Publication: Livable Pacific Cities and Towns: Urbanization Strategies for Resilience, Sustainability, and Inclusion
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2025-12-17
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2025-12-23
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The Pacific region stands at a critical juncture. Urbanization is reshaping its economies and societies at an unprecedented pace, offering the promise of greater prosperity, better services, and thriving communities. Yet, without strategic planning and sustained investment, these same trends also heighten exposure to climate change, natural hazards, and social vulnerabilities. By 2050, the urban population of Pacific Island Countries is projected to double, with nearly one in every two citizens living in cities and towns. This transition carries both extraordinary potential and profound risk. The key objectives of this report are to highlight the opportunities and benefits of resilient urbanization and recommend a framework through which urban investments and policy reforms can manage disaster and climate risk effectively. Regional and national policy discourse has yet to fully address the need to invest in resilient, sustainable, and inclusive urban areas to achieve livable Pacific cities and towns. This is largely due to the lack of an effective evidence base that pulls together the multidisciplinary aspects of the challenge to support decision-makers on investment prioritization and policymaking for urban areas. Additionally, the uniqueness of urbanization in Pacific Island Countries (PICs), which are small, remote, and often highly dispersed, means that global lessons on urbanization are not necessarily always applicable.
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“World Bank. 2025. Livable Pacific Cities and Towns: Urbanization Strategies for Resilience, Sustainability, and Inclusion. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/44110 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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