In Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, researchers are working alongside residents of informal settlements to design drainage, sanitation, and flood-control projects that use natural features such as wetlands and vegetation rather than concrete pipes and walls. The problem is that most city planning ignores the people who actually live in flood-prone waterways—especially women and girls, who bear the brunt of water shortages and flood response, and young people, who make up 70 percent of the population in Kenya and Tanzania but are excluded from decisions about their own neighbourhoods. Large-scale engineered solutions rarely reach those most in need, and there is almost no evidence on how local, community-driven nature-based solutions actually work in low-income settlements. If this research succeeds, it could shift how East African cities invest in climate resilience—away from top-down grey infrastructure and toward locally maintained green systems that provide flood protection, water supply, and sanitation. The project will produce practical guidance for municipal planners and regional policymakers on how to institutionalise and scale up these approaches, potentially changing the way urban water risks are managed across the region.
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Cities in East Africa face various challenges that exacerbate climate-related risks and complicate resilience-building. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, the potential to realise a more resilient future is also intimately tied to water and nature. This is especially the case for those living in informal settlements (who constitute the majority in both cities), many of which are located within waterways and floodplains that are highly exposed to hydrometeorological hazards and lack adequate drainage, sanitation or drinking water to meet the needs of residents. In these cities as elsewhere, social norms and power relations that designate responsibility for water collection, cooking, cleaning and other care work to women and girls and restrict their mobility outside the home, mean that they are more affected than men and boys by water deprivation and the socio-spatial risks associated with flooding, inadequate water supply and sanitation, and are the first responders to severe flooding and other hazards. These riparian areas are also locations where urban natural assets and buffers are being rapidly lost due to continued urbanisation. Interest in, and awareness of, the potential for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to support climate adaptation and mitigate environmental risks while also realising various social benefits has been growing. However, there is a lack of evidence and understanding of local experiences of NbS, particularly in low-income informal settlements. Furthermore, a preference for large-scale grey infrastructure projects and related hesitance in policy and planning circles to recognise and invest in localised NbS continues to hinder municipal resilience-building efforts. Yet top-down engineered solutions often fail to reach those most in need, and rarely include community perspectives; young people who make up 70 percent of the population in Kenya and Tanzania remain excluded from urban planning and decision-making. Our project responds to these challenges and aims to fill existing knowledge gaps by exploring the socio-political factors that support the uptake, sustainability and institutionalisation of NbS in African cities. Our objectives are to: 1) Listen: documenting existing knowledge, experiences of, and experiments in managing water risks through NbS to enhance our understanding of the context-specific and communal factors that shape the equity, efficiency and sustainability of NbS, and the barriers and entry points for scaling-up or mainstreaming community-driven interventions into urban planning processes; 2) Learn: by facilitating the co-production of community-driven NbS in informal settlements and developing methodologies that produce actionable knowledge of the environmental, socio-cultural, financial and institutional considerations that drive or derail equitable, sustainable and resilient NbS to urban water issues; 3) Leap: fostering cross-sectoral municipal and regional dialogue and knowledge exchange between community-based organisations, civil society and institutional actors to identify common goals and practical guidance around institutionalising and scaling-up inclusive community-led NbS to advance equitable urban climate resilience in East Africa and beyond. Co-production is central to this action-research to ensure that our inquiry into the possibilities and dilemmas of NbS is grounded in the human experience. We argue that engaging young people, and especially adolescent women and girls, is critical to ensuring that urban resilience-building policies and interventions are both equitable and sustainable in the longer term. The strengths and capacities of our team to deliver this research stems from our diverse disciplinary backgrounds, strong relationships with key city actors, and our track-record in delivering co-produced, community-driven interventions in informal settlements, and leveraging those voices and experiences into policy and planning forums in Nairobi and Dar.
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