Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030): A Multidimensional Framework for Urban Resilience Governance and Climate Policy Integration

Abstract

Cities are exposed to the interacting impacts of climate change, natural hazards, and growing urban pressures, highlighting the need for integrated approaches to urban resilience. The Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative, led by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), provides local governments with tools for risk assessment, planning, capacity development, and resilience implementation. This study critically examines the role of MCR2030 in connecting disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and sustainable urban development. A critical review-analytical design was adopted, combining document analysis, qualitative content analysis, conceptual framework development, and comparative analysis. The study develops a Context–Structure–Output model and examines MCR2030 through a matrix-based analysis of implementation barriers, stakeholder roles, and six dimensions of urban resilience, together with a comparison of two city cases: Batu City, Indonesia, and Venâncio Aires, Brazil. The findings indicate that MCR2030 provides a useful structure for risk assessment, institutional learning, capacity development, and coordination with the Sendai Framework, Sustainable Development Goal 11, the Paris Agreement, and the New Urban Agenda. However, important gaps remain in implementation capacity, sustainable financing, data availability, cross-sectoral coordination, and the participation of private-sector and community actors. Physical-infrastructural and institutional dimensions show stronger documented coverage than socio-cultural, economic, and environmental dimensions. The cases demonstrate that similar frameworks may encounter different barriers depending on local governance, hazard characteristics, and operational resources. Overall, MCR2030 functions as a facilitating framework whose practical contribution depends on the institutional, financial, knowledge, and social conditions of the cities where it is implemented.