The demand for energy across the globe continues to grow. Cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumed worldwide and 70 % of the greenhouse gas emissions related to people. Energy prices have experienced nothing but growth for years now. Even in places where prices for electricity and heating appear low from a customer standpoint, subsidies actually end up footing the bill in many cases, which are in turn covered by national budgets that are funded by tax payers.

In public buildings lighting accounts for about 40% of the electricity costs. If you multiply this figure by the number of kindergartens, schools and universities, town halls, local government buildings and government departments, libraries, swimming pools and hospitals, then the total is enormous. Lighting in public buildings is currently consuming far more energy than necessary, with all the negative side-effects such as high running costs, electricity bottlenecks and damage to the climate. That can easily be changed.

Building on the findings of the GeSI SMARTer2030 report, #SystemTransformation looks at how ICT will be instrumental in the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The report analyzes the current SDGs implementation gaps, identifies the key features that make ICT a fundamental tool to achieve the Goals, and provides a deep-dive into those Goals where the ICT contribution can be most immediate and important.

Given the increased attention on resilience strengthening in international humanitarian and development work, there is a growing need to invest in its measurement and the overall accountability of “resilience strengthening” initiatives. The purpose of this article is to present our framework and tool for measuring community-level resilience to flooding and generating empirical evidence and to share our experience in the application of the resilience concept. At the time of writing the tool is being tested in 75 communities across eight countries.