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What Makes Cities Fragile, and What Can We Do About It?, a Conversation with Dr Robert Muggah

1,262 views · Published 7 November 2016 · 18:10 · Indexed 18 October 2026

Channel: UN University · 2016 · Education

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“What Makes Cities Fragile, and What Can We Do About It?”, a Conversation with Dr Robert Muggah, specialist in security and development and research director at the Igarapé Institute.

Cities are redefining the trajectories of security and development in the 21st century. Owing to the relentless push of urbanisation — especially in Africa and Asia — cities are shaping global responses to some of the critical issues of our time including climate change, migration, governance, and international security. Yet while the world fixes its gaze on a few dozen global cities, surprisingly little is known about thousands of other cities around the world that are quietly expanding. Are these fast-growing cities adequately prepared to face the monumental challenges of tomorrow?

In this video Dr Robert Muggah joins Dr John de Boer (Senior Policy Adviser, UNU Centre for Policy Research) for a conversation exploring the dynamics of city fragility around the world. He draws on a new digital platform — the largest publicly available dataset on cities of its kind — to explain how urban fragility is distributed around the globe, and how we can strengthen urban resilience in some of the hardest-hit areas.

About the speaker

Robert Muggah is a specialist in security and development and co-founder of the Igarapé Institute. He oversees research at the cyber analytics group, SecDev Foundation, and is affiliated with the University of Oxford, the University of San Diego, as well as the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr Muggah has spent the last two decades designing and overseeing large-scale research projects in more than 50 countries. He works closely with over a dozen multilateral and bilateral agencies on security and policing, humanitarian action, development, migration, and urban planning. He advises the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations, and the World Bank and works with companies, universities, and not-for-profit organisations in North and Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Western Europe.

His work on new technology, arms transfers, and fragile cities has been featured in The Atlantic, BBC, CNN, Der Spiegel, Fast Company, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, Quartz, Wired and many other outlets.

Prior to joining the Igarapé Institute, Dr Muggah was the research director of the Small Arms Survey (2000–2011) in Switzerland and worked with the UN and others in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Dr Muggah has authored and edited over a dozen books and hundreds of chapters,  journal articles, and reports. He earned a doctorate from the University of Oxford and an MPhil from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex.

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