IBA KARACHI'S NAUSHEEN ANWAR REPRESENTS PAKISTAN AT GCRF URBAN VIOLENCE and CLIMATE CHANGE NETWORK IN UK.

Karachi Urban Lab Director and IBA, Karachi Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts Professor Dr. Nausheen H. Anwar has been chosen as the Pakistan lead of one of 20 international networks launched by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to tackle challenges in the developing world. Dr. Anwar is working with world-leading collaborators investigating the links between violence and climate change in marginalised city communities. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Urban Violence and Climate Change Network is being led by Dr. Anwar in collaboration with the UK lead Dr. Arabella Fraser from School of Geography, Nottingham University.

The networks, supported by the UK's GCRF, bring together UK researchers with collaborators from across the developing world to share expertise and find solutions. The GCRF award will allow Dr. Fraser, Dr. Anwar and their colleagues to build a network of critical researchers from multiple disciplines. The network will create a platform for debate as well as sponsoring new research projects to take off in ways that can inform current day policy needs. The project is bringing together two research communities n those working on violence reduction and those on adapting to climate change, to understand these links in greater depth, and work with practitioners to find solutions to improve urban environments to be safer and more sustainable.

Dr. Anwar's research looks at the power-laden forms of climate adaptation, planning and sustainability practices and policies in Pakistan, with a focus on the dynamics of water security and gender, and the violent logics of urban planning that exacerbate inequality and deepen vulnerability. "We are living in exceptional times today as we witness the COVID-19 pandemic unfold amidst the crises of planetary, ecological, and social health.

This, combined with the ongoing...