Strengthening capacity in African cities to harness locally-driven, equitable nature-based solutions for climate resilient urban development.
Tuwe Pamoja means “Let’s be together” in Swahili, signifying our aim to bring together city residents, officials, NGOs, community groups and researchers from four African cities. Together, we want to strengthen the capacities of city actors to plan and implement climate resilient nature-based solutions that are locally driven, effective, and equitable for all urban residents.
The project runs in informal settlements in Accra, Cape Town, Lusaka and Nairobi from May 2024 to December 2026. Work is concentrated on three themes of nature-based solutions (NbS), climate risk and intersectionality.
Our objectives
The Tuwe Pamoja objectives are to better understand the lived experiences of people in informal settlements, and to better plan nature-based solutions that holistically account for diverse needs and climate risks at neighbourhood levels. Learn more here.
Understanding diverse lived experiences
For understanding intersectional lived experiences of climate-related risks and NbS.
Planning together for more resilient futures
To deliberate the trade-offs, synergies, costs and co-benefits of NbS within climate-resilient development pathways (CRDPs).
Sharing learning within and across city contexts
To support the design and implementation of equitable urban NbS across regional and international networks.
Our goal
Through our three-pronged focus and commitment to the Tuwe Pamoja objectives, our goal is to deliver strengthened capacities for planning and implementing climate resilient nature-based solutions that centre the voices of marginalised residents in informal settlements.
Project cities
Our work aims to support co-design and implementation of NbS in ways that contribute to urban development that is just, sustainable and climate resilient in four key cities of sub-Saharan Africa.
Accra
Nairobi
Lusaka
Cape Town
Our team
Tuwe Pamoja is led by a consortium of non-governmental and community-based organisations, research institutes and regional sub-Saharan African networks.
The project is led by two principal investigators committed to Tuwe's core themes of nature-based solutions, climate risk and intersectionality.
City academic leads are from the University of Cape Town, University of Ghana, University of Zambia and the University of Nairobi.
City non-governmental (NGO) and community-based organisation (CBO) leads are from Slum Dwellers International (SDI) affiliates, with country leads and local community organisers based in each key city. Regional sharing and impact activities are carried out by all project team members, including SDI, and C40Cities.
Tuwe Pamoja is among the CLARE Research portfolio of projects. It is coordinated and managed by researchers from the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) at the University of Cape Town, including those at the PiNC Lab.
Featured outputs
MEL Hub for Tuwe Pamoja
Monitoring, evaluation and Learning (MEL) is an integral part of the Tuwe Pamoja process. This MEL Hub is only open to project participants, and is password protected.
The purpose of our MEL activities is to ensures learnings, outcomes and impacts from activities across our project cities are captured so we can share knowledge that is rooted in evidence and delivers on our goals.
CLARE is a flagship research programme on climate adaptation and resilience, funded mostly (about 90%) by UK Aid through the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) & co-funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.
