Cities in East Africa are increasingly affected by climate change, and it is often people living in low-income and informal settlements who feel these impacts the most. Nature-based solutions (NbS) have the potential to support climate resilience and mitigate environmental hazards, however, there is a lack of evidence and understanding of their application in urban informal settlements. Furthermore, despite making up a large proportion of residents in these neighbourhoods and often being most impacted by environmental risks, the voices and perspectives of women and young people are often missing from formal planning and development approaches.

LISTEN, LEARN & LEAP aims to fill existing knowledge gaps by exploring the factors that support the uptake, sustainability and institutionalisation of equitable NbS in riparian and coastal areas of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

We seek to understand the ways in which people living in urban watersheds are working with or using nature to build local resilience, and to uncover the barriers and opportunities for scaling-up community-driven NbS in East African cities.

Our intentions to ‘LISTEN, LEARN & LEAP’ are reflected in our name and research approach. We engage with different stakeholders including women and girls, young people, civil society and local government, and LISTEN to their experiences of, and involvement in, nature-based initiatives in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. We apply this knowledge and LEARN by doing, working with women and young people living in the watershed to co-produce NbS, developing methodologies and actionable knowledge to support the institutionalisation and scaling-up (LEAP) of equitable and sustainable NbS in urban settings.