Urban Exchange Podcast Episode 11 – Gareth Morgan, Cape Town – Mainstreaming and institutionalising urban resilience

In this episode of the Urban Exchange, Lauren Sorkin, executive director of Resilient Cities Network, hosts Gareth Morgan, executive director of future planning and resilience for the City of Cape Town.

In an exclusive interview, Gareth reflects on the exciting frontier work he is undertaking to institutionalise and mainstream resilience across the various aspects of the city’s work, encompassing everything from the development of a 2050 strategy and multi-year capital portfolio management, to business continuity services and risk management.

As part of this, Gareth explores how his approach to resilience has influenced his practice over the years, and delivers the key lessons he has taken away to date as a leader in urban resilience, including the takeaways he recommends other city administrations pay heed to.

Talking about Cape Town’s 2050 strategy, which is currently in development, Gareth demonstrates the city’s approach to developing the strategy, including how the city’s existing resilience strategy integrates with and influences it. Here, we also discover what kind of capacity planning is required in developing and delivering the strategy.

Furthermore, we learn about the approach that’s needed in order to embed resilience into all facets of a city’s work and how Gareth has made it work in Cape Town, extending into how to work with local stakeholders and communities and the potential to further the connection between city and citizen through institutionalising resilience.

About Gareth Morgan

Gareth Morgan is the Executive Director for Future Planning & Resilience at the City of Cape Town. His portfolio includes Organisational Effectiveness and Innovation, Organisational Performance Management, Policy and Strategy, Resilience, Communication and Corporate Portfolio, Programme and Project Management. He held senior leadership roles in the strategic responses to both the Cape Town "Day Zero" drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to joining the City of Cape Town in 2015, he was a Member of Parliament for nine years, with a legislative focus on water and climate change. While in Parliament he served as a Whip of the National Assembly and as Parliamentary Counsellor to Leader of the Opposition. He holds a MSc in Environmental Change and Management and a Master of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. He is Tutu Fellow and a City Ambassador for the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance. Gareth is a Fellow of the thirteenth class of the South African Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.