The Urban Action Kit is a practical, modular guide developed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre to help civil society organisations build community resilience in cities through simple, low-cost, do-it-yourself activities.
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Urban Action Kit
General Information
ISIG
A free, modular resilience guide that equips Red Cross Red Crescent branches and community-based organisations in urban areas to lead practical, low-cost activities that strengthen community preparedness and reduce disaster risk.
The Kit is structured across seven thematic modules — Urban Issues, Urban Agriculture, Urban Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Nature-Based Solutions, Liveable Cities, Early Warning Early Action, and Creative Communications — each offering a short conceptual introduction, step-by-step activity guides, case studies from global practice, and links to relevant global frameworks. Activities are designed to be implemented individually or in combination, using existing volunteer networks, skills, and resources with little to no external funding. The Kit is intended for Red Cross and Red Crescent National Society branches and local community-based organisations already present in urban contexts, and can serve both as a foundation for building partnerships and as a basis for securing future funding for urban resilience projects.
Rapid and unplanned urbanisation is concentrating risk. By 2035, approximately 5.5 billion people are expected to live in cities, with the majority of growth occurring in East and South Asia and Africa — regions already experiencing significant climate-related hazards including floods, heatwaves, droughts, and storms. Urban poor populations bear a disproportionate burden, as they often live in high-risk informal settlements with limited resources and inadequate access to WASH, green infrastructure, or early warning systems.
In parallel, already highly urbanised regions in Latin America, Europe, and North America face ongoing realities of urban flooding, extreme heat, and disease risk. The gap that this Kit addresses is practical: civil society organisations and volunteer networks exist in cities but often lack structured, accessible guidance for urban-specific resilience activities. The Kit was developed to fill this gap, providing a quick-start, low-cost resource that leverages existing capacities without requiring specialist expertise or large budgets.
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Population Size
Population Density
Needs Addressed
Civil society organisations active in urban areas frequently lack structured, accessible guidance adapted to the complexity of urban environments — where high density, interconnected systems, informal settlements, and diverse populations create distinct resilience challenges. The Urban Action Kit addresses:
- Limited access to practical, no-cost or low-cost activity frameworks that volunteers can implement without specialist skills or external funding;
- The absence of structured approaches to urban-specific issues such as nature-based solutions, urban food security, WASH in informal settings, and community early warning communication design;
- The preparedness behaviour gap: even where infrastructure exists, household and community-level readiness remains low, particularly in dense urban settings where lifeline failures cascade quickly;
- Unequal reach of preparedness programming to vulnerable groups — including children, older people, people with disabilities, foreign residents, and informal settlement communities — who face specific barriers to accessing and acting on risk information.
The Kit explicitly names and designs for: children and families (age-appropriate learning activities, garden bingo, urban agriculture); older people (mobility, health vulnerability, and dependence on services); people with disabilities (access needs, evacuation and communication requirements); and foreign residents and visitors (language and system-navigation barriers during crises). Urban poor populations and informal settlement residents are identified as the highest-priority vulnerable group across WASH and nature-based solution activities, where risk exposure is greatest and resources most limited.
As a reusable and globally applicable solution, the Urban Action Kit can be implemented across different governance contexts. It is most naturally suited to decentralised and community-led governance — where local civil society organisations, CBOs, and Red Cross Red Crescent branches initiate and lead activities. Many activities also require or benefit from multistakeholder engagement, involving local government, private sector, schools, media, and neighbourhood associations. The Kit explicitly frames implementation as a civil society-led process that builds partnerships with local authorities rather than depending on them.
The Kit is designed to be applicable across preparedness levels, but is most valuable in contexts with at least basic preparedness awareness, where an active civil society or volunteer network exists that can take up and implement activities. Many activities are structured as starting points for organisations with limited prior experience of urban resilience programming. In more organised response contexts, the Kit provides a pathway to deepen and extend existing preparedness programming across new thematic domains.
