Resilience and the Fragile City Reducing Vulnerability to Complex Urban Crises

Humanitarian, security, and development actors are witnessing two distinct but intertwined trends
that will have a dramatic impact on their operations. The first relates to the fact that the locus of global
poverty and vulnerability to disaster are increasingly concentrated in fragile and conflict affected states.
The second trend is associated with the notion that the world has entered a period of unprecedented
urbanization. For the first time in history, more people live inside urban centres than outside of them.
As the world continues to urbanize, global emergencies will increasingly be concentrated in cities, particularly
in lower income and fragile countries where the pace of urbanization is fastest. Yet, despite the
growing risks facing urban populations living in fragile and conflict affected countries, there is very little
understanding of what can be done to reduce the risks posed to these cities and their populations.