Community-Led Climate Adaptation in Informal Settlements April 2025 AUTHORS Wayne Shand, Senior Associate, International Institute for Environment and Development Tim Ndezi, Director, Center for Community Initiatives, Tanzania DISCLAIMER This work is a product of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS The material in this work is subject to copyright. Because The World Bank encourages the dissemination of its knowledge, this work may be reproduced, in whole or in part, for non- commercial purposes as long as full attribution to this work is given. Any queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to World Bank Publications, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: +1 (202) 522-2422; email: pubrights@worldbank.org. CITATION Shand, W. and Ndezi, T. 2025. Community-led Climate Adaptation in Informal Settlements. World Bank. Washington DC. Community-Led Climate Adaptation in Informal Settlements ii  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Swati Sachdeva (task team leader of the study), Dani Harake, Ibrahim Ali Khan and Elham Shabat of the World Bank for their support and guidance through this project. We would also like to thank the leaders and members of the Tanzania Federation of the Urban Poor (TFUP) for generously giving their time and insights that have been so valuable for this report. We appreciate the support provided by the representatives of Vingunguti and Kinondoni local authorities in conducting the participatory research in Dar es Salaam and providing important background information for the study. Also, we thank Mussa Raido, Prudensiana Luckago, Given Patrick, and the staff of the Center for Community Initiatives for their excellent work in leading the data collection process and drafting the country report that forms the basis for the Spotlight sections within this report. We would also like to thank the peer reviewers, Augustin Maria, Chandan Deuskar and Apoorva Shenvi from World Bank and Anna Walnycki at IIED for their useful feedback and comments. We are also very grateful to John Morton, Emily Owen and Nyambiri Kimacha from World Bank Tanzania country office and DMDP team for their immense support, guidance and feedback on the report. Thanks to Siobhan McCann of IIED for her support in the management and administration of the project. We also appreciated the time given by Phoram Shah, Ko Takeuchi and Joanna McLean Masic at the World Bank to share their knowledge and experience of project delivery. Finally, we are grateful to Angelica Nunez del Campo for her guidance and support throughout the project. We also thank Maitreyi Das for her leadership during the early stages of the report generation. Additionally, we extend our thanks to Karen Schneider for editing the report and Takayo Fredericks for designing the report. Lastly, we are grateful to GPRBA for funding this study. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  iii Community-Led Climate Adaptation in Informal Settlements TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Urban Informal Settlements and Climate Change 4 Spotlight 1 15 3 Community-Led Adaptation to Climate Change 18 Spotlight 2 29 4 Finance for Community-led Climate Adaptation 32 Spotlight 3 41 5 Putting Community-led Adaptation into Practice 44 Spotlight 4 52 6 Conclusion 54 iv  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Tables ES1. Benefits and Barriers—Results-Based Finance for Community-led Adaptation xiv ES2. Using RBF to Enable Community-led Action xvii ES3. Using RBF to Improve the Institutional Environment xviii ES4. Using RBF to Enable Community-led Delivery xviii Table 1: Characteristics of Informal Settlements and Implications for Climate Risk 11 Table 2: Dar es Salaam Research Process and Findings 17 Table 3: Community Participation Across the Settlement Upgrading Process 24 Table 4: Benefits and Barriers—Results-Based Finance for Community-led Adaptation 39 Table 5: Using RBF to Understand the Context 46 Table 6: Contract Arrangements to Enable Community Leadership 49 Table 7:. Using RBF to Improve the Institutional Environment 49 Table 8: Using RBF to Enable Community-led Delivery 51 Table 9: The Potential for RBF funding in Dar es Salaam 53 Figures ES1. Drivers of Vulnerability are also Barriers to Adaptation in Informal Settlements ix ES2. Barriers to Financing Community-Level Adaptation Action xii Figure 1: Proportion of Urban Populations Living in Slums, Selected Regions 2018 6 Figure 2: Drivers of Vulnerability are also Barriers to Climate Adaptation 10 in Informal Settlements Figure 3: Benefits of Community-led Data Collection 14 Figure 4: Dar es Salaam Research Sites 15 Figure 5: Community-led Data Collection Structure, Dar es Salaam 17 Figure 6: Main Climate Risk Concerns, Pakacha Settlement 30 Figure 7: Barriers to Financing Community-Level Adaptation Action 34 Figure 8: Responding to Climate Events 42 Figure 9: Temporary Relocation Due to Climate Risks, Kombo 42 Figure 10: Integrated Adaptation Actions, Dar es Salaam 52 Boxes ES1. Definition of Results-based Finance ix ES2. Community-led Settlement Upgrading xi ES3. Examples of Community-led Action xiii ES4. Spotlight on Dar es Salaam xvi Box 1: Compounding Effects 7 Box 2: Impact of High Rainfall 9 Box 3: Data Collection 12 Box 4: Characteristics of Community-led Action 22 Box 5: Community-led Settlement Upgrading 23 Box 6: Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) in India, Bangladesh and Nepal 27 Box 7: Small-scale Urban Agriculture 27 Box 8: Boosting Community-led Action 28 Box 9: Types of Community Engagement 36 Box 10: Examples of Community-led Action 38 Box 11: Definition of Results-based Finance 38 Box 12: Incentives for Community-led Action 40 Box 13: Viet Nam – Tailoring Infrastructure Delivery to Reflect Local Needs 46 Box 14: Kenya – Mukuru Special Planning Area 47 Box 15: Sierra Leone – Freetown the Tree Town Program 50 COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  v Abbreviations ACCA Asian Coalition for Community Action ACHR Asian Coalition for Housing Rights CBA Community-based adaptation CBO Community-based organization CCI Center for Community Initiatives DMDP Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project GCA Global Commission on Adaptation IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change KISIP Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project LLA Local-level adaptation LMIC Low- and middle-income country MHT Mahila Housing Trust MSME Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises NGO Nongovernmental organization PSUP Participatory Slum Upgrading Program RBF Results-based financing SEC Settlement executive committee SDI Slum Dwellers International SPA Special planning area TFUP Tanzanian Federation for the Urban Poor WASH Water, sanitation, and hygiene vi  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Executive Summary Purpose and Audience This report examines the role of community-led climate adaptation in enhancing the inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability of cities, focusing on rapidly growing informal settlements. The report is intended to inform the thinking