The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN Habitat, and the National University of Singapore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to become partners. The Barcelona Resilience Week Conference in Barcelona has been the ideal framework to sign the agreement. The partnership will promote the engages research staff and students in the activities of the UN-Habitat’s Human Settlement Program and the City Resilience Profiling Programme of the Urban Risk Reduction Unit

UN-Habitat, as the main UN Agency responsible for ensuring the sustainable development of cities, towns, and other human settlements, is strategically placed to coordinate the humanitarian and development efforts of multiple actors and policy makers at all levels in the common pursuit of urban resilience. UN-Habitat’s approach to strengthening urban resilience as a key determinant for ensuring the effectiveness of response interventions during times of crises, and subsequent sustainable development, is embodied in its Cities Resilience Profiling Programme (CRPP).

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Mr. Dan Lewis, Chief of the Urban Risk Reduction Unit, UN-Habitat, Professor Heng Chey Kiang, Dean of the School of Architecture of the National University of Singapore and Professor Oscar Carracedo, Director of the Designing Resilience in Asia (DRIA) International Research Programme. National University of Singapore.