WHAT IS THE UCR-COP? The Urban Climate Resilience Community of Practice (UCRCoP) was established in December 2011 under the purview of the Vietnam Urban Forum, in recognition of the need to share and learn from the ongoing efforts by diverse stakeholders working in the urban climate change resilience field. The UCR-CoP is a forum for individuals, community groups, civil society organizations, private companies, research institutions, international organizations, and national and sub-national government authorities to exchange knowledge, share good practices and learn together about urban climate change resilience. KEY OBJECTIVES OF UCR-COP • Capacity Building: enable members to have access to information, research, training, current events and funding opportunities in urban climate change; • Sharing Resources: sharing good practices, responding to questions, identifying useful resources and links, pointing to sources of data. • Advocacy: provide a structure for members to develop common advocacy agendas on urban climate change resilience and build relationships between members for coordination, dialogue and advocacy in relation to climate change responses and participation in policy processes nationally and subnationally. HOW TO JOIN UCR-COP? Visit UCR-CoP’s blog at: http://urbanclimatevn.com Want to become a blogger? Send us an email through the online contact form or contact [email protected] Sign-up for the UCR-CoP’s mailing list on our blog to receive newsletters, blog updates and news about related events. For further information please contact [email protected] HOW IS UCR-COP FACILITATED? Core members of UCR-CoP ensures communication to members and organizes meetings and annual planning for the working group. The initial core members include: Vietnam Urban Development Agency (UDA), Institute for Social and Environmental Transitions-Vietnam (ISET-Vietnam), National Institute for Science and Technology Policy and Strategic Studies (NISTPASS), Spatial Decisions, Vietnam Association of Cities (ACVN), Asian Development Bank (ADB), National Institute of Urban-Rural and Planning (NIRUP), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the World Bank, and UN Habitat. WHO CAN JOIN? UCR-CoP membership is free and open to all interested organizations and individual practitioners who are supporting efforts to build urban climate resilience in Viet Nam. WHY URBAN CLIMATE RESILIENCE }} Urban areas in Vietnam will be significantly affected by climate change. When poorly planned, urban development itself exacerbates these risks in a variety of ways, by expanding into hazardous areas, threatening critical eco-system services and flood buffers, and increasing pressure on key resources. }} Resilience provides an important new way of planning for an uncertain future, with flexible, transparent, and learning-oriented institutions; households and organizations that can prepare for and respond actively to shocks; and physical systems that provide services in a variety of ways. }} Though climate change adaptation can build on lessons from years of development and disaster risk reduction experience in both Vietnam and elsewhere, it presents many new unknowns and challenges to traditional ways of planning. }} Building climate change resilience is a learning and problem-solving process that can be facilitated by collaborating with others.