Climate Change Risks and Resilience in Urban Children in Asia: Synthesis Report for Secondary Cities: Da Nang, Khulna, and Malolos

Climate change is a key challenge for Asian cities in the global South.  As urbanization continues more people will be exposed to direct and indirect hazards of climate change within urban areas. The impacts will continue to devastate lives and homes – and have the potential to undo many development gains of the last few decades. Understanding these impacts begins to equip communities, governments and stakeholders to prevent long-term development losses. 

This paper suggests that those most susceptible to climate change impacts are the children who live in informal settlements and on the streets of secondary cities, as their exposure to increasing extreme weather events, disease outbreaks and fluctuations in temperature are made worse by entrenched poverty, economic recession, youth unemployment and fragile institutions. This multi-city study undertaken by IIED in partnership with Save the Children argues for a profound change in current thinking. 

The study looks at three secondary Asian cities: Khulna (Bangladesh), Malolos (Philippines) and Da Nang (Vietnam). It considers the opportunities and gaps between current urban and climate change planning and argues for greater focus on secondary cities – in particular those cities at highest risk in Asia. It concludes by putting forward recommendations for government and non-government actors alike.

Available at http://pubs.iied.org/10738IIED.html

Further reading:

Haque, Anika Nasra, David Dodman and Hossain, Md. Mohataz Hossain (2014), “Individual, communal and institutional responses to climate change by low-income households in Khulna, Bangladesh”, Environment and Urbanization Vol 26, No 1, pages 112–129, available at http://eau.sagepub.com/content/26/1/112.

Institute of Development Studies (2012), “Children, Climate Change and Disasters”, IDS in Focus Policy Briefing 23, available at https://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/IF23.pdf.

Reed, Sarah Orleans, Richard Friend, Vu Canh Toan, Pakamas Thinphanga, Ratri Sutarto and Dilip Singh (2013), “ ‘Shared learning’ for building urban climate resilience – experiences from Asian cities”, Environment and Urbanization Vol 25, No 2, pages 393–412, available at http://eau.sagepub.com/content/25/2/393.abstract.