The Urban Action Kit is deliberately designed for low-infrastructure contexts. Activities require minimal technology — most can be run with paper, pens, volunteers, and community spaces. Some activities (rainwater harvesting, nature-based solutions, cooling centres) require access to basic materials and coordination with local authorities on permissions. Digital tools are referenced (social media, weather apps) but alternatives are provided. The solution is not appropriate for contexts with no infrastructure or community organisation whatsoever, but it functions effectively across basic to developed infrastructure environments.
Engagement is used to build community ownership of resilience activities, strengthen social cohesion, convert preparedness knowledge into habitual action, and develop lasting partnerships between civil society organisations and local actors (government, schools, businesses, communities). Activities move beyond one-way information delivery to create shared experiences, joint problem-solving, and co-implemented solutions.
Participatory workshops and mapping exercises; community festivals and events; interactive learning (games, cartoon-a-thons, garden bingo); hands-on collective action (urban gardening, nature-based interventions, lane painting); two-way communication system design; community focus groups; social media campaigns; and multi-partner planning processes. Engagement is designed to be low-barrier and adaptable to diverse audiences including children, older people, and foreign residents.
The solution explicitly positions community members and civil society organisations as initiators, designers, and implementers of resilience activities — not merely consultees. Decisions about which activities to prioritise, how to adapt them to local context, which partners to engage, and how to maintain or scale initiatives are made by implementing organisations and communities themselves. Several activities include formal community decision-making processes (e.g., voting on urban projects, co-designing communication systems, community ownership of gardens or wadis).
The Kit builds long-term capacity by strengthening volunteers' and organisations' knowledge of urban resilience concepts, their ability to facilitate participatory processes, and their networks of urban partnerships. Activities are designed to transfer ongoing responsibility to communities (e.g., garden maintenance plans assigned to residents, communication systems handed to community gatekeepers, WASH programmes handed to local government). The training-of-facilitators approach embedded in several activities (handwashing workshops, weather communication systems) multiplies capacity beyond the initial implementing team.
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
The Urban Action Kit's primary innovation is its modular, multi-hazard design that places civil society and volunteers at the centre of urban resilience programming — rather than as passive recipients of expert-led or government-delivered interventions. Each of its seven modules is self-contained and actionable, allowing organisations to select activities most relevant to their local hazard context and organisational capacity.
A second distinctive feature is its commitment to radical accessibility: activities are explicitly designed to require little to no funding, to use existing volunteer networks and local knowledge, and to be implementable by organisations with basic community organising skills but no specialist DRRM background. Step-by-step formats, time estimates, resource lists, and difficulty ratings make every activity immediately usable.
The Kit also connects local action to global frameworks (Sendai Framework, Paris Agreement, SDGs), enabling organisations to position their activities within international accountability processes — supporting partnership building and funding applications.
English (primary). The RCCC and IFRC have published resources in multiple languages; additional language versions may exist for specific activities or regional editions. The Kit encourages localisation of materials into community languages as part of implementation.
The Urban Action Kit was developed and published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC). In practice, implementation is carried out by Red Cross Red Crescent National Society branches and their local volunteer structures, and/or community-based organisations with active urban presence.
Transferable types of implementing organisations include: local civil society organisations with volunteer capacity and community networks; community-based organisations with neighbourhood-level presence; urban resilience programmes of international NGOs; municipal governments seeking to co-implement community resilience activities with civil society partners; and academic or training institutions embedding urban resilience programming in curricula.
The IFRC is one of the world's largest humanitarian networks, with established mandates in disaster preparedness, response, and resilience-building globally. The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre has specific expertise in climate risk communication, early warning/early action, and community-based climate adaptation. The Urban Action Kit reflects accumulated global practice from RCRC operations across multiple countries and urban hazard contexts. At the local implementation level, experience varies: the Kit is explicitly designed to be usable by organisations with basic community engagement capacity, not exclusively by established DRRM specialists.
- Red Cross and Red Crescent National Society branches and their volunteer networks serve as the primary implementing actors.
- Community-based organisations (CBOs) and local civil society organisations are co-primary users.
- Local government and municipal authorities are key partners across multiple activities (placemaking, nature-based solutions, car-free days, WASH competitions, cooling centres).
