Strengthening Urban Resilience and Disaster Preparedness in Alexandria

Alexandria is one of Egypt’s most strategically important coastal cities. Its people, infrastructure, economy and essential services are increasingly exposed to interconnected risks arising from coastal hazards, climate change, rapid urban development and growing pressure on critical infrastructure and services.

In response, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), in collaboration with Alexandria Governorate and relevant national and local partners, is organizing a three-day technical workshop on Strengthening Urban Resilience and Disaster Preparedness in Alexandria.

The workshop will support Alexandria’s journey under the Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative and contribute to advancing the proposed Consortium for Alexandria, which seeks to support the city’s transition towards becoming a disaster-resilient coastal city and a regional hub for disaster risk reduction and urban resilience by 2030.

Objectives

The workshop will bring together different departments and institutions across Alexandria to establish a shared understanding of the city’s resilience priorities and undertake a structured assessment of existing capacities, gaps and needs.

Using UNDRR’s Climate Resilience Scorecard for Cities, participants will examine Alexandria’s resilience across the Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient. The process will help translate identified risks and gaps into priority actions and provide a foundation for the development of an Alexandria Resilience Action Plan.

The workshop will also integrate the resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), recognizing that business continuity and private-sector preparedness are essential components of city-wide resilience. Participants will apply both the Climate Resilience Scorecard and relevant SME resilience assessment approaches during the group exercises.

Key areas of focus

Over three days, participants will work collaboratively to:

• strengthen understanding of urban resilience, MCR2030 and the Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient;
• review Alexandria’s existing strategies, plans, institutional arrangements and resilience initiatives;
• identify key climate and disaster risks affecting the city and its priority sectors;
• assess existing resilience capacities and gaps using UNDRR resilience scorecards;
• examine the resilience and business continuity needs of SMEs;
• identify priority actions across sectors and institutions; and
• define key elements for a future Alexandria Resilience Roadmap and Action Plan.

The assessment will be conducted through facilitated working groups, enabling participating institutions to contribute data, technical knowledge and sector-specific perspectives.

Expected outcomes

By the end of the workshop, Alexandria is expected to have an initial evidence-based picture of its climate and disaster resilience capacities and gaps, together with a preliminary set of priority resilience actions identified by local and national stakeholders.

The final sessions will consolidate the scorecard assessment results, identify major cross-sectoral resilience gaps and priorities, and translate the findings into proposed actions and key elements for Alexandria’s future resilience roadmap.

Participants

The workshop will convene representatives from Alexandria Governorate and relevant municipal departments, including urban planning, infrastructure, disaster and crisis management, environment and climate change, transport, water and sanitation, energy, coastal protection, finance, monitoring and evaluation, communications and community engagement.

Relevant national institutions, academia and technical institutions, civil society, representatives working with vulnerable groups, SMEs and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce are also expected to contribute to the process, together with UNDRR technical experts.

Towards a more resilient Alexandria

The workshop represents an important step towards moving from risk understanding to coordinated resilience action. By bringing together government, technical institutions, academia, communities and the private sector around a common assessment and action-planning process, Alexandria can strengthen the foundations for risk-informed urban development and investment.

The process will also help position the city to advance the broader ambition of the Consortium for Alexandria: building a safer, more resilient and sustainable coastal city and strengthening Alexandria’s role as a regional model for urban resilience by 2030.