Lessons for community co-planning from the Mukuru approach

Summary

The Mukuru approach to community co-planning in Nairobi, Kenya, initiated in 2017, is a prime example of successful collaboration between residents, local government, and civil society to improve infrastructure in informal settlements. The initiative, known as the Special Planning Area (SPA), aimed at upgrading water, sanitation, roads, health, and education facilities. Key principles included genuine community participation from start to finish, data collection, and mobilization of residents to ensure their needs were addressed and plans were integrated. This approach not only enhanced physical infrastructure but also empowered residents and strengthened local governance. It demonstrates the vital role of community-led planning in urban resilience against climate change.

Highlights

• Residents of Mukuru worked together with the Nairobi government for infrastructure improvements 🚧.
• The Special Planning Area (SPA) initiative empowered residents to take charge of planning decisions ✊.
• Co-planning involved local leadership, building resilience, and securing public funding 💪.
• Community-led data collection informed and equipped residents for effective planning 📊.
• Residents organized forums ensuring comprehensive representation and communication 🔊.
• In the 2022 elections, Mukuru residents leveraged their people's manifesto to cement political support 🗳️.
• Mukuru's process showcases the power of local community involvement in urban planning 🌆.

Key Takeaways

• Genuine community participation transforms infrastructure planning and strengthens local governance 🚀.
• Data-driven strategies empower residents and facilitate meaningful negotiations 🎯.
• Integrated planning addresses interdependent challenges, enhancing urban resilience 🏙️.
• Community leadership helps sustain long-term infrastructure improvements and social empowerment 🌍.
• The Mukuru approach offers valuable lessons for global urban adaptation to climate change 🌦️.

Overview

In 2017, Mukuru, one of Nairobi's largest informal settlements, embarked on an ambitious co-planning journey with local government and civil partners. This process, known locally as the SPA, aimed at upgrading essential services like water, sanitation, roads, health, and education. The real power of this initiative was its commitment to real community participation, ensuring residents were integral to the planning process from start to finish.

A key aspect of the Mukuru approach was mobilizing residents through data-driven strategies. Community members engaged in mapping, profiling, and enumeration activities that not only provided necessary data for planning but also empowered them to advocate for their needs. This collective effort ensured that plans were context-specific, addressing the unique challenges faced by the community, and helping them build resilience against climate impacts.

Furthermore, Mukuru's strategy emphasized the importance of organizing residents to ensure inclusive representation. Over 450 residents were trained to mobilize and lead the community in discussions, thus fostering a robust communication system. The result? More than 250 planning forums and crucial political endorsement. This transparent, inclusive approach helped translate planning into tangible improvements and societal empowerment, offering a roadmap for other cities facing similar challenges.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to Mukuru Co-Planning In 2017, residents of Mukuru, one of Nairobi, Kenya's largest informal settlements, began collaborative efforts with the local government to plan infrastructure.
• 01:00 - 02:30: Meaningful Community Participation The chapter discusses the significance of genuine community engagement in developmental projects. It highlights a case where vital investments were made in water sanitation, roads, storm drains, health, and education—collectively known as 'spa'. This project exemplifies a collaborative planning process involving the government, residents, and civil society partners. Such collaboration empowered residents to take an active role in planning, which enhanced their resilience to climate change.
• 02:30 - 07:00: Strategies for Community Engagement The chapter titled 'Strategies for Community Engagement' emphasizes the importance of integrating community participation into planning and development processes. It argues that mere acknowledgment of community involvement is insufficient and highlights the necessity for substantial and continuous engagement by governments with communities. The text stresses that communities should be integral to planning processes from beginning to end to ensure success in development initiatives. Residents who have experienced displacement and exclusion are less likely to oppose developments if they are involved from the outset. The chapter acknowledges the challenges existing in informal settlements and posits that solutions must be formed with genuine community involvement.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Organizing Community Representation The chapter discusses the importance of including community members in local governance to effectively address their specific needs and challenges.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Integrated Planning and Consultations Chapter titled 'Integrated Planning and Consultations' emphasizes the importance of investing in local leadership and community capacities for infrastructure resilience. It argues that external leadership lacks the understanding of local needs, which is crucial for effective planning and development. The chapter also highlights the limited resources and capacity within communities to plan independently, suggesting a need for integrated planning involving local insights.
• 15:00 - 17:30: Political Advocacy and Legacy This chapter explores the efforts of residents in Mokuru in securing public funding for local services. By collaborating with the Nairobi city government as well as organizations such as the Urban Poor Federation, Akiba Machinani Trust, and Slum Dwellers International Kenya, they implemented strategies to promote meaningful community participation. One key strategy was addressing the immediate needs of residents, acknowledging their potential lack of capacity or interest in long-term planning.
• 17:30 - 19:30: Conclusion and Global Implications The chapter discusses challenges and strategies related to urban slums, focusing on areas like sanitation and land tenure. It emphasizes the need for immediate benefits to build trust in planning processes and highlights the lack of basic services as a significant issue.

