Through CRIS, USAID worked with municipal staff, decision makers, and their partners in five pilot cities to integrate climate adaptation and risk management strategies into city development and to share the lessons learned with other cities through peer learning and dissemination. 

This initiative used USAID’s Climate-Resilient Development Framework, which facilitates the systematic inclusion of climate considerations into the development decision-making process. 

The pilots are fast-growing cities located on coasts or in low-lying areas, making them vulnerable to flooding, erosion, sea level rise, and extreme weather events. Each pilot city collaborated with USAID to develop a work plan that lays out a set of activities to support the city’s ability to address climate risk to infrastructure services. 

Several of the pilots are now implementing action plans to support their next steps in promoting climate resilience. Most of the pilots developed tools and frameworks to identify vulnerabilities to climate change impacts and prioritize adaptation options.