Recent decades have seen a significant increase in the frequency and impact of climate‑related catastrophes, making disaster prevention and risk reduction more urgent than ever. Launched in 2012, the RISK Award responds to this growing challenge by supporting innovative and practical local initiatives that reduce climate‑related disaster risks in highly vulnerable contexts. Jointly organised by the Munich Re Foundation and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the award is granted every two years and provides up to €100,000 to fund exemplary projects. Anchored in the priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the RISK Award seeks to translate global ambitions into concrete action and place people at the centre of disaster risk reduction efforts.
Topic 2027: Homes at risk: Climate resilience for informal settlements
Climate change and rapid urbanisation are converging to create increasingly complex risk landscapes in cities worldwide. Urban populations are growing faster than ever, particularly in low‑ and middle‑income countries, where most future urban growth will occur. According to UN‑Habitat and World Bank estimates, more than one billion people currently live in informal or semi‑formal urban settlements, a number expected to rise significantly in the coming decades. At the same time, climate change is intensifying extreme heat, heavy rainfall, flooding and storms, concentrating disaster risk in urban areas.
This trend disproportionately affects informal and semi‑formal settlements. These neighbourhoods are often located in highly exposed areas such as floodplains, steep slopes or dense urban heat islands and are characterised by inadequate housing, weak infrastructure, limited access to basic services and insecure land tenure. As a result, climate hazards can quickly translate into severe impacts on health, safety and livelihoods, including recurrent flood losses, heat‑related illness and water contamination. While contributing least to global greenhouse gas emissions, residents of informal settlements face some of the highest levels of climate exposure and vulnerability, with limited capacity to cope with or recover from shocks.
Despite this high-risk profile, informal urban settlements remain largely overlooked in urban disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation planning. Policy frameworks and investment mechanisms often rely on aggregated data and formal planning instruments that fail to reflect the realities of informality, leading to systematic underinvestment in the areas where needs are greatest. Only a small share of global climate finance reaches the urban poor, reinforcing cycles of vulnerability and exclusion. As a result, many households and communities are left to manage escalating climate risks largely on their own, often through incremental measures at the household or neighbourhood level.
Against this background, the 2027 RISK Award places a deliberate focus on climate resilience in informal and semi‑formal urban settlements. In line with the UNDRR International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2026 and its guiding theme, “Resilience starts at home”, the award seeks to support initiatives that reduce climate‑related disaster risks where impacts are most immediate and capacities most constrained. Non‑governmental organisations (NGOs) are invited to apply with projects in low‑ and middle‑income countries that strengthen resilience from the household to the community level, addressing locally experienced risks such as extreme heat, flooding and storms. By supporting these initiatives, the RISK Award 2027 aims to contribute to more inclusive urban resilience and to ensure that communities on the frontlines of climate change are no longer left out of disaster risk reduction efforts.