Building Urban Resilience in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: A Case Study of Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This chapter examines urban resilience building efforts in Harare. The analysis is placed within the urban resilience framework. The Post-2015 development agenda is committed to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ (SDG 11). For this chapter, urban resilience means the ability of a system, entity, community, or person to adapt to a variety of changing conditions and to withstand shocks while still maintaining its essential functions. The four (4) dimensions of urban resilience namely infrastructure, social, economic and institutional resilience are considered. Harare was purposefully selected as it is one of the pilot local authorities under the “Partnership for Building Urban Resilience in Zimbabwe” programme by the UNDP, UNICEF and Ministry of Local Government, whose goal is to improve urban resilience and strengthen the provision of basic social services and Local Economic Development (LED) targeting unemployed youths, women, and vulnerable groups in urban and peri-urban areas (UNDP Urban Resilience Building Programme Document, 2019). The chapter concludes that there are major gaps in urban resilience building in Harare. The City is characterised by under-investment in critical infrastructure, weak urban planning and governance frameworks (including outdated policy frameworks) and lack of climate adaption planning. These factors not only work against urban resilience building, but they also hinder progress towards achieving resilient, inclusive and sustainable urban communities. For effective urban resilience building, Harare needs to prioritise investment in resilient urban infrastructure (water, sanitation, and storm water), research on the vulnerability of cities and towns, internalising global and national frameworks on climate change through climate adaption planning and strengthening urban planning and governance.