Coastal City Resilience and Extreme Heat Action Project
What we do
The Coastal City Resilience and Extreme Heat Action Project (CoCHAP) is funded by the USAID/BHA an dimplemented by the IFRC, American Red Cross, RCRC Climate Centre and the RCRC National Societies of Indonesia, Bangladesh, Honduras, and Tanzania. CoCHAP aims to build climate resilience of urban communities, particularly to extreme heat and coastal threats. While building on the learning from the previous experiences in coastal cities, extreme heat response and locally led climate adaptation, CoCHAP will strengthen the capacities of the communities, Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) National Societies, city authorities, meteorological agencies and other stakeholders in system and design thinking, coalition building and evidence-based collective action.
Building resilience of coastal urban communities to sea level rise, storms, and erosion.
Reducing impacts of extreme urban heat through planning, early warnings, and community adaptation.
What is new?
Coastal Cities Dialog
We organized the first Coastal Cities Dialog as part of the ICLEI World Congress (WC) 2024 in São Paulo, Brazil 18-21 June 2024. High-level representatives of the RCRC National Societies of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Honduras, Colombia, Paraguay, Grenada, and IFRC, colleagues from the Climate Centre and ICLEI, and cities from all around the World participated in the event. It was an important step in operationalizing the MOU that IFRC and ICLEI have launched at COP28 in Dubai. After the lively discussions, the participants agreed on three pitches that they presented a panel of experts to give feedback and recommendations.
Pitch 1: Climate-resilient Urban Development. Together, the Red Cross Red Crescent national societies, ICLEI, and local governments will develop a shared vision of climate-resilient development, advocating for transformative changes to policy, standards, and practice to align with that vision. This transformation is not just about immediate adaptation but also focuses on long-term, sustainable urban growth that anticipates future climate scenarios.
Pitch 2: Tech-enabled Early Warning & Early Action. We want to see at least 100 cities in 5 years having tech-enabled EWS and Early Action Plans, in support of the UN Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All initiative, co-led by the IFRC. We can strengthen the capacity of local governments to use technology to analyze and develop relevant early warning messages for the communities.
Pitch 3: Translating Knowledge into Heat Action in Coastal Cities. Together ICLEI, local governments and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement will close the knowledge gap on when heat becomes deadly and develop Heat Action Plans to ensure action is taken to prevent the worst impacts. We will translate knowledge into innovative and relevant action by bringing together expertise in climate science, with local academic institutions, community members and city governments.
Heat Action Day June 2nd
We celebrated Heat Action Day 2024 on June 2nd with amazing art work and activites organized by the RCRC National Socities, cities and many others. Read the summary of activities and take a look at the art works.
City-Wide Risk Assessment: A system Centric Approach for Building Resilient Coastal Cities
The Coastal City Resilience Project (CoCHAP) implementing in Bagerhat and Satkhira Municipality, Bangladesh brought together city stakeholders to identify climate change risk, map their impact on the city system and entry points for building city resilience through the City Wide Risk Assessment (CWRA).
Reactivation of Municipal Nursery Garden, Nacaome City, Valle. Honduras
Honduran Red Cross in collaboration with the Municipal Government aims to maintain plants in order to restore green areas at the municipal level, as well as to keep educational centres, churches, and places near water sources reforested, so mitigating the effects of high heat.
Where We Work
The CoCHAP project targets 9 secondary cities in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Honduras and Tanzania. While in some cities activities focus on either coastal resilience or extreme heat, in others the activities address both climate risks.
Tools & Resources
Tap into a wealth of expertise from the RCRC Network with our comprehensive collection of resources and tools tailored for CoCHAP project implementation. This section equips you with templates, guidance documents, reports, and other invaluable materials to streamline the planning, design, and execution of your CoCHAP activities.
Click on the icons on the right to explore resources by topic, or go here to browse the entire collection.
Sharing and Learning
One of the premises of CoCHAP is to build a foundation of practice and knowledge which can be learned from and scaled in regard to building resilience to extreme heat and coastal hazards in secondary cities. The Project has indicators and monitoring and evaluation plans at detail. We also strive for learning in a broader sense which requires a parallel process of reflection and learning from not just our experience but of our partners and the communities. Lean more about the CoCHAP Learning Agenda.
Partners
