CitiesAdapt - Strengthening Climate Change Adaptation in Cities

Rapid urbanisation and the impacts of climate change are increasing the pressure to accelerate climate adaptation measures in fast-growing secondary cities in Mexico and South Africa. Adaptation efforts in both countries are affected by lacking capacities of cities and improvable urban development instruments. Against this background, the project works with two cities to support their transformation towards a more climate-resilient and pro-poor urban development by building on capacity development, improved mainstreaming of climate adaptation into planning processes, and the implementation of small-scale, easily replicable adaptation measures in public spaces of disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The project enables strong mechanisms of peer-to-peer learning and scaling-up between the project´s partner cities, mentor, and transfer cities as well as national ministries relevant for climate change adaptation and urban development.

Project data

Countries: Mexico, South Africa
IKI funding: 4,000,000.00 €
Duration: 03/2022 till 08/2025
Status: open
Implementing organisation: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Political Partner: Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) - South Africa

Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID)
Implementing Partner: Ministry for Agricultural, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU) - Mexico

Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs - South Africa

Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) - Mexico

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State of implementation/results

Participatory workshops with political partners, municipalities, local, national and traditional authorities, local population & stakeholders in the two partner cities Mérida (Mexico) and uMhlathuze (South Africa).
Awareness raising and capacity building activities, e.g.
- on climate finance and resilient territories.
- Awareness raising strategies have been developed and materials designed to communicate the importance of climate adaptation through the municipality’s media incl. in local language (Mérida, uMhlathuze).
- Training on "instruments for urban financing" with over 3,000 registrations (Mérida).
- A “GreenBook course”, with municipal officials from different cities in South Africa, to access, discuss and evaluate data on climate risks and vulnerability of municipalities in a national platform (uMhlathuze).
- Awareness-raising activities by integrating the topic of climate change adaptation into local events, such as “Nature Science or Environmental Days” and clean-up campaigns (Mérida).
- Consultations and site visits conducted with representatives of the traditional council to raise awareness on the vulnerability of communities to climate impacts and show the increased importance of spatial planning when allocating land to community members, as some communities have been allocated land parcels within flood lines and underneath electricity powerlines increasing their vulnerability to climate change (uMhlathuze).
Neighbourhood and site selection for demonstration projects; identification of possible adaptation measures incl. the launch of a student competition which encourages the involvement of youth as a crucial target group:
- Over 80 students from universities in Yucatán developed proposals for an “ideas competition” to design adaptation measures for climate-proofing public spaces (Mérida).
- Through an art competition, one school was selected to implement the pilot measures in a participatory process. This included awareness-raising sessions and promoting dialog with the private sector, NGOs and students (uMhlathuze).
Climate information and data basis: status quo and gender analysis; rapid climate risk assessment of the selected neighbourhood (Mérida); development of a digital programme for the Municipalities of Mérida and uMhlathuze utilizing open-source satellite data to map urban heat islands, land cover and calculating the state of vegetation, moisture and building density, already used by the municipal officers in Mérida to include information in their Draft neighbourhood adaptation strategy. Collaboration with the private sector: Comex, a Mexican paint enterprise, will support Mérida implementing tactical urbanism activities including prototypes of urban furniture with green infrastructure.
Virtual meeting between the partner cities Mérida and uMhlathuze with more than 20 cities from Germany, Mexico, Latin America and Africa to share common challenges and experiences with adaptation measures to tackle climate change in urban development.
Based on the experiences of the project in the partner cities, a model approach entitled “Future-Proofing our Neighbourhoods” was published. The kit has been disseminated to other cities and the participatory approach has already been replicated in the transfer cities of San Mateo del Mar and Tepic (Mexiko).

Latest Update:
04/2025