Loss and Damage in Informal Urban Settlements Summary Report

Today, more than half of the global population resides in urban areas; by 2050, this number will have risen to 70 per cent. Over 1.1 billion people currently live in informal settlements, and it is estimated that 2.8 billion people are affected by some form of housing inadequacy (UN Habitat 2023). Over the next 30 years, an additional two billion people are expected to reside in such settlements – equating to around 183,000 people more per day (UN 2023). Cities in low- and middle-income countries, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, will be most affected by this development by far. This means that the majority of the burden lies with cities and countries that are already struggling with major challenges such as climate change impacts, natural hazard-induced disasters, growing populations, including due to migration, and conflict.

Many informal settlements and their dwellers are ill-prepared for climate change and related natural hazard-induced disasters. They face particularly high risks of floods and landslides but also of storms and heat waves. As a result of this lack of preparedness and the high exposure and vulnerability of informal settlement dwellers (Satterthwaite et al. 2020; Quesada-Román 2022), they are threatened by severe losses and damages through climate-related disasters. Additionally, the risk posed by cascading effects from disasters is high (Purwar et al. 2020). Unresolved conflicts in the regions due to insufficient or missing policies and frameworks regarding land tenure and property rights exacerbate existing vulnerabilities further and limit adaptive capacities (Sarmiento et al. 2020). When disaster strikes, these dwellers, already in situations of extreme fragility, face additional difficulties, as their own resources are insufficient or lacking, and post-disaster response is delayed, harming recovery efforts (Purwar et al. 2020). They are frequently excluded from aid distribution and post-disaster reconstruction programmes, which increases their vulnerability to future disasters (Sarmiento et al. 2020).

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