Why African cities need climate-resilient development pathways

In African cities, many people are experiencing hardship from losing loved ones and severe damages to hard-earned possessions, homes, and businesses partially due to extreme weather and climate events like flash floods, landslides, heat waves, and wildfires.

To build safety within our dynamic and rapidly changing climate and cities, we need a coordinated framework. That is where Climate-Resilient Development Pathways (CRDPs) come in.

What is a Climate-Resilient Development Pathway?

Development pathways are understood to be the accumulation of interventions over time. These interventions, including formal and informal, planned and spontaneous, public and private, shape how settlements expand and define the risks and opportunities residents experience

While it might sound like international policy jargon, CRDPs can offer a practical approach. They help us prioritise and coordinate actions that adapt our living spaces to changing heat, rainfall and wind patterns, while simultaneously mitigating climate change by reducing fossil fuel dependency linked to the emission of greenhouse gases that warm up our atmosphere.

Crucially, a CRDP approach doesn't rely on a single solution. Instead, it links several issues across sectors to build momentum toward positive change for both people and ecosystems.

Connecting Nature-Based Solutions to the Pathways

A powerful component of these pathways is the implementation of Nature-based Solutions (NbS). As highlighted in this video, a single NbS intervention won't eliminate climate risk on its own, but when integrated into a broader development pathway, the cumulative impact can be transformative.

Watch this video from the Tuwe Pamoja project, to learn more about CRDPs, and how the approach can help bridge the gap between local knowledge, lived experiences, and policy and financing flows being negotiated nationally and internationally. The video can also be downloaded here.