Partnerships for sustainable growth through integrated community action and flood mitigation: lessons from Indonesia and Australia

Indonesia faces two recurrent urban development problems: (1) the increasing vulnerability of people living adjacent to river and coastal locations, as poor planning, climate change and inadequate environmental protections coalesce to create serious flood conditions on a regular basis, and (2) the prevalence of informal settlements that lack legal status.

Government seeks to relocate informal settlements because they appear to aggravate flood conditions by crowding riverbanks and sea fronts, however, sometimes people are moved involuntarily, with inadequate and unjust compensation and resettlement arrangements, and employment disrupted. Conversely, through proper planning, disaster-risk is reduced and kampong communities reap long-term benefits, such as established employment. Recent work shows community-based approaches to flood mitigation work by informing adaptation strategies, local action plans and flood-sensitive urban planning and design. As the planning of Indonesian new towns progress, there are opportunities to consider how more integrated solutions can be embraced in accordance with the objectives of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

Australia's nearest neighbour is Indonesia. Australia has a long history of planning responses to difficult environmental conditions and, like Indonesia, needs to address the impact of climate change for growing cities. For example, in 2011 the state of Queensland saw widespread flood damage. More generally, considerable scholarly work has focused on planning responses to climate change, in particular rising sea levels. Australia, therefore, has a significant knowledge base to share with Indonesia.

This event is about establishing partnerships for a proposal for the 'City Partnerships Challenge' – a capacity development and facilitation initiative of the UN Global Compact – Cities Programme that supports cross-sectoral multi-partner sustainable urban development projects (see https://citiesprogramme.org/get-involved/city-partnerships/).

The City Partnerships Challenge is a contribution by UN Global Compact to the UN Implementation Facility for Sustainable Urban Development (IFSUD) that aims to catalyse effective, coordinated and results-based implementation of integrated sustainable urban development solutions.

Interested delivery partners will be called upon to sign a memorandum of understanding.