Urban Africa: Risk and Capacity (Urban ARC) is a three year programme of research and capacity building that aims to reduce disaster risk in urban sub-Saharan Africa by breaking cycles of risk accumulation. The programme aims to do this by building a community of practice including sub-Saharan, African and international researchers and practitioners that can provide a structured assessment of risk accumulation and reduction dynamics.

We know that gender matters for the incidence of poverty, ignorance and disease. In developing countries, boys tend to be favoured in access to schooling and health care. Women earn less than men and women also work longer hours than men. What are not understood so clearly however are the critical factors for determining resource allocation within the home.