Just Resilience in Practice: Housing, Health and Trust in Times of Crisis
17. June 17:00 - 18:00
Plenary Area
This closing plenary brings the first day of the Forum to a people-centred conclusion, with a focus on resilient housing. Across Europe, climate impacts increasingly intersect with affordability pressures, health risks and growing distrust in institutions. The session explores what it takes for cities to protect those most affected by climate change while keeping resilience efforts fair, credible and socially legitimate.
Building on insights from the day’s discussions, the panel examines who current resilience measures are reaching and who they still miss, before turning to concrete examples of how housing can be treated as part of resilience policy rather than a separate field. The conversation will address the tensions that local leaders face: balancing climate goals with affordability and social cohesion, making difficult trade-offs under urgency, and ensuring that resilience measures measurably improve people’s everyday lives.
The high-level panel will be moderated by Natasha Walker, bringing together Mar Jimenez (Commissioner of European Affairs, City of Barcelona), Aline Machado Da Matta (UN-Habitat, Head of UNITAC), Valeriia Levchyshyna (Lviv City Institute), and Pedro Duarte (Mayor of Porto, tbc).
Speakers
Head of UN-Habitat's Liaison Office in Geneva, Head of UNITAC and Head of Data and Innovation Section
Aline Machado Da Matta, Head of UN-Habitat's Liaison Office in Geneva, Head of UNITAC and Head of Data and Innovation Section
Aline Machado Da Matta is a Senior Program Management Officer and the Head of UN-habitat's Liaison office in Geneva, Head of UNITAC and Head of Data and Innovation Section.
She has extensive experience in sustainable development, urban innovation, and regional transformation, with a solid track record in international and governmental organizations. Throughout her career, she has led high level projects that have supported cities and regions in implementing smart city initiatives focused on inclusive growth.
Her work stands out for adopting a territorial approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and strengthening the role of regional strategies in advancing the global urban agenda.
Researcher, University of Camerino
Dr. Valeria Leggieri, Researcher, University of Camerino
Valeria is a researcher in the Seismic and Structural Engineering research group at the University of Camerino. Her work focuses on the development of simplified and scalable methodologies for assessing the seismic vulnerability and risk of the built environment, with particular attention to complex contexts where available information is limited. Her research integrates engineering-based approaches, vulnerability modelling and risk assessment methods to support more effective evaluation and decision-making for existing buildings, urban areas and strategic assets.
She is involved in several national and international research projects, including the European project MULTICLIMACT, where she contributes to activities related to multi-hazard resilience, building-scale assessment and the Italian demo site in Camerino.
Master of Ceremony
Owner, Natasha Walker Associates
Natasha Walker, Owner, Natasha Walker Associates
Natasha is an expert on communication, focussing since 1995 on designing and facilitating complex dialogue processes. She enables effective strategy implementation, sustainable change and smart organisational development all over the world (and online!). She designs and facilitates long-term change and large-scale participation processes and is also a leading moderator of exclusive high-level discussions and workshops with and for corporate boards and governments. Natasha advises decision makers and scientific institutions on civic and stakeholder engagement across the globe.
She studied English Literature and Modern Languages (German) at Oxford University and at the University of Göttingen. She lives in Heidelberg with her family and dog.