The third World Reconstruction Conference (WRC3) took place in Brussels from 6 to 8 June 2017 and was jointly organised by the European Commission (EC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (WB/GFDRR), and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). The event saw the participation of more than 500 representatives from national and local governments, civil society, academia, private sector and international organisations from around the world.

As a platform to discuss and identify effective and forward-looking approaches to achieve resilient post-crisis recovery, the conference provided the opportunity to reflect on the progress achieved to date in strengthening the practice of recovery and on the remaining challenges. The overarching message emerging from the WRC3 is that resilient recovery is an imperative for sustainable development as it is only by building back better and reducing risks and vulnerabilities during a recovery process that the path towards development and the achievement of the SDGs can be restored. Humanitarian and development actors must work together to this end.

As one of the co-organisers, UNDP substantively contributed to the WRC3 by participating to both the opening and closing high level ceremonies, and organizing two high level plenaries and 10 technical sessions out of the total 29 sessions of the conference. UNDP also facilitated the contribution of seven participating UN agencies to the conference.

The next World Reconstruction Conference is planned for May 2019.