About Us – Addis Ababa City Resilience Project Office

Overview of Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the country’s capital and home to 25% of the country’s urban population. Addis Ababa is one of the rapidly growing cities in the world. Population growth fueled by rural migration puts the city on pace to double in size within 15 years, straining existing public services, especially including clean water and sanitation bringing both challenges and opportunities to a country aspiring to be a middle income economy by 2025. Rapid urbanization has also increased the risk of deadly fires in Addis Ababa. Many of these residential accidents occur in informal settlements, making it harder for emergency responders to contain fires once they start.

Being a growth engine for Ethiopia, the city is undergoing massive transformation including infrastructure, housing and social facilities. Recent measures to increase resilience include the development of a BRT line to alleviate urban congestion and a public work programs to address an unemployment rate above 22% could be mentioned. However, despite all these efforts, the city faces several kinds of shocks and stresses which impacts the cities sustainable growth trajectory. Responding to these opportunities and challenges, the city’s resilience initiative looks at urban planning, innovative financing schemes, communication technology, and trans-regional development to address issues as far-reaching as public health, affordable housing, unemployment, flooding, and secure infrastructure.

Our Partnership with 100 Resilient Cities

100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) is a global initiative dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to social, economic, and physical challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century. 100RC defines urban resilience as “the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.” Whereas a city’s ‘shocks’ – catastrophic events like fires, floods, and disease outbreak – may be more visible, equally important are the slow-burning stresses that erode the urban fabric over time – unemployment, water insecurity, lack of affordable housing, and more – which exacerbate the shocks when they do occur.100RC support its member cities through: funding for a Chief Resilience Officer in each of city who will lead the resilience efforts; resources for drafting a Resilience Strategy; access to private sector, public sector, academic, and NGO resilience tools; and membership in a global network of peer cities to share best practices and challenges. 100RC network includes global cities like London, New York, Bangkok and Rio de janeiro.

About Resilient Addis Ababa

In December 2016 Addis Ababa is selected through a competitive challenge to join the 100 Resilient Cities global. With important interventions already in place – such as Addis Ababa’s massive investment in eco-friendly infrastructure and in creating thousands of jobs in the booming construction industry, the partnership with 100 Resilient Cities initiative will help our city become a role model for cities across Africa and the world.

Resilient Addis Ababa was launched in late December 2016 with a “Resilience Agenda-Setting Workshop,” and the appointment of its Chief Resilience Officer in February 2018. The Addis Ababa City Government under Proclamation No. 89/2017 established and set aside funds for an independent Resilience Project Office for the period of five years.

Directly accountable to the Mayor and under the leadership of Chief Resilient Officer (CRO), the Addis Ababa Resilience Project Office will be responsible for developing a robust City Resilience Strategy and for mainstreaming its principles into existing and future city and sectoral plans. The Office will play a key role in the Strategy’s implementation by developing bankable project proposals and securing resources and partnerships at all levels.