Advancing social equity in urban resilience planning: challenges and opportunities

While considerable efforts have been made to improve urban resilience development, less attention has been paid to evaluating social equity concerns. This issue is particularly relevant for developing countries, such as Ghana, where inequality is growing. Using a mixed methods approach and drawing on semi-structured interviews, survey questionnaires, and document analysis, this study examines how social equity is applied to urban resilience. We found that power asymmetry, project politicisation, lack of respect, and recognition of community interests and views shape and reinforce inequitable benefits, procedures, and access to participatory spaces for urban poor communities. The study highlights the need to transcend the narrow focus on traditional distribution and procedural concerns, which overlooks the role of recognition and contextual issues in shaping participation and equity outcomes in urban resilience. It also contributes new ways to design policies and plan urban resilience initiatives that hold promise for advancing equity.