to climatic hazards, policy responses have remained fragmented and less inclusive. Institutional planning processes around climate change adaptation across government sectors remains disjointed and with limited frameworks for sectoral collaboration. Across sectors, response to climate related vulnerabilities is more reactive, and are yet to provide sustainable and inclusive response. This has implications for the health and wellbeing of the urban poor living in informal settlements. We conclude that if climate risks are to be mitigated, policy processes must be inclusive, coordinated and intersectoral to address the risks faced by the most poor and vulnerable.

Paper short abstract:

In an age of rapid urbanization in the global south, it is critical that decision-makers along with local partnerships operationalize approaches to building resilience from locally informed action.

Paper long abstract:

The future is heading towards an unprecedented rapid urbanization. Most cities in the global south are saturating with high densities and a large influx of migrants that big cities can no longer accommodate. Medium and smaller towns soon will be facing similar situation. Communities living in Informal settlements are the most vulnerable and are severely impacted by climate change. Their vulnerabilities are compounded with inadequacy to access basic infrastructure such as water and sanitation, living on hazardous land, poor quality housing structure and multidimensional poverty hence, inadequate finance together makes it impossible to bounce back in case struck by disaster.

This presentation will focus on three areas, i) Data that is inclusive: Community led enumeration and participatory data collection are critical tools for local action. Disaggregated data on informal settlements are the building blocks for building resilience from below. ii) Special planning areas and tools for inclusive cities: Present urban planning instruments, norms and standards are failing to bring solutions that meet the needs and aspirations of informal settlements. Rational planning practices requires governments to institutionalize inclusive planning as new normal that is transformative. iii) Ward level planning: For action to be realizable and scalable, ward level plans are to be integrated with local data and allow local solutions.

Dealing with fatalities of climate change requires a systematic approach to equip cities with the tools they need to develop locally led adaptation techniques that provide support and empower local communities to develop coping mechanisms and strategies that work for them.

Paper short abstract:

Poor people living in informal urban settlements in cities in Bangladesh face the double urban of climate-induced and pre-existing non-climatic vulnerabilities, which significantly impacts their daily lives, livelihood, health and overall wellbeing.

Paper long abstract:

Climate change is one of the leading driving forces of internal migration in Bangladesh. Every year, millions of people living in coastal and riverbank areas lose their houses and livelihoods due to different forms of natural disasters. Many of them migrate from rural to urban areas and most of the poor migrants end up living in cities' informal settlements.

This abstract presents findings from a rapid desk review of published literature which was done to understand the climate-induced vulnerabilities among the people living in informal urban settlements in Bangladesh.

Internal and external factors such as unplanned rapid urbanization and locations of informal urban settlements and other socio-economic determinants magnify the vulnerabilities of millions of migrants living in those settlements. The poor unhealthy living conditions in those informal settlements expose the residents to the risks associated with climate change, which have significant impacts on their health and livelihood. The environmental issues related to climate change such as heavy rainfall and prolonged monsoon, high temperature and less rainfall/humidity in summer and low temperature in winter accelerate the pre-existing vulnerabilities caused by non-climatic shocks such as poor housing, drainage, water-sanitation systems, and financial insecurities. There is a lack of data on the double burden of climatic and non-climatic vulnerabilities in informal urban settlements in Bangladesh. The ARISE project in Bangladesh is exploring and documenting those vulnerabilities to inform the city actors and to shed light on the impact of climate change in informal urban settlements.

Paper short abstract:

Land Readjustment, an essential tool for land management, is part of the new urban law of Peru. One of the countries most affected by rapid urbanization. Then, this text will explore how dwellers could be included in a new urban development after testing the tool implementation.

Paper long abstract:

Thousands of citizens have been living with inadequate access to basic public service, lack of urban facilities and disproportionate exposure to risks in the informal settlement denominated Parque Porcino for the last fifty years. In that context, and after many trials to implement slum upgrading programs, the government of Peru, in 2021, released the new sustainable urban development law which contains, among other mechanisms, the land readjustment instrument. Essential tool for land management that allows the equitable distribution of land value and encourages citizen involvement in the urban development process. Thus, this research addresses the following question: ¿In what scenarios would the tool be functional to address the urban renewal of the informal settlement? To answer this question quantitative data was gathered and analysed on urban sprawl, the mechanisms implemented for territorial planning, and the gaps in urban infrastructure in the last two decades. Correspondingly to support the question, the text compares the theory of the tool with international experiences. The findings indicate that the sole application of the instrument is deficient in the scenario of delivering social housing since this infrastructure is not an asset whose prices are determined in the land market. However, the tool is capable of integrating slums into a new urban fabric facilitating the provision of services and urban facilities. Then, the mechanism conditions its implementation to the prior approval of other planning tools. Besides, the implementation success is susceptible to the lack of land market regulations.