Housing, along with basic services – such as water supply, sanitation, power and allied social infrastructure facilities – is collectively termed as “habitat” and is increasingly at risk due to intensifying climate-induced and geological hazards. In most major disasters, housing remains one of the most affected sectors. CDRI’s GIRI data platform estimates the Average Annual Loss (AAL) including potential future climate impacts and the estimated risk to buildings, including housing, schools and hospitals due to climate and geohazards to be up to US$ 431 billion globally (CDRI, 2023).

This Community of Practice will explore how climate and disaster resilience can be achieved in both formal and informal housing settlements and will unpack the challenges and innovations related to financing, technology, community participation, governance, and traditional knowledge. It will also provide CDRI an opportunity to further understand the needs, challenges and opportunities for building resilience of the housing sector and collect insights to enrich its support to member countries in building resilience of housing – including the development of new assets, retrofitting, and post-disaster recovery.

This CoP will discuss and produce a knowledge piece which will enrich further discussions to achieve resilience of housing globally.

CDRI (2023). Global Infrastructure Resilience: Capturing the Resilience Dividend - A Biennial Report from the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, New Delhi.

This Community of Practice (CoP) aims to strengthen collaborative engagement and facilitate seamless knowledge exchange across the BIMSTEC member countries, which include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The CoP is designed to enhance knowledge sharing on sustainable and resilient infrastructure planning, policies, and practices.

The primary objective is to catalyse discussions among stakeholders and foster collaborative solutions to the challenges faced by these countries. The CoP will also help in identifying and addressing training and capacity-building needs. Ongoing discussions around priorities, ambitions, and actionable points will be key components of the CoP’s work

The CoP will highlight that infrastructure resilience is a vital pillar of climate adaptation and can significantly enhance national efforts to achieve the Global Goal on Adaptation. The CoP will convene governments, experts, and infrastructure practitioners to develop actionable recommendations for embedding DRI within national adaptation strategies and planning processes.