ICLEI Africa expands its work on sustainable urban natural asset management in Africa

Africa is the world’s most rapidly urbanising continent, with some estimates predicting a 700% increase in urban land cover between 2000 and 2030(1). The infrastructural and service delivery demands of such rapid expansion are significant. These overlay existing challenges relating to governance, poverty and inequality(2), and place further strain on urban natural assets(3), many of which are provided by rivers and their associated ecosystems.

It is the poor that are most affected by the challenges described above, particularly because they often draw important livelihood benefits from rivers, including water to drink, wash and irrigate their crops. Well managed rivers have the ability to provide important ecosystem services such as flood attenuation. Unfortunately, these benefits are often compromised when urban African rivers become polluted due to the accumulation of solid and liquid waste in the system. There is thus an urgent need for targeted action that focuses on sustaining and improving urban natural asset provision in African cities, particularly those associated with urban rivers.

ICLEI Africa, through generous funding from SIDA through SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, has the pleasure of delivering the Urban Natural Assets for Africa (UNA) programme, under which we implement the UNA: Rivers for Life project. UNA Rivers supports local governments in African cities with the management of their urban rivers for improved human well-being and climate resilience. It focuses on mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem services into land use planning and local government decision-making processes whilst also building local government capacity, and that of important actors within the city.