Bridging Global Frameworks and Local Realities: Towards Localizing the City Essentials Approach in Pakistan’s Urban Planning Systems

Hafiza Saba Islam; Shaker Mahmood Mayo

Authors

Hafiza Saba Islam City & Regional Planning Department, UET, Lahore, Pakistan
Shaker Mahmood Mayo City & Regional Planning Department, LCWU, Lahore, Pakistan

Keywords:

Urban Resilience, City Essentials Approach, UNDRR, Institutional Capacity, Urban Governance, Pakistan

Abstract

Cities across the Global South are increasingly exposed to compound and cascading risks—ranging from climate-induced disasters to governance, infrastructure, and institutional failures. Global frameworks such as the UNDRR Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) Campaign, the City Resilience Index (CRI), UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Tool (CRPT), and the ISO 37123 Indicators for Resilient Cities have collectively redefined resilience as a governance-driven, system-wide process. However, their translation into the planning and institutional realities of developing countries remains partial and fragmented. This paper bridges these global frameworks with local contexts through a comparative synthesis that identifies areas of convergence—such as governance, preparedness, and coordination—and divergence in adaptability, innovation, and modularity. Focusing on Pakistan as a representative case, the study examines how the City Essentials Approach under MCR2030 can be embedded within national and local urban planning systems to operationalize resilience. Findings from the comparative review reveal that frameworks like MCR2030 and LGSAT align with Pakistan’s disaster management architecture (NDMA–PDMA), while data-intensive tools such as CRI and ISO 37123 remain constrained by limited institutional capacity. The paper proposes the City Essentials Localization Pathway (CELP) as a conceptual bridge to integrate global principles into local governance, enabling performance-based resilience assessment, policy coherence, and data-driven decision-making within Pakistan’s urban systems.

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