Arusha joins the Rockefeller top 100 resilient cities list

Arusha. Arusha, with a population of 1.6 million, is among six African cities selected to join a Rockefeller Foundation pioneered 100 Resilient Cities (100RC).

Launched in 2013 as a $100-million commitment to build urban resilience, the programme aims at helping cities around the world to withstand physical, social and economic challenges they face.

The challenges take the form of both chronic shocks and stresses, and range widely from affordable housing, infrastructure development, and environmental protection to flooding threats, volcanic activities, outbreak of diseases, unemployment, unplanned settlements and terrorism.

Other cities selected to join the programme on the continent are Kigali in Rwanda, Enugu in Nigeria, Dakar in Senegal, Accra in Ghana and Durban in South Africa. Ms Liz Agbor-Tabi, the city relationships associate director based in New York, said in an interview with The Citizen on the sidelines of an induction workshop here that the 100RC secretariat would provide entrants with resources necessary for developing road maps to resilience. “In the months following the workshop, the city, led by a new chief resilience officer, will continue to engage stakeholders, resilience experts and 100RC staff in drafting the plan,” she explained.

The plan would hinge on four pathways, including financial and logistical guidance for establishing a post of Arusha chief resilience officer to lead the city’s resilience endeavours.