Cities on the Frontline Speaker Series

Cities on the Frontline is a weekly speaker series co-organized by the Resilient Cities Network and The World Bank Group’s City Resilience Program from March 2020.

The purpose of the series is to share knowledge to help cities respond to the pandemic crisis and to plan towards recovery with resilience. It is a platform for open and honest learning conversations between practitioners in cities and governments, and partners supporting them. Each week, the series brings together different experts and city practitioners to discuss specific topics and share tangible examples. Over 5,500 participants from around the world have attended the series, with a significant portion of the attendees being from city governments.

Upcoming Sessions:

PLAYFUL CITIES – Why cities need play & placemaking to foster children’s wellbeing & city resilience – Thursday, 21 January 2021 (08.00 AM EST / 1:00 pm GMT / 09.00 PM SIN/KUL) – Register HERE

Resilient Recovery Community:

Our Resilient Recovery Community of Practice is a web-based resource that has emerged from the urgent and ongoing practice exchange between our global network of CROs and other urban experts. This pages includes content unearthed by this Cities on the Frontline Speaker Series and reflects the three main themes of: A people-centred recovery, a risk-aware recovery, and a system-enabled recovery.

Collage with different featured images from past Speaker Series sessions.

Speaker Series #32 – Role of Resilience: What Have We Learned?

Recapture what we have learned during the last 31 sessions: the role of resilience in the Covid response and recovery.

Speaker Series #31 – Climate Change Governance

This session highlighted the reflection on the challenges and opportunities of compounding crises – pandemic and climate related crises, as well as the reflection on how cities are trying to address climate risks as they start to emerge from the pandemic.

Young business people discussing joining their hands as a team during meeting in an office.

Speaker Series #30 – Resilience Leadership

Explore how reflective learning makes better leaders, as well as the insights and lessons for leadership when dealing with a major crisis.

Red phone box with Big Ben, with people waling on the streets of London.

Speaker Series #29 – Financing the Recovery

With the continuous falling revenues due to pandemic, municipalities are under significant financial strain. The economic toll is challenging the ability of municipalities to meet the basic needs of their communities and businesses, let alone recovery.

Speaker Series #28 – Risk and Crisis Communication

Covid-19 have been transitioning from a public health shock in early 2020 to a longer-term global stress and transforming urban life. While some cities appear to be recovering, other places continue to experience a rise in COVID-19 and public communication appears to be at the center of all the response.

Speaker Series #27 – Predicting and Monitoring Hotspots

In regions such as Africa, South Asia, and Central America, the pandemic has yet to peak. Cities should anticipate for emerging hotspots, especially that affect poor and vulnerable communities. Understanding hotspots is critical, so that medical support and resources can be targeted to limit diffusion into surrounding areas.