- Schools and educational institutions are recurring participants.
- Neighbourhood and community leaders, private sector actors (businesses, media, sponsors), and technical experts (engineers, landscapers, meteorological services) are engaged depending on the module and activity.
- National meteorological services are specifically engaged in the Early Warning Early Action module.
- Select the most relevant module(s) based on local hazard profile, community needs, and organisational capacity.
- Read the module introduction to understand the urban context, global links, and theoretical framing.
- Choose one or more activities, reviewing the time, difficulty, resource, and participant requirements for each.
- Identify and mobilise partners (local government, schools, businesses, media, community leaders) relevant to the chosen activity.
- Secure any necessary permissions (for public space use, activity implementation, etc.).
- Recruit and brief volunteers, assign roles, and prepare materials.
- Implement the activity following the step-by-step guidance, adapting to local context as needed.
- Document outputs (photos, reports, mapping results) for organisational learning, communication, and potential funding applications.
- Debrief with participants and partners, capture lessons learned, and plan next activities or scale-up.
- Use case studies and documentation to build partnerships with other urban actors and organisations for future resilience work.
The Kit is designed for implementation with minimal resources, using existing volunteer time, community spaces, and locally available materials. Most activities list specific resource requirements that are low-cost or obtainable in-kind:
- Staff time for coordination and facilitation is the primary ongoing resource requirement.
- Some activities (rainwater harvesting systems, wadi construction, blue and green corridors) involve moderate material costs and may require local authority permissions.
- Financial resources for implementation are primarily volunteer time and coordination capacity; larger activities may benefit from partnership contributions or small grants.
Activities vary significantly in timeframe: from 30-minute sessions (garden hunt, flashmob) to multi-week or multi-month initiatives (rainwater harvesting, household waste separation competition, blue and green corridors). The Kit does not prescribe a fixed programme timeline — it is designed for flexible, iterative implementation. Organisations can start with a single short activity and progressively build to a more structured portfolio of urban resilience work across modules.
Experience of the Implementing Organisation in DRM
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
- Low-cost, volunteer-driven activities can generate high community visibility and lasting social cohesion when they are participatory, locally relevant, and enjoyable.
- Case studies from Vanuatu, Tanzania, Kenya, the Netherlands, and Colombia demonstrate that community ownership — built through participatory design and co-implementation — is the critical factor in long-term sustainability of resilience initiatives.
- Connecting local action to global frameworks (SDGs, Sendai, Paris Agreement) creates strategic value for organisations seeking partnerships and funding, without requiring communities to engage with those frameworks directly.
- Starting with one activity and documenting results creates a foundation for scaling to additional modules and activities over time.
- Sustaining volunteer engagement over time is a common implementation challenge, particularly for multi-month activities. The Kit addresses this through short, modular activity options that generate visible results quickly, maintaining momentum and motivation. Activities are designed to be inherently enjoyable and community-building, which reduces dropout.
- Securing permissions and buy-in from local authorities can slow implementation, particularly for activities in public spaces or involving infrastructure. This is addressed by framing civic engagement as a contribution to municipal goals (sustainability, liveability, SDGs) and by recommending early partner engagement and incremental starts with lower-risk activities.
- Reaching the most vulnerable groups — including people with disabilities, older residents, and non-native language speakers — requires deliberate adaptation of materials and recruitment strategies. The Kit acknowledges this and encourages localisation of communication materials, accessibility considerations, and targeted outreach.
- Maintaining community-owned initiatives (gardens, wadis, communication systems) after initial implementation requires clear governance and ownership agreements. The Kit embeds handover steps and maintenance planning within most multi-week activities to address this risk.
Low uptake or uneven reach across communities: Design activities as low-barrier and high-visibility (events, social media campaigns, neighbourhood festivals) to maximise participation. Start with activities most relevant to local daily life and concerns to build trust and engagement from the outset.
Content becoming outdated or disconnected from local hazard reality: Encourage implementing organisations to adapt Kit activities to local hazard profiles and risk contexts rather than applying them verbatim. Link activities to current meteorological services and local risk data where available.
