listen, learn, and leap (3L)

Building on the partners’ experience with nature-based solutions (NbS) and river regeneration, and in particular the realising urban Nature-based solutions program, 3L aims to investigate how community-driven NbS can be developed, institutionalised, and scaled for climate resilience in rapidly urbanising cities. Focusing on informal settlements along Nairobi’s Rivers and coastal neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam, 3L “listens” to the experiences of women, young people, and marginalized groups, “learns” through co-produced NbS interventions with community partners, and “leaps” by advancing systemic change to embed equitable NbS into urban planning and decision-making.

Although nature-based solutions offer a powerful tool to enhance resilience and restore urban ecosystems, there remains limited evidence and understanding of how NbS can be designed and sustained equitably in informal settings. Moreover, the perspectives of women, youth, and grassroots communities—those most affected by climate risks—are often excluded from formal planning and decision-making processes.

3L addresses these gaps by centering the knowledge and leadership of people living in urban watersheds. In Nairobi, river remediation has become increasingly urgent as unregulated urbanisation, industrial pollution, and the degradation of natural assets along waterways have heightened risks. Following the extreme floods of April 2024, which triggered large-scale, government-led evictions of riverside communities without adequate resettlement options—recovery efforts have largely focused on implementing a state masterplan to rehabilitate and redevelop Nairobi’s riverfronts. Informal settlements along these waterways—home to more than 60% of the city’s population, remain at the centre of both the impacts and the responses, often confronting reactive rather than inclusive forms of action.

3L follows a structured approach grounded in its three pillars: Listen, Learn, and Leap.

In the Listen phase, the team documents existing nature-based initiatives across Nairobi’s Ngong River Basin and Dar es Salaam’s coastal areas, paying particular attention to how these initiatives engage with—or overlook—the needs of women and young people in low-income settlements. This has been achieved through rapid field assessments, mapping of existing initiatives, and key informant interviews. Across both cities, more than 100 “nature and people” initiatives have been identified and mapped.

In the Learn phase, the team collaborates with local communities through a competitive request-for-proposals process to identify groups interested in addressing neighbourhood water management and climate challenges using nature-based approaches. Once selected, these community partners take part in a co-design process that brings together the implementing group and the wider surrounding community to collaboratively develop context-specific NbS interventions. The interventions that emerge from this process are then co-constructed and monitored to assess their performance and social impact. Throughout this phase, data is collected before, during, and after implementation—through focus group discussions, key informant interviews, observations, and other participatory methods. In addition, knowledge exchanges and the establishment of a network of “nature and people” initiatives are planned to foster peer learning and collaboration across sites. By combining community-led experimentation with structured data collection guided by the project’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework, this phase deepens understanding of how locally driven NbS influence resilience, equity, and inclusion in everyday urban life.

Finally, in the Leap phase, findings from research and pilot initiatives are shared across sectors through dialogue with local and national governments, academia, and civil society, helping to drive the institutionalisation and scaling of community-led, equitable NbS approaches.

In Nairobi, these efforts build on existing work along the Ngong River and catalytic projects in Kibera, Mukuru, and Kayole Soweto—areas where communities have historically faced significant environmental and socio-economic challenges.

Through participatory design processes, 3L demonstrates how small-scale, replicable NbS interventions can be created with direct community involvement. At the same time, it connects local learning to broader city-wide and national dialogues on climate adaptation and urban development.

By drawing on the experience in engaging with the ongoing river regeneration efforts, such as the Nairobi Rivers Regeneration Programme (NRRP), 3L supports advocacy for an urban future where natural assets are protected and urban development becomes more inclusive, climate-resilient, and community-driven.