2 August 2017: Several recent capacity-building projects focused on human settlements in rural and urban areas, targeting actors ranging from farmers to refugee and host communities to city government officials. The projects helped advance climate change adaptation, sustainable development and the implementation of a number of global environmental frameworks.

Through impact assessments and South-South Cooperation initiatives, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the Government of Japan are seeking to build capacities in more countries to gather information required to understand the specific impacts of climate change on local agriculture. With funding from the Government of Japan, FAO piloted its Analysis and Mapping of Impacts under Climate Change for Adaptation and Food Security (AMICAF) project in the Philippines and Peru, later expanding it to Indonesia and Paraguay. The project aims to provide national policy makers with information on climate change impacts to enable them to make informed strategic planning and investment decisions. [FAO Project News Post] [AMICAF Project Webpage]

With support from the Government of Japan, UN-Habitat conducted a community-based stabilization programme seeking to support the development of sustainable livelihoods for refugees and host communities. The programme aimed to improve the skills and increase the capacity of refugees and host communities to implement development plans through initiatives such as solar street light assembly training for youth in Kenya. [UN-Habitat Press Release]

Through UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Tool, the city of Yakutsk is aiming to enhance its urban resilience in line with the New Urban Agenda, the SDGs, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for DRR.

Following dialogues between UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Programme (CRPP) and the city of Yakutsk, Russian Federation, the Arctic city initiated implementation of UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Tool. The city is aiming to enhance its urban resilience in line with the New Urban Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 2015-2030. [UN-Habitat Press Release] [New Urban Agenda] [SDGs] [Paris Agreement] [Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030]