We Must Make Cities Resilient and More Livable After COVID-19

ADB is working closely with its partners to ensure that the economic recovery from the pandemic delivers more resilient and inclusive cities. These financing partnerships will seek to build pandemic-ready cities and jumpstart economies to gain back livelihoods and provide social protection to the cities’ vulnerable populations.

COVID-19 REVEALS CITIES’ VULNERABILITIES

The year 2020—when a global health crisis brought many cities to a grinding halt—sheds light on a vulnerability inherent in cities: public health during a pandemic. When governments were tracking the transmission of COVID-19 as the infections rose in an unprecedented quarantine scenario, a pattern emerged: the concentration of high infections in cities.

Cities became the epicenter of COVID-19 infections due to density, population flow, crowded living conditions, and transport infrastructures.

Cities drive economic opportunity and deliver more than?80% of the global GDP. If current trends continue, 70% of the world’s inhabitants will be city dwellers by 2050. This projected growth makes it critical that we learn from, and avoid the mistakes of, the first global pandemic of this century.

PARTNERSHIPS TO REBUILD CITIES

ADB’s?partners have supported the livable cities agenda that addresses such issues as water and sanitation, transport services, climate change and disaster resilience, and urban and financial planning.

THE WORK AHEAD

As the importance of sustainable and resilient cities becomes even more apparent, ADB responded by publishing?COVID-19 and Livable Cities Guidance Note. The guide will help developing member economies respond to the impact of COVID-19 as they take forward urban initiatives.

ADB and its partners have an opportunity to recalibrate their investments to better plan and build livable cities post–COVID-19. The principles which will guide this vital work are varied but can be condensed in key areas of focus:

1. enhance social protection measures for the most vulnerable groups;
2. effectively use technologies and digital solutions;
3. revisit urban planning to strategically incorporate lessons from the pandemic;
4. strengthen the financial sustainability of local governments and build capacities of urban institutions and other stakeholders;
5. focus on healthy and environmentally sustainable cities; and
6. build resilient cities, enabling them to absorb shocks and stresses due to pandemics, disasters, and climate change.

Condensed from:?https://www.adb.org/multimedia/partnership-report2020/strategy-2030/stronger-more-resilient-cities-post-covid-19/