of governments, donors, and World Bank staff in shaping urban program design. The evidence and case studies included in this report show how more inclusive approaches to urban adaptation are possible. By connecting strategic investment in infrastructure, driven by national and city governments, with mobilized grassroots action, more cost-effective and impactful urban climate adaptation can be achieved. But this will only be realized through a step change in policy, project design and implementation. Inclusive approaches, such as community- led data collection and the co-design of locally-led climate adaptation solutions with organized communities, embedded in project design, are essential. When deployed with innovative climate financing, such as Results-based Finance (RBF) (Box ES1), inclusive approaches can help bridge a significant climate financing gap for the most vulnerable underserved areas, strengthening institutions, and incentivizing and enabling new patterns of collaborative working. viii  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Context for Community-led Adaptation Two-thirds of the global population are projected to live Box ES1: Definition of Results-based Finance in cities by 2050, creating an urgent need to focus climate RBF includes a range of financing mechanisms adaptation on the places and people most at risk from in which funds are linked to, and provided after, climate change. Projections show that there will be an the delivery of pre-agreed and verified results. additional 2.2 billion urban dwellers by 2050, with about Instruments range from results-based aid for the 90 percent of the population growth taking place in Asian delivery of strategic development targets by national and African cities. Improving the capacity of governments, governments to performance-based contracts to communities, and businesses is essential to address the improve the outputs and effectiveness of services vast scale of need for sustainable urban development and providers and impact bonds, in which an investor adaptation to accelerating climate change. gets paid when agreed results are achieved. RBF has been used to strengthen institutional capacity, scale People living in informal settlements are highly vulnerable evidence-based programs, catalyze the adoption to the effects of climate change. Over 1 billion people living of promising programs and encourage outcomes- in informal settlements are currently at risk because they oriented interventions. reside in locations exposed to adverse weather conditions, with little access to basic services or infrastructure. Due to the deep effects of poverty and poor-quality living conditions, people in informal settlements lack the resources or ability to adapt to changing climates. However, the populations in urban informal settlements are the majority in many cities across the Global South and are Figure ES1: Drivers of Vulnerability are essential stakeholders in building resilient futures. also Barriers to Climate Adaptation in Informal Settlements The contexts for urban climate adaptation are highly complex, and tapping into the knowledge and experience of people in informal settlements is vital to shaping Vulnerability to effective investments. Overlapping locational factors climate risk and adverse socio-economic conditions contribute to vulnerability of the urban poor in informal settlements (figure ES1). However, these populations are severely under-represented in official data, with climate adaptation Physical Socio-economic planning driven at the national and city level. A lack of disaggregated data and direct involvement by communities in the design of adaptation investments can result in poorly Poverty Location targeted interventions and missed opportunities to leverage Tenure Buildings climate adaptation to minimize the impacts of extreme Infrastructure Work weather events, protect vulnerable groups, reduce poverty, Green space Basic services and preserve ecosystems. Information Bottom-up approaches provide a solution to current climate planning and delivery systems that are ill-suited Physical Socio-economic to cities under pressure from fast-paced urbanization. Integrating city-level infrastructure improvements with settlement upgrading will accelerate the delivery of climate adaptation. Enabling organized communities to partner with city governments would release capacity largely Barriers to urban excluded from processes of urban adaptation, to reduce adaptation the vulnerability of settlements to worsening climate conditions. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  ix Models of participatory slum upgrading and community-based adaptation demonstrate the transformative potential of collective action and collaboration with governments. x  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Communities Responding to Climate Change Box ES2: Community-led Settlement Upgrading Residents of informal urban settlements are exposed to a variety of overlapping climate risks, but they are Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA) – not passive in responding to challenges. At a household provides a model of dispersed and community-led level, people cope with climate shocks the best way they settlement improvement deployed across around can, balancing recovery costs with meeting everyday 1,000 settlements, 165 cities and 19 countries in needs. Collective action at a community level, through Asia. ACCA combined small grants to organized savings groups and local networks, is used to improve communities, matched by local savings, to deliver housing and reduce exposure to climate risks. However, environmental improvements including sewers, as found in Dar es Salaam, while people can spend as drainage, community toilets, energy supply and much as one-third of their annual income on responding housing upgrading. The initiative demonstrates the effectiveness of community-led action to to climate conditions, long-term risk reduction requires deliver meaningful adaptations using small budgets complementary government investment in infrastructure, and how aggregate impact can be achieved from service improvements and tenure security. dispersed actions. Including organized communities in planning and UN-Habitat PSUP Jamestown (Ga-Mashie) Low- delivering urban adaptation would encourage households income Settlements in Accra, Ghana – devolved to shift spending away from short-term coping and around 10 percent of the Participatory Slum recovery to longer-term risk reduction. Redirecting Upgrading Program (PSUP) budget to communities household expenditure to complement public investment to deliver local priority upgrading. In Accra, the could help accelerate the positive impacts of climate project in Jamestown improved public spaces, adaptations, increase the resilience of settlements and drainage, walkways, public toilet and shower houses. reduce repeated short-term expenditure on recovery. RBF The improvements were designed and delivered offers a mechanism to support this shift and incentivize by communities, under the supervision of the city connections between government and community level