Urban Natural Assets for Africa: Rivers for Life

Urban Natural Assets for Africa: Rivers for Life (UNA Rivers) is the second part of the UNA project.Key issues of interest were identified during UNA Africa which are now targeted in UNA Rvers.

Through generous funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) through SwedBio at Stockholm Resilience Centre, this project will mainstream biodiversity and ecosystem services into land use planning and local government decision-making processes around urban river systems, through better coordination and community-based activation, contributing to strengthening sustainability and resilience at the local level, enhancing human well-being and poverty alleviation.

Objectives of UNA Rivers for Life are:

1. Increased understanding of the socio-economic importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services and its role in strategic climate change adaptation plans, with a specific focus on enhanced human well-being.
2. Mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services into local land use & development policy and planning systems.
3. Enhanced coordination and engagement within the project cities (between departments and key stakeholders: CBOs, NGOs, researchers, communities inter alia) as well as between cities (through city-to-city exchanges) for increased awareness, integrated biodiversity and ecosystem service management and enhanced networking at both regional and national levels.
4. Locally appropriate, scalable project implementation, with a specific focus on community-based art and culture activation, connecting people /urban communities with biodiversity and ecosystems within an urban river context in a holistic way, enhancing overall human well-being.

The UNA Rivers program is being run in three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa:

• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;
• Lilongwe, Malawi;
• Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.