Strengthening Urban Resilience with Climate Adaptation

Cities in USAID partner countries face increasingly intense and complex shocks and stresses, with causes and impacts that cut across programming areas. Further, as cities continue to grow, more investment is needed to reduce the impacts of climate shocks and stresses, but financing for urban adaptation in particular lags far behind the need. Fortunately, there are opportunities to integrate approaches and actions into USAID programming that will bolster the resilience of communities, cities and countries while also improving outcomes across a variety of sectors. This webinar will feature USAID’s new Urban Resilience Technical Guidance that aims to help staff better understand urban resilience and provides evidence-based, practical guidance on how it can be applied to Agency programming. The webinar will also discuss the urban adaptation financing gap and approaches to increase funding for urban climate adaptation and resilience.

Meet the Host

Kara E. Reeve is an Adaptation and Resilience Advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS). She is a seasoned program manager and her technical expertise spans urban planning; climate change mitigation and adaptation, including ecosystem-based adaptation; natural resources conservation; governance; economic growth, and public financial management. Ms. Reeve previously worked at the nexus of climate change, governance, and urban planning while at RTI International where she managed a portfolio of USAID- funded projects valued at over $44 million. She also held roles at National Wildlife Federation, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, and the District of Columbia Office of Planning.

Meet the Speakers

Ann Vaughan joined the Biden-Harris Administration in February, 2021 and works in USAID's Bureau for the Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS) as a Senior Advisor for Climate Change. Ann co-leads the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) and works across REFS to integrate climate considerations in food, water and nutrition programming. 

Kevin Nelson is the Urban Governance Lead for the Governance Team within the Bureau of Development, Democracy and Innovation at USAID. In this role, he chairs the Urban Expert Working Group, composed of Agency technical experts who focus on urban work. USAID promotes a cross-sectoral systems approach to development connecting urban programming on gender, infrastructure, economic development, resilience, water and sanitation, among other issues. He also coordinates donor engagement and leads efforts to support the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, Mr. Nelson is coordinating USAID’s strategic thinking about the role cities and urban areas have in driving national economies, promoting democracy and governance and addressing climate change, anti-corruption, violence prevention and supporting local solutions to municipal service delivery.

Mr. Nelson brings over 25 years of direct experience working with local governments, cities, and regional councils of government to identify urban issues and develop relevant solutions that produce expected results and advance opportunities for sustainable living and prosperity. 

Mr. Nelson focuses on donor engagement and global initiatives to frame and address urban sustainability and development issues. Recently, he has contributed to the G20 process on sustainable localization, the recent IPCC report on climate change, city-focused deliverables for the Summit for Democracy, as well as advancing solutions to combat violence while increasing opportunities for women's safety and empowerment in urban settings.

Mr. Nelson holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree in Government and International Relations from the University of Notre Dame.

Rahel Hermann is an urban and municipal development expert with 20 years’ experience in local authorities strengthening and development in low- and middle-income countries. Her expertise covers urban environment improvement programs such as climate change adaptation, access to basic services and urban regeneration through participatory and capacity development processes as well as decentralization, urban governance and citizen centered approaches. In her current position as Project manager for the CFF, she coordinates the support provided to selected South African cities to develop finance-ready climate adaptation projects.

Rob Short has worked in the environmental, climate change and development finance sectors in South Africa for over 25 years. During that time he has held project and program management positions at local, provincial and national Government. His infrastructure finance experience has come from working for the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Finance Cooperation, as well as short-term assignments with KfW and the World Bank.