London was among winners of the 100 Resilient Cities challenge as announced in Singapore by the Rockefeller Foundation on December 3.
That means the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) will receive a share of a $100m fund from the Rockefeller Foundation, to focus on building the city’s resilience plans to tackle cyber-crime and emerging digital threats.
The support will include the appointment of a senior City Hall officer to lead on the delivery, working alongside existing resilience planning and with city and central government agencies, including the Metropolitan Police and the Cabinet Office. London was selected as one of 35 new cities that will join a now 60-plus network of cities working with the Rockefeller Foundation to share best practice. This year’s in-take were selected from 330 competing bids. Other successful cities in this round include Athens, Chicago, Paris, Milan, Sydney, Chennai and Singapore.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “London is the world’s commerce and technology hub and winning membership of this global network will enable us to bolster the city’s plans to stay one step ahead of today’s threats, including from cyber-crime. We already have tried and tested emergency response plans for London’s physical infrastructure, but we can and must do more on prevention, and this Rockefeller developed initiative will deliver significant financial support and access to world-leading expertise. One key challenge we face is cyber criminality and so along with other resilience issues, London will develop a comprehensive prevention strategy that involves all of our partners, and enables businesses and Londoners to play their part too.”
About ‘100 Resilient Cities’ (100RC)
It’s The Rockefeller Foundation’s $100m effort to build urban resilience around the world, launched during the Foundation’s Centennial in 2013.