Today we want to recommend a TED-talk by Dr Robert Muggah, he is the research director of the Igarape Institute and a principal of the SecDev Group. He is talking about the biggest risk facing cities and the business opportunities connected to that.

From the talk

Cities are the most extraordinary experiment in social engineering that we humans have ever come up with. If you live in a city,and even if you live in a slum –which 20 percent of the world’s urban population does —you’re likely to be healthier, wealthier, better educatedand live longer than your country cousins. There’s a reason why three million people are moving to citiesevery single week. Cities are where the future happens first.

In parts of Africa and Latin America are urbanizing before they industrialize. They’re growing at three times the global average in terms their population. And this is putting enormous strain on infrastructure and services. Now, there is a golden opportunity. It’s a small opportunity but a golden one: in the next 10 to 20 years, to really start designing in principles of resilience into our cities. There’s not one single way of doing this, but there are a number of ways that are emerging:

1) Cities need a plan and a strategy to implement it.
2) You’ve got to go green.
3) Invest in integrated and multi-use solutions.
4) Build densely but also sustainably.
5) Steal.
6) Work in global coalitions.