Impact story: Mainstreaming in Practice

Through the UNA programme’s work in several African cities, it has become clear that even when nature-based considerations are included in urban plans and policies, they’re not always adequately taken into account in decision-making. It would seem that there are several barriers – often related to capacity and the way different sectors and governance levels engage – that prevent nature from being properly factored into land-use planning on the ground.

Based on these observations, the UNA team came to realise that mainstreaming NBS isn’t as simple as producing information and resources and then searching for “entry points” in policies and decision-making into which these can be embedded

By changing our approach to mainstreaming and facilitating processes that focus on knowledge co-production and relationship building, the UNA programme has established more effective ways to integrate nature-based solutions (NBS) into land-use planning and decision-making.