Date and Time: Friday 28 April 2023 at 12:30 (IST)
(VIRTUAL SESSION)
Sphere India in partnership with UNICEF, Department of School Education in Jammu & Kashmir, India will host a virtual Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC) on 28 April 2023. The UTC will be held in collaboration with Resilient Urban Planning and Development (RUPD) GbR, Mannheim Municipality in Germany, ELFA International, and Miyamoto International in India.
The UTC aims to identify and implement effective strategies to enhance the resilience of school buildings, which are vital infrastructure in the region, to extreme weather events. The campus will address various hazards in the area, increase awareness of the impact of extreme weather events on vulnerable populations, and promote multi-stakeholder engagement to foster innovative solutions that effectively address challenges. Moreover, the UTC will develop a 10-year Road Map collaboratively to strengthen the resilience of school buildings, build the capacity of vulnerable populations to extreme weather events, and mobilize support for action. In addition, the UTC will bring together multiple partners from Germany and India to foster joint initiatives between cities to tackle shared challenges, such as sharing resources, knowledge, expertise, or collaborating on specific projects. Through city-to-city learning, the UTC will facilitate the exchange of best practices, ideas, knowledge, and resources, enhancing their policies and programs.
RUPD GbR and Mannheim Municipality, as chairs of ‘Business and Industries’ and ‘Local and Sub-national Authorities’ Partner Constituent Groups (PCGs), are helping to expand the World Urban Campaign (WUC), an initiative of UN-Habitat, to better advocate and engage in sustainable urbanization, and promote alliances for action to achieve the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs.
During the UTC, the speakers will cover various subjects such as managing natural disasters and adapting to climate change, reducing vulnerability, protecting and strengthening infrastructure, overcoming obstacles to strategy implementation, engaging stakeholders, highlighting successful practices and experiences for adapting to climate impact and managing disasters in India and Germany, and addressing hazards and their consequences by developing innovative and effective solutions.
The UTC is closely aligned with the NUA as it brings together various partners and engages multiple stakeholders to raise awareness and develop innovative solutions to increase the resilience of infrastructure and the capacity of target groups. The outcome of the campus will focus on promoting environmentally safe and sustainable practices and making the Jammu and Kashmir region more resilient to natural disasters and climate change. This effort will contribute to achieving several SDGs, including SDG 3 (Good Health & well-being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 9 (Industry & Innovation), SDG 11 (Inclusive, Safe and Resilient Cities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for Sustainable Development). The UTC also aligns with "The City We Need" initiative, which is a global campaign that aims to promote sustainable urban development and support the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. The UTC's focus on increasing resilience and promoting sustainable practices in Jammu and Kashmir is in line with the principles of "The City We Need" initiative. Specifically, the UTC's efforts contribute to Principle 3 of the initiative, which calls for cities to promote environmentally sustainable and resilient urban development.
Comments