Urban living laboratories guide

GNDR's new resource, Urban Living Laboratories, is designed to help civil society organisations (CSOs) facilitate inclusive decision-making in urban communities with displaced populations. The guide provides CSOs with a tried and tested approach for developing locally led solutions to the disaster risk challenges that are unique to their communities.

Urban Living Laboratories are real-world settings where communities – both displaced and host – come together, along with other stakeholders such as local government representatives and service providers, to make decisions on the issues that affect them. They are a space where unique solutions are developed, implemented and evaluated, all with the goal of building the resilience of at-risk communities.

The approach was trialled by GNDR members across 11 urban areas. Diverse groups of community representatives met regularly to suggest and test practical actions, services, policies, or products to address the difficulties they were facing.