Lessons for community co-planning from the Mukuru approach Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] thank you starting in 2017 residents of mokuru one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi Kenya worked with the local government to plan infrastructure
• 00:30 - 01:00 improvements this included crucial investments in Water Sanitation roads storm drains health and education known locally as the spa it is an example of a true co-planning process work was undertaken together by government residents and their Civil Society Partners this empowered residents to make planning decisions that have improved their resilience to climate change
• 01:00 - 01:30 Community participation is given much lip service but little bytes meaningful participation requires sustained engagement by government communities must be at the center of planning from start to finish this is essential for several reasons many residents will have experienced evictions and political exclusions for years without their buy-in from the start they will likely resist and even hinder the process the challenges in informal settlement
• 01:30 - 02:00 are context-specific residents best understand the interdependent challenges they face Plans by Outsiders will not adequately address residents needs or aspirations they could also push the vulnerable even further to the margins maintenance of infrastructure can also be challenging and costly for local governments Community ownership is essential for creating local governance systems to maintain infrastructure upgrading should build more than just
• 02:00 - 02:30 infrastructure resilience demands investment in local leadership and Community capacities and livelihoods I think if a spear was being led by Outsiders most most of the things we have got we wouldn't have got them since Outsiders don't know what we are going through they don't know what we need communities do not have the resources or capacity to plan alone and they also
• 02:30 - 03:00 need Public Funding to build services in mokuru residents worked with the Nairobi city government the urban poor Federation and their Partners the Akiba machinani trust and slam dwellers International Kenya several strategies ensured meaningful Community participation in an ownership of planning in mokuru the first strategy is engaging residents by speaking to their urgent needs they may have little capacity for or interest in
• 03:00 - 03:30 participating otherwise in mokuru this included sanitation and insecure land tenure it is also essential to provide immediate short-term benefits to build confidence in the planning process for a very long period of time the view of slums I'm lacking the the basic services that they should be getting from their own government so due to the problems that are the
• 03:30 - 04:00 common monitors were facing it's what made the people to to pose the the spa through to to materialize the second strategy is mobilizing residents through data collection practices these include Community mapping settlement profiles and enumerations community-led data collection provided the evidence needed for planning in
• 04:00 - 04:30 mokuru it also informed residents about upcoming planning activities and build trust in the process IA foreign ERS do they have in the specific area and also the number of pendants
• 04:30 - 05:00 it is also good they will know what they have in terms of infrastructure whether the young government facilities schools hospitals and the rest they will be able to identify what they have so that they cannot what they don't ask number three they will be able to bring those people together
• 05:00 - 05:30 then they start negotiation negotiation including the local government so that can help the people to come together data collected by residents empowered them to negotiate with the Nairobi city government it also documented their experiences with environmental hazards to assess their climate change risk most importantly residents began to understand their challenges collectively
• 05:30 - 06:00 instead of individually this enabled them to speak together during negotiations and work together during planning the third strategy is organizing residents so that everyone is represented this ensures plans will represent everyone's needs and aspirations in mokuru over 450 residents mostly women and youth were trained as Community mobilizers they organized the
• 06:00 - 06:30 community planning forums and championed the SBA through patient dialogue they also mediated conflicts and informed local officials of progress all households were invited to participate through a novel household level representation system mokuro residents called it tujuane to jangane meaning let's know each other so we build each other every household sent one representative to speak for them in a Cell of 10
• 06:30 - 07:00 households each cell in tan selected a representative to speak for them in a cluster of up to 100 households each cluster then selected representatives to speak for them in planning forums with government officials forums were held in groupings of one to three neighborhoods called segments representatives were also responsible for communicating what they learned in segment and cluster meetings so that all households stayed informed
• 07:00 - 07:30 our work was to also give information so but they also say information is power it was to inform the community that Kona is being Abuja Gazette is a special planning area campaign so that was also our work number three who organizes of home sales
• 07:30 - 08:00 once mobilized and organized mokuro residents worked with the Nairobi city government and Civil Society Partners to co-plan improvements for Water Sanitation roads health and education unlike planners and Engineers residents do not experience challenges sector by sector it is also not feasible to address challenges sector by sector for
• 08:00 - 08:30 example Public Health cannot be addressed without addressing water and sanitation it was therefore crucial to develop integrated plans to tackle interdependent challenges residents held more than 250 neighborhood planning forums and with the local government they also held a series of 114 formal consultations these included planning and validation meetings we had a Consortium and those were
• 08:30 - 09:00 supposed to make people understand what SBA is all about so we had consumptions and we had community members we also had their Elders we had people from the county we had the professionals from different sectors so we had people from water and sanitation we had people from the environmental Department we had people from the education department from Nairobi County
• 09:00 - 09:30 co-planning ensures more than improvements in infrastructure and services it also builds new local capacities and empowers residents
• 09:30 - 10:00 [Music] range
• 10:00 - 10:30 they are implementers about globular disaster [Music] tonight
• 10:30 - 11:00 in the lead-up to the Kenyan general elections 2022 mukuro residents wrote a people's Manifesto it outlined the goals of the mokuru upgrading plan and asked local candidates to publicly pledge support for the plan many local candidates signed the manifesto including the Nairobi Governor the manifesto demonstrates the importance of co-planning it would not exist today if
• 11:00 - 11:30 outside Consultants had done conventional participatory consultations and the mokuro upgrading plan would be collecting dust in a government office instead of being implemented people have also now demanded for their rights because I think I think to me that is also another it's actually a power it's actually a force it's actually the community is actually a force to recognize it yes yeah because they understand they have been part of the process and now they're actually even putting the aspiring political
• 11:30 - 12:00 leaders to task and saying that whoever wants to be leader here this sphere must be approved we must see development I think they have actually demanded for change yes lessons in community-led planning from the mukuru spa hold much promise for locally LED inclusive climate adaptation in cities across the world [Music] um
• 12:00 - 12:30 foreign foreign [Music]