Over the last few years, city and regional governments have begun to play an increasingly critical role in confronting complex emergencies, assisting with defining, deliberating, decision making and ultimately responding to them. Three complex emergencies are currently receiving considerable attention and have, to varying degrees, resulted in declarations of a state of emergency. First, the health emergency linked to COVID-19, second, the global climate emergency, and finally, social emergencies, of which housing emergencies are a prominent example. Join us as we hear from Philipp Rode of LSE Cities and Ainara Fernández Tortosa at UCLG on a new Policy Brief which is part of the Emergency Governance Initiative (EGI) led by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the World Association of the Major Metropolises (Metropolis) and LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science. This Initiative investigates the institutional dimensions of rapid and radical action in response to complex global emergencies. The EGI aims to provide city and regional governments with actionable information and appropriate frameworks, knowledge and resources to navigate the new demands of leading responses to complex emergencies.

Complex emergencies are inherently political and require substantially different governance approaches compared to routine emergencies, extreme events, and disaster responses. However, as with other emergencies, they share the need for rapid and radical intervention, which can lead to considerable tensions with democratic legitimacy, participatory practices, and good governance principles. Governing complex emergencies has the additional challenge of fully embedding social justice and equity dimensions. In addressing these concerns, city and regional governments are well positioned and can make an essential contribution to better and more flexible responses to complex emergencies.