Small- and medium-sized cities and towns in sub-Saharan Africa are growing fast and accumulating risks. Local governments seek to build the resilience of their city in conditions of complex interdependent urban systems and gaps in data and information. Technical and financial capacity issues often lead to them resorting to external expertise, which shifts the decision-making power away from the citizenry and elected leaders. To capacitate cities to lead their own resilience-building processes, new decision-support tools are required that can operate on data that are good enough and can enhance inclusive decision-making processes and local ownership.