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 Rivers.

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.

UNA Rivers aims to:

1. Mainstream biodiversity and nature-based solutions into land use planning and decision-making processes
2. Increase awareness of ecosystem services through capacity building
3. Mobilise project activities through alignment with international policies and processes (such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals)
4. Improve co-ordination between key stakeholders to work together towards integrating biodiversity into land use planning
5. Connect local communities with nature to encourage appreciation, cultural activation and human well-being
6. Implement community-based projects along urban river systems to improve river restoration and revitalisation, and improve human well-being and livelihood creatio

The UNA Rivers program is being run in five cities in four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa:

• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;
• Lilongwe, Malawi;
• Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;
• Kampala & Entebbe, Uganda.

More information about the UNA Rivers project is available here.