Listen, Learn & Leap: Co-producing Equitable and Sustainable Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience in East African Cities

聆听、学习

• 批准号: NE/Z503472/1
• 负责人: Jordana Ramalho
• 金额: $ 269.31万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FZ503472%2F1
• 关键词: Listen; Learn; Leap; Co; producing

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.

东非城市面临着各种挑战，这些挑战加剧了与气候相关的风险，并使复原力建设变得更加复杂。在坦桑尼亚达累斯萨拉姆和肯尼亚内罗毕，实现更具复原力的未来的潜力也与水和自然密切相关。对于居住在非正规住区的居民（这两个城市的大多数）而言尤其如此，其中许多居住区位于水道和洪泛区，高度暴露于水文气象灾害，并且缺乏足够的排水、卫生设施或饮用水来满足需求的居民。在这些城市和其他地方一样，社会规范和权力关系将取水、烹饪、清洁和其他护理工作的责任指定给妇女和女孩，并限制她们在家庭之外的活动，这意味着她们比男性和男孩更容易受到缺水的影响以及与洪水、供水和卫生设施不足相关的社会空间风险，并且是严重洪水和其他灾害的第一响应者。这些河岸地区也是城市自然资产和缓冲区由于持续城市化而迅速丧失的地方。人们对基于自然的解决方案（NbS）支持气候适应和减轻环境风险同时实现各种社会效益的潜力的兴趣和认识不断增长。然而，缺乏对 NbS 当地经验的证据和了解，特别是在低收入非正规住区。此外，对大型灰色基础设施项目的偏好以及政策和规划界对承认和投资本地化 NbS 的犹豫不决，继续阻碍市政复原力建设工作。然而，自上而下的工程解决方案往往无法惠及最需要帮助的人，而且很少考虑社区的观点；占肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚人口 70% 的年轻人仍然被排除在城市规划和决策之外。我们的项目应对这些挑战，旨在通过探索支持非洲城市 NbS 的采用、可持续性和制度化的社会政治因素来填补现有的知识空白。我们的目标是： 1) 倾听：记录通过 NbS 管理水风险的现有知识、经验和实验，以增强我们对影响 NbS 公平、效率和可持续性的特定背景和公共因素以及障碍的理解扩大社区驱动的干预措施或将其纳入城市规划进程的主流的切入点； 2) 学习：通过促进非正规住区中社区驱动的 NbS 的共同生产，并开发方法，产生有关环境、社会文化、金融和体制因素的可操作知识，从而推动或破坏城市用水的公平、可持续和有弹性的 NbS问题; 3) Leap：促进社区组织、民间社会和机构参与者之间的跨部门城市和区域对话和知识交流，以确定围绕制度化和扩大包容性社区主导的 NbS 的共同目标和实际指导，以促进公平的城市气候复原力在东非及其他地区。联合生产是这项行动研究的核心，以确保我们对 NbS 的可能性和困境的探究立足于人类经验。我们认为，让年轻人，特别是青春期妇女和女孩参与，对于确保城市复原力建设政策和干预措施从长远来看公平且可持续至关重要。我们团队开展这项研究的优势和能力源于我们多元化的学科背景、与主要城市参与者的牢固关系，以及我们在非正规住区中共同制定、社区驱动的干预措施以及利用这些声音和经验方面的记录参加内罗毕和达尔的政策和规划论坛。