The pursuit of sustainable cities and communities

If we want to successfully contribute to accelerating local solutions, and feed into what remains of the Decade of Action, we need to ensure no one is left behind. Undoubtedly, Africa has the capacity to act, but how can we improve how these actions are communicated and profiled? Through participatory knowledge co-production, innovative and creative approaches such as learning labs, focus group discussions, adoption of urban tinkering principles and visual arts, we can successfully bridge the gap and transform knowledge co-production and information sharing on NBS, making sure that everyone knows the appropriate terms within the context and is  able to utilise them appropriately (6). 

Moreover, to successfully magnify Africa’s visibility, it is critical that we explore scalability as a significant factor in localising small-scale NBS solutions. We need to move towards mainstreaming these solutions at a larger scale, fully considerate of the complexities of scaling up for practice, theory and policy. 

Additionally, we need to document our efforts across various channels by framing the benefits, nature’s contribution to people and demonstrating nature’s ability to reduce risks, vulnerabilities and improve livelihoods. Through continued monitoring, evaluation and use of quantifiable metrics, we can make the case for enhanced upscaling and move from what is currently deemed “noise” to multiple data-driven studies that can easily be scaled up (7). By capacitating cities in data collection on natural assets, socio-economic dependencies and nature’s benefits to people, we can start cataloguing Africa’s contribution to the Decade of Action and beyond, producing resources for global dissemination, telling the African story.