council, reducing flooding and improving sanitation. spending on climate adaptation. Completed before COVID-19, the improved WASH facilities made a major difference to public health Models of participatory slum upgrading and community- during the pandemic. based adaptation demonstrate the transformative potential of collective action and collaboration with governments. These approaches put community leadership at the forefront, with decisions taken collectively and grounded in the priorities of residents. Informed by community-led data collection and lived experiences, incremental and in situ upgrading contribute to adaptation and reduced climate risks. Examples from across the globe show how community-led action, sometimes supported by partnerships with governments and donors, can make substantial improvements to informal settlements and the quality of life (Box ES2). COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  xi Collective and community-led action builds the Financing and Enabling Community-led capacity and confidence of residents to upgrade and Adaptation adapt settlements. Engaging and mobilizing community members, undertaking participatory data collection, and While levels of global climate finance are increasing, creating decision-making structures build the networks there remains a major gap in resources, with insufficient and skills for communities to lead adaptation actions. funds directed at informal settlements. The value and Combined with supportive funding and technical expertise flow of climate finance needs to better reflect the scale from local government and community-based non- and complexity of the climate challenge in Global South governmental organizations (NGOs), grassroots groups can cities. Analysis by Cities Alliance of 22 global climate funds be active participants in the design and delivery of climate operating between 2003 and 2023, shows that just 2.1 adaptation. This capacity is vital to build bottom-up action percent of all projects and 3.5 percent of approved budgets and needs to be fully recognized as part of the process targeted informal settlements and the urban poor in the of urban development and integrated into structures of Global South. While some climate funding may be directed governance within cities. by national and local governments to poor urban residents, there is clearly a large gap in targeting the groups most Community-led data collection can be a starting point to vulnerable to climate change and in the reporting systems engage with slum dwellers and collect disaggregated data that track allocations of budgets. for better targeting and delivery of climate adaptation programs. Commissioning community-led data collection The structures governing the flow of finance create can be an effective way to establish a relationship with barriers that limit community-level access to funding. leaders and residents of informal settlements and gain Donor perceptions about community-based organizations new insights into the contexts and conditions for project (CBOs) and processes of allocating and managing funding delivery. It adds value to standard engagement and World can prevent grassroots groups from accessing resources Bank project context analysis by drilling down spatially and being part of decision-making arrangements (Figure into targeted settlements and exploring perceptions, ES2). These systems are a major impediment to putting experiences, and local responses to adverse environmental, the principles of local-level adaptation (LLA) into place. economic or climate conditions. Community-led data Implementing community-led climate adaptation requires collection is scalable, flexible, and adaptable to changing structures that are responsive to the capacity and roles of conditions, such as epidemics and pandemics. Lastly, early community-level groups. engagement of organized communities is important to define specific data gaps and the need for additional data collection. Figure ES2: Barriers to Financing Community-Level Adaptation Action Power and perceptions—unequal levels of authority, Power and decision-making cultures, and pre-conceived ideas perceptions about what CBOs can and should do, shape the willingness of governments and donors to direct resources to communities. Risk and accountability—donor requirements Performance Delivery for reporting and finance systems and the use of Expectations Models competitive selection processes are barriers to participation by community-based groups and may inhibit innovation. Grant values and timescales—large funding packages Risk and Control Grant value that have limited scope for capacity building, with accountability Mechanisms and delivery over timescales that do not allow for full timescales engagement of communities are barriers to inclusive project delivery. xii  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Box ES3: Examples of Community-led Action Kenya – Community Upgrading Plans - as part of the Viet Nam – Household Investment in Climate Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project Adaptation - The Mekong Delta Region Urban (KISIP), settlement executive committees (SEC) Upgrading Project sought to induce household were a prerequisite to ensure that upgrading plans investment through voluntary financial and land reflected the priorities of communities. SECs had contributions to improvements and, indirectly, own- representatives of youth, business community, women account investment in housing. While seeking voluntary groups, disabled, religious groups, local professionals contributions had limited success over the life of the (i.e., teachers), landlords, tenants, and local members program, the settlement improvements coincided with of county assembly. SECs as local-level structures occupier investment in properties. An end-of -project were responsible for community mobilization, linking survey shows that nearly half of households surveyed residents to programme managers and contractors, (41.9 percent) had upgraded their house and that the facilitating household censuses (enumerations) and the proportion of homes built with temporary materials production of settlement upgrading plans. (such as corregated zinc sheets) had decreased from 29.2 percent to 4.9 percent. The World Bank, through its Integrated Urban expenditure in settlements. In Indonesia (the National Development Programs, has extensive experience with Slum Upgrading Project), found contracting directly with community engagement, which can be used to support community organisations and small businesses cost less community-led climate adaptation. As part of stakeholder than delivery through local government contractors and led planning and community engagement, the World Bank to greater local ownership of improvements. Small grant often sets up consultative committees to feed into the budgets for local works, such as in the Viet Nam Mekong design of project delivery. In some cases, communities Delta project, produced community-led planting, solid are funded by the World Bank to collect local data, define waste collection and environmental awareness courses, priorities, and