An Inclusive City is a Resilient City: A Case for Simultaneously Localising Disability Inclusion and Climate Resilience

An Inclusive City is a Resilient City: A Case for Simultaneously Localising Disability Inclusion and Climate Resilience 

“An inclusive city is also a resilient city. It is necessary to break the silos between sectors and ensure inclusion and resilience are designed hand-in-hand (GDI Hub, 2024).”  The four-year inclusive cities research conducted by GDI Hub across six global cities has informed us that a city co-designed with all urban residents and stakeholders, including people with disabilities, will adapt and evolve with long-term resilience. From this context, GDI Hub adopts climate resilience and innovation as integral components for building inclusive cities and are exploring pathways to simultaneously implement inclusive design and climate action at the local level. 

Why synchronise actions at the local level? 

As over sixty percent of the global population is projected to be urban by 2030, the need to empower cities is stronger than ever before. Localisation as an approach can guide the process of defining, implementing, and monitoring urban design and planning strategies at a city or even smaller scale (including council, ward, neighbourhood, or block) for achieving global, national, and sub-national development goals and targets. More particularly, localisation helps: 

• To translate intent into action: Both disability inclusion and climate action agendas have considerable international buy-in; however, implementation on the ground is slow and limited, or in some cases non-existent.  
• Disability inclusion: As of November 2024, 191 countries had ratified the UN CRPD 2006, and over 180 countries have disability laws to remove and reduce the barriers for people with disabilities and enable equal participation. Most cities are, however, inaccessible, particularly in the Global South, as documented through GDI Hub’s research, and people with disabilities continue to face physical and attitudinal barriers that restrict their equal access to infrastructure, services, and independent living.  
• Climate resilience: 195 countries have signed the Paris Agreement 2015, pledging their cooperation for achieving the global temperature goal and climate action. Almost all of them have National Climate Action Plans and made their emissions reduction commitment through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The intensity of the climate crisis, however, continues to spike across the globe; particularly cities are impacted significantly with heat waves, floods, sea-level rise, and storms.  
• To design context-relevant solutions: The socio-cultural and ecological context of a region or community determines the strategies that could successfully realise the transformative actions we seek. The context also informs the key messages for communication, engagement styles, and governance structure.  
• Disability inclusion: Different communities have unique perspectives and lived experiences of disability. Localizing inclusion efforts ensures that strategies are culturally appropriate and respectful and meet the needs and norms of the community.  
• Climate resilience: The various geographic regions experience varying climate impacts, such as droughts, floods, or hurricanes, determining their vulnerabilities, risks, and adaptation capacities. The local socio-economic conditions also influence the capabilities and willingness for optimal resource allocation.   

How to simultaneously localise disability inclusion and climate resilience? – 3 Key Messages  

Drawing on the insights from the Global Disability Innovation Hub’s flagship ‘Delivering Inclusive Design in Cities: A Global Action Report’ and the ‘Cities and Climate Action: World Cities Report 2024 (UN Habitat)’, here are three practical strategies to design our cities hand-in-hand for inclusion and resilience. 

1. Placing people, fairness, and equity at the centre of change: Cities’ resilience is dependent on and proportional to the resilience capacity of the marginalised individuals and communities. People with disabilities are hit hardest by both the sudden-onset disasters (including flooding, cloudburst events, etc.) and slow-onset events (including pollution, sea-level rise, etc.), as they often have fewer resources to cope and are left out of support systems. For example, inaccessible disaster rescue and relief centres, lack of energy access for assistive technology, poor early warning systems, and inaccessible public transport services may directly impact the capacity of people with disabilities to navigate a climate emergency. On the other hand, immunocompromised individuals could be particularly vulnerable to increasing pollution, heat stress, infectious diseases, and healthcare disruption over a longer term. 

“Persons with disabilities are normally excluded when responding to disasters in slum communities, and in actual sense, they are the most vulnerable and most affected persons that need serious attention. Therefore, a lot needs to be done to minimize the exclusion of PWDS in times of disasters because many of them were unable to access relief items in a disaster response” 

Quote from a resident of Freetown, Sierra Leone (from GDI Hub’s Inclusive Cities Workshop) 

People with disabilities also are often excluded or made invisible in climate action policies and programmes, without direct engagement or collaboration. By integrating inclusive and participatory action planning methods, community-led service provision models, and targeted climate-responsive social protection policies, cities can nurture comprehensive people-centric resilience frameworks in collaboration with the Organisations of People with Disabilities (OPDs). 

• Mapping diverse and differential vulnerabilities: People with disabilities are not a homogenous group, as they experience a multitude of differentiated vulnerabilities and barriers that are shaped by age, health, race, ethnicity, caste, gender, and other personal or social identities. From the context of disability-inclusive urban development and climate action, considerations such as income stability, access to assistive technology, tenure status (including renters or property owners), and the location and duration of their residence in the city also are significant contributors determining their resilience capacity. 

“The drainage and sewer systems are blocked during the rainy seasons and flows over to the houses which is a health and mobility risk.” 

-Quote from a resident of Nairobi, Kenya (from GDI Hub’s Inclusive Cities Workshop) 

Risk and vulnerability assessments constitute the core of local climate action planning, and it is critical to adopt a disability lens in the process. Community-led mapping of barriers faced by people with disabilities and their needs, particularly within urban informal settlements, can immensely strengthen the assessment processes and lead to the co-creation of disability-inclusive local climate action plans.  

• Delivering transformative inclusive infrastructure and innovation: With the ‘urgency’ associated with climate action and disability inclusion, it is critical to shift thinking from incremental alteration to transformative adaptation in urban infrastructure. In addition, we also need targeted attention in inclusive innovation for just transition to enable people with disabilities to participate equally in the global shift from polluting fuels to cleaner energy systems. For example, if public transport or low-emission private motorised vehicles are not designed to be weather-responsive and accessible for people with disabilities, their participation in just transition and green economy will continue to be limited.  

"During winter I take a taxi, I have to wait for a bus for a long time so it is difficult to use the bus during winter time. I also need to change buses and it is very cold waiting for the bus outside." 

-Quote from a resident of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (from GDI Hub’s Inclusive Cities Workshop) 

By embracing a multi-sectoral transformation approach, cities can reduce emissions and barriers simultaneously. For example, a package of solutions including low-floor, low-emission buses, bus stops fitted with heating systems, and accessible transport information and communication tools can be deployed to both respond to the changing climate and enable people with disabilities to become part of green solutions.  

GDI Hub is committed to building evidence, testing pilots, and scaling impact through these strategies in collaboration with city governments, climate experts, and the disability community. 

Join Us 

Register for the fourth webinar 'IncluCITY: Climate Resilience and Innovation for Inclusive Cities', to dive deeper into how cities can achieve both disability inclusion and emissions reduction targets in an integrated manner.  

Let’s co-design cities that are inclusive, resilient, and liveable for all!