Locally Led Planning: A Guide For Building Climate Resilience In Urban Informal Settlements
Global Center on Adaptation
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Abstract: This guide?developed by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA)?offers a detailed framework for building climate resilience in urban informal settlements, drawing extensively from Nairobi?s Mukuru Special Planning Area experience. It addresses the compounded vulnerabilities faced by nearly one billion people globally living in informal urban areas, who endure poor access to services, precarious tenure, and high exposure to climate-induced hazards such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and disease outbreaks. Highlighting the limitations of traditional urban planning in informal contexts, the guide champions locally led, inclusive, and multisectoral upgrading strategies that reflect community needs and realities. It presents practical methodologies for community-led data collection (mapping, profiling, enumeration), risk identification, co-planning, negotiation, and integrated infrastructure design. Emphasis is placed on partnership models involving governments, civil society, and communities; democratic governance protocols; and financing solutions including local funds and international support. The guide underscores that upgrading alone is insufficient without inclusion and anticipatory risk planning and offers a flexible, context-sensitive resource for replication across African cities and beyond.