develop urban upgrading plans (Box ES3). contributing adaptation benefits (Box ES3 above). These provide a foundation to further extend the role of communities, looking deeper into environmental, social, The use of flexible RBF instruments can help expand and economic conditions within settlements and including community-led adaptation. Either linked to major grant community leaders in decision-making structures. The use programs or used tactically to address institutional or of grant and RBF funding can be tailored to build capacity financial obstacles, RBF can provide an important resource and shape collaboration between local governments and for community-led action. When applied to informal residents of informal settlements. settlements, RBF can support community-led adaptation, but it is not suitable in all contexts. Table ES1 shows how Evidence from World Bank programs shows that incentives RBF can help shift expectations and behaviors to support and devolution of responsibilities can have a positive the delivery of community-led adaptation actions, but impact on investments. Creating incentives for household should also build capacity to deliver results (in both investment in climate adaptation by improving tenure communities and local governments), with funding tailored security and leveraging improvements in infrastructure to reflect the financial position of community-based groups. can help increase the level of community and private COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  xiii Table ES1: Benefits and Barriers—Results-Based Finance for Community-led Adaptation Benefits of Results-Based Finance Barriers to Results-Based Finance Focus on outcomes—enhances accountability of Requires upfront funding—may deter community-led government and service providers to communities. organizations and require significant up-front payments. Emphasis on blended funding—creates space to include Needs supportive institutions—may be difficult to private-sector and community funds (e.g., savings and utility implement RBF where settlements lack official recognition. company customer revenue). Closing market and service gaps—removes cost barriers to Complex to set up—particularly where there is contested service provision extended into low-income areas. land ownership or performance targets are hard to deliver. Verification systems—strengthens local level data Needs good public administration—and the capacity to collection, when combined with community enumerations. effectively develop and manage contracts. Integrated learning—encourages experimentation and Needs responsive private sector—requires existing use of local knowledge to design bespoke local adaptation market capacity among micro, small, and medium solutions. enterprises (MSME) as providers and specialist contractors. RBF has been used in urban contexts for institutional strengthening and extending basic service coverage to informal settlements. World Bank experience of improving the administrative processes for land registry in the West Bank, subsidy payments to enable connections to electricity networks in Zambia, and performance rewards made to community groups for improved solid waste collections in Jamaica demonstrate the benefits of RBF in delivering community-led climate adaptation. xiv  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  xv Box ES4: Spotlight on Dar es Salaam As part of this project, a community-led data collection Residents of settlements are locked into patterns of pilot was undertaken in two informal settlements in Dar short-term coping and recovery, which undermine their es Salaam from May to July 2024. The pilot generated adaptive capacity. Despite residents spending up to evidence for this report, but also demonstrated the one third their annual income on coping with climate added value of community-led data collection to conditions, they lacked the knowlede or financial ability understanding and planing for climate adaptation. The to reduce long-term exposure to climate conditions. research was undertaken by Center for Community While individuals and collective groups sought to Initiatives (CCI), a Tanzanian NGO working on urban reduce climate risks through measures such as raising development issues and the Tanzania Federation for floor levels of dwellings to reduce flooding and drinking the Urban Poor (TFUP) a grassroots group organising more water during hot spells, they needed partnership residents of informal settlements. It sought to with local government to make a substantive understand the experience and impact of climate improvement to their conditions. change and residents’ coping strategies. The community research highlighted how issues The research highlighted the deep vulnerability of of climate risk, poverty, health and infrastructure residents of informal settlements. Overlapping issues are connected and the importance of collaboration of poverty, poor quality housing and settlements with the local authority. The evidence produced exposed people to flooding, extreme heat and high recommendations from the community to improve winds, with major impacts on health and livelihoods. drainage, green the settlement, increase the resielince The pilot showed how cycles of climate shocks, led to of housing that can be taken forward by the community. an inability to fully recover and a gradual eroding of The pilot provides evidence to infom the World Bank savings that increased the vulnerability of residents. Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project (DMDP) phase 2 and more widely demonstrates a model of community-led data collection that is scalable and transferable to other project contexts. Erosion of the Msimbazi River xvi  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Putting Community-led Adaptation the targeting of interventions, creating an institutional into Practice environment for community-local government collaboration to flourish and supporting capacity for delivery. While there are clear advantages to community-led climate adaptation in informal settlements, established Understanding the context is vital. Effective planning methods of project design and delivery often leave little and delivery rely on disaggregated and accurate local space for communities to have a meaningful role. Bringing data. Organized communities have a vital role as holders together communities and governments is vital and of information not captured in official statistics. Bringing urgent to address the growing climate risks in cities. The information on informal settlements into the planning World Bank has an important role in making this happen, and management of adaptation initiatives can improve using its relationships with governments and resources impact and help mobilize and empower communities to encourage, incentivize, and enable new patterns of to take action. RBF as a flexible fund can be used for working and collaboration that bring in communities as full grant, performance, and incentive payments to integrate stakeholders in urban climate adaptation. A key part of this community-led data collection into urban projects is the use of RBF to improve information flow to enhance (Table ES2). Table ES2: Using RBF to Enable Community-led Action Objective Results-Based Finance Understand the context and interdependences of climate, Grant funding for community-led data collection, targeting socio-economic, and institutional factors. and engaging the most vulnerable groups. Build capacity of grassroots networks to co-ordinate Performance-based funding to develop the capacity community engagement and lead adaptation delivery. and technical skills of local stakeholders (including local governments) and grassroots and NGO groups. Shift the use of short-term household expenditure on Incentivizing household investment in housing recovery into investments that increase resilience to improvements or extending and using improved climate conditions. infrastructure. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  xvii Positive partnerships enable community-led climate institutional processes, and insufficient data on informal adaptation. With relationships between communities and settlements are barriers to strengthening relationships. local governments often defined by policy and regulation, Examples such as Mukuru in Nairobi, Kenya show how creating conducive institutional conditions for community- positive institutional arrangements work to create space led action is an important foundation. Ingrained negative for communities to mobilize, fill data gaps, and work perceptions, on both sides, and a lack of experience of collectively with local government to deliver settlement joint working are disincentives to collaboration. Even when upgrading. But these need to be fostered to be effective. there is a will to look at more inclusive approaches to urban Table ES3 provides some examples of how RBF could help development, a lack of capacity to engage, politicized create a positive environment. Table ES3: Using RBF to Improve the Institutional Environment Objective Results-Based Finance Institutional strengthening of local governments, for Capacity building and performance payments for the example, in land administration. completed transfers of land rights. Build governance structures that enable local governments Incentivize the creation of project boards with equal and organized communities to collectively prioritize representation from local governments and communities. investment. Establish contracting arrangements that give delivery De-risk local government contracting arrangements to responsibility to communities. encourage devolved community-led delivery. Testing community-led action is the best way to demon- joint delivery plans are an effective way to define inputs to strate the effectiveness of devolved delivery. Designing delivery. Table ES4 shows examples of how RBF can be used community-led delivery and collaboration needs to be a to ensure a focus on the key outputs and incentivize local process of co-production. Discussions and negotiations contracting. between local governments and communities to design Table ES4: Using RBF to Enable Community-led Delivery Objective Results-Based Finance Climate adaptations meet identified local needs. Performance payments and rewards for adaptation to climate risks. Adaptation is at a scale that can be managed by Incentivize or subsidize community-led small delivery communities, without reducing overall impact. contracts. Performance-based contracting, linked to operation and Community-led action is sustainable over the long term. maintenance, ensures the involvement of organized communities. xviii  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Cities and informal settlements face an uncertain future. world make action essential. Using the combined strength Unplanned urbanization, worsening climate conditions, of the public, business, and community sectors, working and rigid finance and governance systems create difficult together in their own contexts can create the momentum to circumstances to deliver sustainable urban development. build resilient and inclusive cities for all. However, the climate risks to billions of people across the COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  xix 1. Introduction 1.1 The Challenge of Climate Change Rising global temperatures pose a major threat to the lives and well-being of populations across the world. With between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people currently living in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change,1 global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2030 could expose almost half the world’s population to extreme climate hazards.2 There is clear evidence that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will be disproportionately affected by climate change. People in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are most at risk because of lower income levels, a lack of access to risk- reducing basic infrastructure, such as drainage and energy, and essential social services, such as health care, needed to cope with, and recover from, shocks. 3   COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS The density of informal settlements, the reduction in green environments, and poorly insulated and ventilated housing exposes urban dwellers to rising temperatures. Growing cities will be significantly impacted by climate urban dump sites, and other sensitive areas has placed change. The share of global populations in urban areas is populations at great risk from changing climate conditions. expected to rise from 56 percent to 68 percent4 over the The process of informal settlement has degraded natural next three decades, with an additional 2.2 billion people ecosystems, such as mangroves,7 and the absence of living in cities by 2050. About 90 percent of this growth will infrastructure to protect communities has substantially take place in Asia and Africa.5 Approximately half the growth increased exposure to adverse weather events. in urban populations will result from regional and internal migration.6 Growing populations will increase pressure The density of informal settlements, the reduction in on urban land use and access to services in cities already green environments, and poorly insulated and ventilated unable to respond or raise revenue to get ahead of demand. housing exposes urban dwellers to rising temperatures. Higher population density is likely to increase unplanned Evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate development, with a lack of infrastructure deepening the Change (IPCC) indicates that the number of cities with vulnerability of low-income communities. summertime temperatures of 35oC and above will triple by 2050,8 creating significant risks to the well-being of people. Patterns of urban growth over the last 30 years have Poor urban design has led to the creation of heat islands resulted in large-scale informal settlements across the in cities that disproportionately affect the health of young Global South. The occupation and unplanned development children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.9 of marginal land, along coasts, floodplains on steep slopes, COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  1 Despite contributing least to the climate crisis, developing countries, especially informal settlements in cities, will face major challenges to adapt to new climate realities. 