Weak coordination or partner drop-off: Begin with partnership mapping (a Kit activity in its own right) to identify and formalise roles before launching more complex activities. Maintain regular partner communication and celebrate shared milestones publicly.
Sustainability of community-owned interventions: Ensure maintenance responsibility and operational plans are agreed and assigned before activities conclude. Where possible, link to existing community governance structures (neighbourhood associations, local government) for ongoing support.
Digital divide excluding some residents from digital engagement activities: Combine digital approaches with offline and in-person engagement. The Kit explicitly offers non-digital alternatives for most activities (printed materials, community radio, face-to-face meetings).
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
The Urban Action Kit operates on a civil society-led, community-embedded sustainability model. Its distributed design — with no central platform, no subscription, and no specialist infrastructure required — means sustainability is built into its architecture. Once activities are adopted by a National Society branch or CBO, they are integrated into existing volunteer routines and community programming rather than existing as separate funded projects. Community ownership is reinforced by handover steps embedded in most multi-week activities. The Kit can serve as a foundation for partnership development and funding applications, creating pathways to more sustainable resourcing over time. At the global level, the IFRC and RCCC maintain and update the resource as part of their ongoing urban resilience programming mandate.
The solution scales horizontally across contexts: the same toolkit can be implemented in Nairobi, Manila, or Amsterdam because its activities are framed around universal urban resilience principles rather than country-specific technical systems. Individual modules can be adopted by organisations with no prior engagement in other modules, and activities within each module can be implemented independently.
The Kit explicitly supports adaptation: activities include guidance on involving local experts, sourcing local materials, and tailoring content to local hazard profiles, language contexts, and community structures. The modular structure allows organisations to expand their portfolio incrementally over time, adding modules as capacity grows. At the city or national level, multiple CBOs or National Society branches can implement different modules simultaneously, creating a distributed, city-wide urban resilience programme.
Innovation is primarily methodological rather than technological. The Kit's value lies in its participatory facilitation approaches, multi-module structure, and accessibility philosophy.
Technology plays a supporting role in specific activities: social media for campaigns and community mobilisation; weather apps and meteorological data for early warning; mobile phones for community communication systems. The Operatie Steenbreek case study references a mobile app for citizen engagement. Technology use is optional and supplementary — the Kit explicitly avoids dependency on technology that may not be available in all urban contexts.
Direct costs for implementation are intentionally minimal. Most activities require only volunteer time, locally available materials (paper, pens, markers, basic gardening tools, paint), and access to a community space. Estimated direct cost categories include printing or digital distribution of the Kit itself; facilitation materials for individual activities; and permissions or permits for public space activities. Some activities involve moderate material costs: rainwater harvesting system components, wadi construction materials, or planting materials for nature-based solution activities. These are explicitly scoped to be sourced locally and in-kind where possible.
No public budget figure for the development of the Urban Action Kit itself was found in the sources reviewed. The direct cost figures above refer to implementation by adopting organisations.
Ongoing operational costs are primarily volunteer time and coordination capacity within implementing organisations. Recurring costs may include refreshing materials as needed, running follow-up events or activities, maintaining community-owned infrastructure (gardens, wadis, communication systems), and coordinating with local partners.
In practice, operational sustainability depends on embedding activities into existing volunteer programme cycles rather than treating them as standalone funded projects. Larger or more infrastructure-intensive activities (rainwater harvesting, blue and green corridors) carry higher ongoing maintenance costs and may benefit from local government co-investment or in-kind partner contributions.
- Modular design enables organisations to maintain engagement over time without committing to a fixed, resource-intensive programme.
- Connecting activities to community values — food security, liveability, social cohesion — generates intrinsic motivation that sustains participation beyond programme periods.
- Using existing volunteer networks and community spaces removes the primary barrier to continuation: organisations do not need new infrastructure or funding to keep activities running.
- Documentation of results (photos, case reports) creates a resource for securing future funding and partnerships, creating a positive cycle from low-cost early activities to more resourced scaled programming.