From Informality to Impact

This briefing note by the Global Resilience Partnership and Transitions Research examines the landscape of urban resilience solutions in informal contexts across the Global South. Based on a review of approximately 130 solutions, the report identifies a significant gap in urban climate investment—where only 1.2% of urban climate finance flows to adaptation and resilience—and highlights that most non-governmental solutions are still in early development stages. It provides recommendations for municipalities, funders, and policymakers to scale these innovations through better coordination, hybrid financing, and the integration of informal settlements into city planning.

• Urban climate investment is heavily skewed, with only 1.2% of urban climate finance flows currently directed toward climate change adaptation and resilience solutions.
• The majority of urban resilience solutions implemented by for-profit and not-for-profit organisations in informal contexts are in their early stages of development and testing, indicating that non-government stakeholders' efforts are still in incipient phases.
• There are distinct strategic priorities between organisation types: not-for-profits lead in empowering marginalised communities (72.2%) and nature-based solutions (52.4%), while for-profits are more active in information and technology (44%).
• Philanthropic funding is a critical driver for early-stage innovation, with 60% of not-for-profits and 42% of for-profits depending on these sources, which is significantly higher than the 17% of urban adaptation projects financed by grants cited in general literature.
• Not-for-profit organisations are significantly more collaborative than for-profits, forming approximately 6.6 times more partnerships.
• Resilience interventions in informal contexts produce transformative benefits beyond climate adaptation, most notably in enhancing human capacity, with nearly 70% of organisations reporting improved skills and capabilities in local communities.
• Scaling urban resilience is hindered by several systemic barriers, including a lack of human capacity, complex land tenure, risk-averse regulatory environments, and a scarcity of primary data such as census and climate information.
• There is a mismatch between funder expectations and the reality of resilience work; investors often demand rapid growth or 'buzzwords' like AI and blockchain, whereas resilience building is a long-term process requiring sustainable behavior change.
• Informal settlements are frequently deprioritised by governments, and the lack of municipality buy-in forces communities to implement solutions independently without adequate resources.
• The report recommends that municipalities integrate informal settlements into city master plans, provide legal recognition of land tenure, and commit to the long-term uptake of successful pilots to de-risk investments.

APA

Angheloiu, D. C., Bhandari, A., Rodrigues, E., D’Souza, L., & Ginoya, N. (2024). From Informality to Impact. Global Resilience Partnership. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/from-informality-to-impact.pdf

Chicago

Angheloiu, Dr Corina, Ashali Bhandari, Evita Rodrigues, Lianne D’Souza, and Namrata Ginoya. From Informality to Impact. Global Resilience Partnership, 2024. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/from-informality-to-impact.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Angheloiu |first1=Dr Corina |last2=Bhandari |first2=Ashali |last3=Rodrigues |first3=Evita |last4=D’Souza |first4=Lianne |last5=Ginoya |first5=Namrata |title=From Informality to Impact |publisher=Global Resilience Partnership |date=2024 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/from-informality-to-impact.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{angheloiu2024from, author = {Angheloiu, Dr Corina and Bhandari, Ashali and Rodrigues, Evita and D’Souza, Lianne and Ginoya, Namrata}, title = {{From Informality to Impact}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2024}, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/from-informality-to-impact.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }