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100 Resilient Cities
- Members' Lunch with Nicola Thomson
Hosted by:
March 13, 2015 @ 11:30 pm - March 14, 2015 @ 1:00 am
Program Manager & Associate Director, City Relationships, Rockefeller Foundation.
100 Resilient Cities (100RC) is a newly formed non-governmental organisation, fully funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Melbourne has been selected from hundreds of cities globally to participate in 100RC – a global initiative working with cities to develop and test innovative approaches that build their ability to better withstand the shocks and stresses that challenge communities, business and government.
Resilience, defined as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to anticipate, avoid, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of hazards, in timely efficient manners includes both shocks (heat, fires, floods, etc.) and the stresses that weaken the fabric of a city. They include high unemployment; an over-stretched or inefficient public transportation system; endemic violence; or chronic energy and water shortages.
By addressing potential hazards and investing in actions that promote resilience., cities can gain a resilience financial and social dividend. Deloitte Access Economics Australia and World Bank estimate that every dollar spent on disaster risk reduction returns between two and ten dollars in recovery savings.
Creating an effective way for all metropolitan municipalities to collaborate through 100RC will be key to the success of this project.
Nicola Thomson is the 100RC Regional Manager.
Prior to joining 100RC Nicola spent 12 years as an environmental advisor and project manager in developing countries. Most recently based in Suva, Fiji. Her clients included industry, governments, foundations, and non-governmental and multilateral organizations.
She has led environmental and social impact assessments for infrastructural, mining, industrial and tourism developments and is a respected independent evaluator of conservation and development grants. She recently facilitated a series of regional workshops that brought together 26 Pacific Island Countries in the exercise of developing collaborative action plans for climate change adaptation and disaster risk management.
Nicola holds a Bachelor and Master Degree in Environmental Science and Management and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.