Resilient foundations: Accountability, finance, and inclusive housing

Context and rationale

The way homes are planned, built, financed, and maintained dictates whether communities systematically reduce vulnerability or actively manufacture disaster risk. Housing is too often treated strictly as a speculative market commodity rather than frontline critical infrastructure for disaster resilience. Aligning with the 2026 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) theme, "Resilience Starts at Home", this session addresses systemic gaps in housing systems and explores pathways to secure, risk-informed communities. Rather than isolating vulnerability through fragmented lenses, the framework integrates gender, disability inclusion, and community voices directly into technical planning, financial structures, and governance mechanisms.

Core objectives of the session

• Reframe housing as an essential asset for DRR rather than a secondary welfare outcome.
• Align financial and regulatory incentives to hold relevant actors, from municipal governments to private developers and financial institutions, mutually accountable for long-term housing resilience, including human consequences of displacement.
• Embed risk-informed standards, universal design principles, and inclusive community participation into every stage of the housing lifecycle.

Expected outcomes:

1. Position housing at the heart of resilience. Safe, durable and accessible housing must be recognised as a primary anchor of community-level disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, protecting lives, livelihoods and communities before disasters occur.
2. Address risk as a continuum, not as isolated failures. Disaster risk accumulates over time through interconnected challenges, including poor urban planning, exclusionary financing, unsafe construction, weak enforcement and deferred maintenance. Effective risk reduction therefore requires coordinated, system-wide solutions.
3. Make resilience achievable and inclusive. Resilience starts where people live, but safer housing must also be accessible and affordable. Risk-informed finance, practical building standards and universal design need to work together so that low-income households, persons with disabilities, ageing populations and other vulnerable groups are not left behind.
4. Connect the systems that shape housing resilience. The session will bring together four interconnected priorities, Accessible Capital & Risk-Informed Finance; Universal Design & Standards; Accountability, Incentives & Cross-Cutting Integration; and the hidden risks of protracted displacement when temporary solutions become permanent. Together, they reinforce the need for shared responsibility and coordinated action across governments, financial institutions, developers, practitioners and communities.

Target audience:

1. National and Local government - National Governments: Policymakers and budget planners to prioritise DRR funding and ensure development plans are risk-informed.
2. Private Sector Leaders: Businesses, investors, and financial institutions
3. International Donors and Humanitarian Agencies: Development and humanitarian actors are encouraged to scale up funding for DRR
4. Civil Society and Academia: Advocates, researchers, and practitioners to drive innovation, provide evidence for risk-informed investments, and hold stakeholders accountable for implementing DRR strategies.

Speaker bios

• Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga is Professor of Disaster Risks and Climate Resilience at Loughborough University and a globally recognised disaster resilience expert. Ranked among the world’s top 2% of influential scientists, she serves on CERIS of the European Commission, UNDRR’s European Science & Technology Advisory Group, and chairs the Ocean Decade Tsunami Programme Scientific Committee.
• Dr Daniela Di Bucci is a structural geologist and senior officer at the Italian Civil Protection Department. She specialises in natural hazards, disaster risk reduction, and science–policy relations. Active in European and international organisations, she has authored over 120 scientific papers and 240 conference contributions.
• Dr Malith Senevirathne is a planning professional and researcher specialising in Spatial Planning and Disaster Risk Management, with experience across UK local government and higher education. As a Planner at Kirklees Council, UK, he contributes to Planning Policy and Strategy for the Local Plan, including spatial development strategy, climate change adaptation, transport, environmental protection, housing and growth management. He is also a Built Environment Researcher at Northumbria University, focusing on financing climate-resilient infrastructure and sustainable development. His expertise spans spatial information systems, policy analysis, resilience, and strategic planning.
• Dr Pia Hollenbach is a development geographer and senior researcher at HTWG Konstanz University of Applied Sciences. Her expertise spans post-disaster reconstruction, governance, resilient housing and inclusive rebuilding. With experience in Namibia and the UN system, she focuses on translating healthy, sustainable and disaster-resilient construction into practice.
• Dr Shavindree Nissanka is an Assistant Professor at SLIIT, Sri Lanka, specialising in disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and resilient housing. She has led international climate projects, contributed to major academic publications, and was recognised as a Women of the Future ESG Rising Star in 2023.