Strengthening Urban Resilience: Integrating Inclusive Infrastructure, Energy, Climate and Health Systems

In our response strategies to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are effectively undertaking a massive experiment where we disrupt our entire economy and how we work and live within it. This has implications for our health and infrastructure, as well as gender equity and social inclusion (GESI) linkages. Better health is a measure of progress in diverse dimensions, including sustainable energy, cities, transport, and GESI. Being better prepared and learning how to become more resilient, is a more viable long-term option than waiting for disasters to occur. Preparation for disaster response requires an integrated approach that combines infrastructure, service delivery, and population response initiatives. Improving access to needed services in an emergency means ‘building back better’ in the wake of the current crisis, removing barriers to access, and building resilience and inclusion. This paper attempted to provide a GESI inclusive framework to assess these considerations.