CHEC-West Africa Regional Resilient Cities Network

To respond to the recognised local demand for coordinated urban planning responses to the threats being experienced from climate-change-induced coastal erosion and poor existing infrastructure that is adversely affecting the human ecology of the coastal communities - as outlined in the CHEC Journal No. 34 assessment of conditions faced along this vulnerable coast of West Africa. Practical plans for solutions to these threats are required, taking into account the broader coordination of the rapidly growing cities of this awkwardly placed international  region. CHEC Teams will be working in conjunction with local authorities and community leaders, already known to the team through earlier DFID/NIAF programmes. They are skilled in such operations, being known as CHEC’s long-term partners in this field. To provide a practical, professional, community-based, human ecological basis for a coordinated international regional response to the crisis of climate change environments facing the rapidly expanding but poorly equipped urban communities of the West Africa coastal region. Although the issues are well documented, there is little by way of a basis for the communities and their local governments to understand and take forward a coordinated urban development approach. Coordination and detailed documentation will be key elements of the project outputs.

The 2024 CHEC Journal 34 Article outlined the well-referenced and documented climate change, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion issues faced by the cities of the coastal region of West Africa, in the context of themselves rapidly expanding and coalescing as a continuous ‘Megalopolis’, yet requiring a coordinated basis for the cities and their communities to be in a position to propose better linkages (road and rail) as a responding organisation with authority, as well as basic local-level improvements in simple infrastructure such as coordinated, flood-resistant drainage documentation. This will build on earlier experience of such work in the region.