Today in Bangkok, during the United Nations Global South-South Development Expo 2022 (GSSD Expo), UN-HABITAT’s City Resilience Global Programme, UNECE, UNECA, ESCAP, ESCWA, ECLAC and UNCDF will launch the introductory online course on building urban economic resilience. The launch will take place during the hybrid side event, Promoting urban economic resilience in cities globally during and after COVID-19 through building knowledge base and interregional cooperation, taking place today at 14:20 – 15:35 Bangkok time (09:20 am – 10:35 am CET).

Image: Globally, cities have been particularly hit hard economically by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lima, Peru © Victor Idrogo.

The partnership of the seven UN agencies began in the beginning of the pandemic—when the agencies joined forces to support the response and recovery efforts of 16 city governments worldwide. The e-learning course, Introduction to Urban Economic Resilience Diagnostics and Action Planning in the context of COVID-19, integrates knowledge derived from this two-year rapid response global project and presents this to a wider audience. Drawing from the real experiences of the 16 cities from across the globe, this free course is designed to serve as introductory training for local governments’ officials and urban practitioners to enhance their knowledge in building urban economic resilience. 

The course is divided into three modules and structured to facilitate a self-paced learning process. Participants will have the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the topic through interactive elements and then to test the progress of the learning through quizzes. 

Image: COVID-19 widened existing spatial, social, and economic inequalities in cities, impacting far beyond their limits. Accra, Ghana © Erin Johnson.

Course participants will explore the general concepts of urban resilience and the conceptual framework for building economic resilience of cities. They will learn about the tool developed within the project — the Urban Economic Resilience Diagnostic and Planning Tool (DPT) – and its implementation in cities from different regions. With this, they will gain valuable knowledge to support their own cities in designing Economic Resilience Building Plans to be able to better withstand shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in the future.

To join the side event today, 13 September 2022, at 14:20 – 15:35 Bangkok time (09:20 am – 10:35 am CET), please use the link.

For more information about the event, please visit the South-South Galaxy Site.

To access the course and start learning, please visit the course page.

For additional information regarding the e-learning course, please contact Esteban Leon, Head of City Resilience Global Programme, UN-Habitat, at esteban.leon@un.org.

Economic Resilience
Urban Diagnosis
Urban Resilience
Urban Resilience Advocate