The Rockefeller Foun­dation has given reasons why Enugu achieved the historic selection as the first Ni­gerian city to join the 100 Resilient Cities Network (100RC).

The city was among the four African cities and the overall 35 new cities from across the globe to be invited to join the exclu­sive club in this year’s edition of the programme during the Rockefeller Foundation’s Ur­ban Resilience Summit in Sin­gapore last Wednesday.

The other three African cities that made the list alongside the Coal City of Enugu are Kigali (Rwanda), Accra (Ghana) and Arusha (Tanzania).

The organization hinted that the choice of Enugu was predicated on the spectacular transformation the city had un­dergone in the past seven years under the administration of Governor Sullivan Chime.

It explained that Enugu was chosen from 331 applicants on the basis of its ability to “dem­onstrate a unique vision for resilience, a long-term com­mitment to cutting across silos of government and sectors of society, a special attention to the needs of the poor and vulner­able.”

A letter conveying news of Enugu’s selection and signed by Michael Berkowitz, the Presi­dent, 100 Resilient Cities read in part: “Today is an exciting day. Today is the day you join a community of resilience pio­neers. This year, 331 cities from more than 90 countries applied to the 100 Resilient Cities Chal­lenge. Among these hundreds of cities, your city’s innovative ap­proach to urban resilience and your commitment to a collab­orative partnership within your community and 100 Resilient Cities was deemed exceptional. It is for these reasons, among others, that Enugu has been se­lected as one of the 100 Resil­ient Cities.”

The Foundation stressed that Enugu like other Network cities will serve as a model for other global cities that seek to build their own resilience.


Source: Sun