2  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS 1.2 The Need for an Inclusive Approach to Climate Adaptation Despite contributing least to the climate crisis, developing countries, especially informal settlements in cities, will face major challenges to adapt to new climate realities. With planning for climate change primarily taking place at national levels (through Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans) and through the climate action plans of a relatively small number of major cities, governments rarely consider the 1.3 Objective and Structure of the Report potential contribution of communities to climate change This report contributes to ongoing discussions on climate adaptation. A national focus can obscure the specific adaptation, focusing on the urgent need to encourage impacts of changing weather conditions on vulnerable community leadership in informal settlements and use communities and lead to gaps in adaptation strategies the full palate of available climate and development and investment plans.10 To avoid maladaptation, cities and resources. It is aimed at governments, donors, NGOs, and their communities must invest and adapt in ways that are World Bank staff working on urban climate adaptation, inclusive and sustainable, reducing long-term exposure to development, and disaster risk management. The report climate risk as a shared mission of all urban stakeholders. highlights how support for community-led adaptation can National finance and decision making for climate action catalyze the transformation of informal settlements. While must be devolved to the local level, where vulnerability much can be achieved through shifting the established and long-term risk are greatest. To meet the vast cost ways that governments work with communities, by of urban adaptation, sources of finance and action integrating settlement-level action into urban programming, need to diversify to integrate the inputs of government, flexible funding, such as RBF, will be essential to create communities, and businesses working together. Donor capacity and incentivize actions to embed more inclusive and domestic finance systems are often mismatched to approaches in planning and delivery of climate adaptation the pressing needs created by climate change and the strategies. complexities of urban environments.11 But national climate The report is structured as follows. First, it provides strategy and infrastructure investment can be enhanced background analysis on cities and climate change, so that communities are part of the solution and able to focusing on the vulnerabilities of informal settlements. use their local knowledge of risk to link household and Examples of community-led adaptation are then provided collective action to wider programs of settlement upgrading to illustrate the diversity of local action to address climate and adaptation. risks, followed by a discussion of financing community- Cities have limited finances and capacity to drive and led climate adaptation. The report then turns to the deliver adaptation. Better alignment of existing resources experience of the World Bank to identify how communities and use of flexible funds, such as RBF, can support are included in urban projects. The report then focuses on institutional and grassroots capacity building and action. how community-led approaches can be put into practice to RBF can complement major grant programs and focus drive impactful and lasting change in informal settlements, on specific barriers preventing inclusive approaches to followed by a conclusion. climate adaptation. Deploying RBF to fund innovation Each of the main chapters is followed by a Spotlight, and focus on outcomes will be essential to shift away drawing from community-led data collection piloted in from ‘business-as-usual’ approaches and to include two informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, to feed into communities in informal settlements as full stakeholders this report. The Spotlight sections highlight local-level in creating sustainable cities. vulnerabilities and barriers to building adaptive capacity, providing evidence of need and identifying actions that could be taken by communities and city governments to reduce climate risks. The pilot aims to demonstrate the value of community-led data collection and its potential use and scalability to World Bank projects. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  3 2. Urban Informal Settlements and Climate Change Informal settlement has been the dominant form of urban growth across the Global South during the last 30 years. As city populations have expanded and people have migrated to urban areas, driven by a search for economic opportunity or refuge, informal settlements have provided the entry point to a home in the city. However, the lack of planning, basic service infrastructure, tenure security, and construction standards in these communities has created a legacy of vulnerability to climate change. This chapter provides an outline of the characteristics of informal settlements to highlight the implications of changing climate conditions for urban populations across the Global South. 4  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Pressure for land, where there is limited public governance capacity, has resulted in large informal settlements in cities across the Global South. 2.1 Global Urban Context 90 percent will be in Asian and African cities. The rate of growth is likely to be slower in highly urbanized and The number of people living in cities has increased developed regions, such as Latin America, the Caribbean, fourfold over the last 50 years,12 driven by natural growth and Northern America, where 80 percent of populations of established populations, the migration of people to already live in urban centers.14 cities from rural areas, and displacement caused by conflict and climate change. The International Organization Over the next three decades, cities of all sizes will see for Migration and UN-Habitat estimate13 that about half significant population growth. While global policy often of urban growth in Global South cities will be driven by focuses on the rising number of megacities of 10 million or migration, including internally displaced populations and more people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, a majority refugees. Cities are centers of economic activity that attract of urban populations will continue to live in smaller people, offering opportunities to find employment, relative cities of less than 1 million people.15 To cope with growing safety, and an ability to meet essential needs more than in numbers of residents, all cities will require strategies rural or semi-rural areas. to manage pressures of urbanization on increased demand for land, infrastructure, and services. Given the scale The majority of urban population growth will occur in of informal settlements