The Tuwe Pamoja project (“Let’s be together” for equitable urban nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation)

The Tuwe Pamoja project aims to strengthen critical capacities across key urban actors (city officials, informal residents, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and researchers) to co-design and implement nature-based solutions in ways that contribute to urban development that is just, sustainable and climate-resilient, particularly for the most marginalized.  

To contribute to these objectives, solutions need to be locally driven and locally appropriate. The starting point is therefore to strengthen local capacity to generate and consolidate both qualitative and quantitative sources of on-the-ground social and ecological data that can inform nature-based solutions. Capacities also need to be strengthened to work with this evidence base to make decisions around planning, implementation and policy.

This project emphasizes the importance of bringing together multiple actor groups (with various values and priorities) and different evidence types (qualitative and quantitative) to frame nature-based climate action and interventions in a more holistic context that considers diverse needs across time.  It will share the tools, methods and insights to support the design and implementation of equitable urban nature-based solutions via global networks. The project will be implemented in four African cities: Cape Town (South Africa), Lusaka (Zambia), Accra (Ghana) and Nairobi (Kenya).

This project is part of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) program jointly designed, funded and run by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and IDRC. CLARE is an ambitious five-year initiative to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.