Leaving No One Behind: Planning for Inclusive Resilience in Marginalised Communities

Marginalised communities experience a higher level of impacts from climate change and disasters and typically have limited access to resources and support to recover and rebuild. Globally, inclusive resilience planning has become crucial in mitigating these inequalities and ensuring that no one is left behind. Although various tools exist for implementing inclusive resilience in South Africa’s planning, municipalities face challenges in integrating climate change adaptation into local planning. To address these challenges, this paper explores inclusive resilience planning strategies to alleviate residents' hardships and ensure that no one is left behind in the face of climate change and other shocks. Building on this, the study employed a qualitative research approach to analyse the lived experiences and viewpoints of the residents. The study results highlight that marginalised communities are diverse, emphasising that each community has specific needs and challenges that must be considered in resilience planning. Typically, spatial planning practices employ the top-down approach rather than incorporating marginalised communities. Current power imbalances and social exclusion can exacerbate inequities, and resilience planning frameworks often overlook them. The study recommends that to promote inclusive resilience in marginalised communities, policymakers must prioritise community-based methods, address power imbalances and social exclusion, incorporate marginalised communities into inclusive resilience planning strategies, and prioritise the voices and viewpoints of residents. The study seeks to contribute to both policy and academia by translating the global LNOB principle into a context-specific framework for flood resilience in rural South Africa, enhancing equitable participation and minimising vulnerability.