Building Urban Resilience: The MOVE UP Model
What is a resilient community?
Resilience is defined as “The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to, and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management” (UNISDR, 2017). Communities to be resilient should also be able to anticipate, adapt, respond, and transform into hazards, shocks, and stresses.
The MOVE UP Project envisions resilient communities as those that are able to prepare and bounce back from shocks and stresses because: 1) they have the resilience capacities to do so, 2) the society they live in is inclusive and equitable, and 3) good governance provides an environment that enables them to participate in public life and decision-making.
Resilient urban communities, thus, have proper access to natural, physical, human, social, economic, and political resources, which may come in the form of essentials such as land and water, sufficient and durable income levels, structurally sound homes in safe locations, good health, diverse skills and high level of education, health insurance, social inclusion programs, micro-credit, retirement schemes, and disaster preparedness training programs, among other things (Wisner, Gaillard, & Kelman, 2012).
