Visionaries, translators, and navigators: Facilitating institutions as critical enablers of urban climate change resilience

Abstract

For cities endeavoring to shore up their resilience to a range of climate change impacts, the approach to do this can be overwhelming. The concept of resilience is complex and is not easily understood or absorbed without opportunities for iterative learning and review. Furthermore, the measures needed to build resilience often cut across multiple sectors and city departments, which can challenge norms and institutional incentives and practices. Experience from The Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN)—a 9-year initiative supported by The Rockefeller Foundation—has highlighted the important role that facilitating institutions can play in accompanying cities on their resilience building journey. These intermediary organizations are able to engage credibly with a range of stakeholders in cities while also bringing in technical and process expertise that is sustained over time. Experience in six countries has revealed insights into some of the qualities that make facilitating organizations effective in helping cities make progress toward resilience building. This experience has also shed light on a set of principles that these important institutions have adhered to, which has resulted in robust and high-quality interactions with cities and, more importantly, a high level of local ownership and buy-into the urban climate change resilience agenda.