Climate Adaptation in Emerging Urban Africa: Assessing Equity in the ‘Making Cities Sustainable and Resilient’ UN Action

Abstract

Climate change has increasingly threatened sustainable urban development in sub-Saharan Africa, aggravating socioeconomic inequities in chronically under-resourced and overstrained cities. Global institutions and networks, such as the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNDRR) ‘Making Cities Sustainable and Resilient’ (MCSR) initiative, have offered their expertise to build resilience. However, a number of critical scholars have cautioned that resilience frameworks fail to embody principles of authority, equity, and justice, providing misguided solutions to rapidly developing regions. Building on the emerging scholarship exploring equity in the context of urban environments, this paper evaluates the form of resilience pursued throughout MCSR’s engagement with crisis-prone sub-Saharan African cities. I draw on interviews with UNDRR officials and disaster management actors from Kisumu, Kenya to qualitatively map MCSR’s introduction and implementation within participant cities. I find that MCSR failed to prioritize equity in its city engagements and was significantly constrained by financial and political factors, resulting in a piece-meal range of actions and outputs prioritizing equity. I conclude by making recommendations relevant to planning equitable urban transformations in sub-Saharan Africa.