in urban areas, these communities Asian and African cities. All global regions are expected need to be part of the solution through programs of in situ to experience urbanization, but with notable differences improvements. Upgrading and new development between developed and developing countries. As noted must follow a low carbon path, to avoid increasing above, projections suggest that of the additional 2.2 billion greenhouse gas emissions that may undermine progress people expected to live in urban areas by 2050, about toward global targets.16 COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  5 Pressure for land, where there is limited public governance Global data indicate that about one in four people in urban capacity, has resulted in large informal settlements in areas live in slum conditions. Some 1.1 billion people in cities across the Global South. The dominant form of cities lack access to quality housing and basic services and urban development in cities of the Global South is informal experience poverty. The presence of urban slums varies settlement.17 The term ‘informal settlement’ is commonly significantly by region, with Sub-Saharan Africa showing the used to refer to any form of housing where occupants highest proportions of people living in such areas (Figure do not have legal claim to the land they live on and that 1). Informal and slum settlements attract low- income and falls outside government control or regulations.18 This may migrant populations because of their proximity to economic incorporate some ‘slum’ areas (as targeted in SDG 11),19 centers and lower cost housing relative to expensive city which are defined principally in respect to their access to center property.20 While long-term trends have seen a fall improved water, access to improved sanitation, sufficient in the proportion of people living in informal settlements, living area, durability of housing, and security of tenure, increasing urbanization means that the total number of rather than the legality of the settlement. people in these communities is growing.21 Figure 1: Proportion of Urban Populations Living in Slums, Selected Regions 201822 60 50 40 30 World Average 23.9% 20 10 0 % Latin America Oceania* Northern Eastern and Central and Sub-Saharan and the Africa and South-Eastern Southern Asia Africa Caribbean Western Asia Asia *Excludes Australia and New Zealand Source: Reproduced from UN Statistics Division (2024) 6  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Informal and slum settlements have expanded While the characteristics of each informal settlement incrementally to meet demand for living space, often are specific to the cities in which they are located, in unsuitable and hazardous locations in cities. These environmental risks, a lack of service infrastructure, and settlements are frequently located in environmentally poor-quality construction are typical features across the degraded and at-risk areas, such as on municipal dump globe. Informal settlements are as heterogeneous as any sites, hillsides, and river flood plains. They typically lack other part of large cities,24 but share common conditions access to basic infrastructure (e.g., roads, water, sanitation, of poverty and risks from adverse weather. Residents of electricity), and dwellings are constructed of materials that informal settlements typically work in the informal economy, provide little integrity or protection from adverse weather which provides the principal source of income for a majority conditions. These factors make residents vulnerable to of people living in the Global South.25 Moreover, dwellings in extreme climate events and risks from compounding crises informal settlements often have multiple uses to leverage of conflict and health emergencies (Box 1).23 their value as assets—for enterprise, rental of space, and storage. Where properties are affected by climate change, the impact can result in a devastating loss of not only possessions but also livelihoods. Informal settlements are a Box 1. Compounding Effects key part of the fabric of cities and should be fully integrated into plans for urban development to reduce risks and During the first year of COVID-19, some 92 extreme climate impacts, as discussed below.26 weather events exposed 51.6 million people globally to overlapping threats from floods, droughts, or storms. These events worsened the effects of the pandemic for low-income populations. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  7 8  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS 2.2 Climate Change and Cities Cities and informal urban settlements face disproportionate risks and impacts from climate change. The form of urban development, the location of settlements within cities, limited infrastructure and the interlinked issue of poverty, which reduces the adaptive capacity of low- income households, expose people to changing climate conditions.27 Climate risks do not occur in isolation, but are compounded by environmental, social, and economic conditions, with a broad range of effects on health, livelihoods, and well-being.28 Box 2: Impact of High Rainfall Informal settlements in marginal or precarious locations In 2017, after 3 days of intense rainfall a major face climate risks from floods, landslides, and storms. landslip occurred in the western rural and urban Cities located in the low-lying coastal and delta regions, Freetown areas of Sierra Leone. The landslip caused such as those in Guyana, Maldives, Belize, Suriname, massive damage and exacerbated existing flooding, Tanzania, Kenya, Thailand, and Bahrain, at an elevation of affecting around 6,000 people, with 1,141 recorded as less than 10 meters above sea level, face major risks of dead or missing. Dwellings in informal settlements flooding and erosion.29 30 Periods of high and intense rainfall were disproportionately affected, both due to their lead to flooding of low-lying informal settlements that location on steep slopes in the path of the landslip lack functional infrastructure. Excess waste in rivers and and the low durability of building materials. Alongside drainage channels can block watercourses, causing flooding physical damage there were serious economic of settlements. Communities located on steep hillsides impacts, with livelihoods destroyed and the wide and municipal dump sites can face catastrophic risk of effect of the disaster undermining community and landslides, causing loss of life and destruction of homes, collective coping mechanisms. from water saturation of land (Box 2).31 The density of informal settlements and the erosion of natural environments increases exposure to high disabilities or chronic health conditions, are particularly temperatures, causing thermal inequality — the unequal vulnerable to extreme heat.32 Studies have shown that distribution of heat exposure and its impacts across housing occupied by low-income communities in South communities within urban areas. Rising pressure on land Africa can have indoor temperatures between 4–5oC higher increases the sub-division of plots and the density and than outdoor temperatures.33 In Makassar, Indonesia, overcrowding of settlements. Green space, mangroves, temperatures in informal settlements averaged 2.6oC higher and trees are removed to accommodate buildings, which than surrounding areas.34 degrades natural defenses against climate events in the city. Rising global temperatures have a pervasive impact on The use of low-quality building materials reduces the settlements, where a lack of shade, the use of low-quality climate resilience of housing in informal settlements. The building materials, and industrial activity contribute to heat methods and materials used for housing construction offer island effects. Urban poor and displaced persons, along little protection from flooding, high winds, and heatwaves, with very young and elderly people and individuals with exposing residents to climate risks. Materials such as tin, cement, and cinder or clay bricks used to construct dwellings, have limited resilience and, relative to low and unstable incomes, are expensive to purchase and transport into informal areas that lack access roads.35 Constructing housing incrementally, relying on earnings and savings, can be a long-term effort that absorbs a large proportion of incomes, but produces dwellings that remain highly vulnerable to changing climate conditions. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  9 The lack of basic service infrastructure in informal When there are weak governance systems or adversarial settlements exacerbates risks from adverse weather relationships between government and populations in events. The resilience of city dwellers to climate change is informal settlements, the ability to deliver improvements conditioned by access to risk-reducing infrastructure, which is not possible without first establishing relationships is generally available in developed countries, but largely and dialogue. Communities are not only beneficiaries of absent for poor populations in LMICs.36 The presence of adaptation improvements but also stakeholders essential basic service infrastructure, including functional sanitation, to the process of undertaking and realizing the benefits of drainage, and household waste collection, alongside urban development investments. affordable building construction standards, are important to create a basis for adaptation to minimize the risks of climate change. Figure 2: Drivers of Vulnerability are also Barriers Environmental and socio-economic conditions to Climate Adaptation in Informal Settlements38 determine vulnerability to climate change, but these factors can also be barriers to climate adaptation. The challenges associated with environmental conditions not only intersect with, and exacerbate, socio-economic Vulnerability to factors but are a constraint to adaptation (Figure 2). The climate risk conditions found in informal settlements increase the difficulty and cost of adaptation to climate change and can be barriers to investment by donors and the private sector. The complexity of informal settlements requires a Physical Socio-economic ‘business unusual’37 approach to bring together stakeholder partnerships and the resources needed to deliver sustainable and equitable urban climate adaptation. Location Poverty Buildings Tenure These complex conditions require full consideration not Infrastructure Work only of the drivers of vulnerability but also of the barriers Green space Basic services to adaptation. The characteristics of informal settlements Information can have multiple implications for communities and the design and delivery of improvements (Table 1). Often, solutions are far from straightforward, requiring detailed Physical Socio-economic local information and contextual analysis of factors, to determine the most effective and equitable means of reducing risks. In the absence of detailed official spatial and non-spatial information on demographics, socio-economic Barriers to urban profile, basic services, and housing and environmental adaptation conditions, residents are the primary source of knowledge. 10  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Table 1: Characteristics of Informal Settlements and Implications for Climate Risk Characteristic Implications for Climate Risk Location of settlements Marginal and at-risk locations increase the difficulty and costs of adaptation and upgrading. Settlements are often on sites that are unsuitable for housing because of environmental factors (e.g., landslides, flooding, coastal erosion). Household poverty Multi-dimensional poverty compounds vulnerability to climate risks. Where climate shocks hit, losses can diminish financial stability and resilience, reducing the ability to cope with changing climate conditions. Construction materials may have little structural integrity, and homes may require rebuilding Building quality and rather than adaptation, increasing costs and difficulty. Unplanned settlements make access settlement configuration problematic, and settlements may need to be reconfigured to allow installation of infrastructure and in situ climate adaptation. The lack of legal status deters investment by both landlords and tenants to adapt dwellings. Lack of tenure security Contested ownership is a barrier to investment for donors and the private sector. The illegal/ informal status of settlements is used to justify excluding these communities from involvement in local government climate planning and city development. Basic services and Lack of access to services and infrastructure (e.g., water, sanitation, drainage, roads, energy infrastructure supply) increases the vulnerability of settlements and the costs of adaptation actions. Weak commercial models for utilities39 in informal settlements limit investment options. Unstable work and Reliance on informal employment produces low and unstable incomes that reduce the ability of income people to invest in adaptation or to afford and move to better and safer areas of the city that are close to places of work and markets. Loss of natural The absence of green space and trees and impervious surfaces contributes to heat island environments effects and reduces the resilience of the environment to flooding and storm conditions. Information deficit Limited access to disaggregated data (e.g., scientific, geospatial, qualitative) on climate risk and early-warning systems for informal settlements make planning of adaptation difficult for governments, donors, and community members. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  11 2.3 Data Gaps on Climate and Informal Settlements Informal settlements in cities, despite often housing a Box 3: Data Collection majority of urban populations,40 are poorly represented Social Networks during COVID-19 in official statistics and datasets.41 There are significant gaps in data coverage, which limits the planning of inclusive Community-based organizations were vital during development and climate adaptation. This leads to a the pandemic, filling gaps in official data and concentration of climate adaptations in more formal urban providing access to vulnerable populations in areas where data is available or to infrastructure solutions informal settlements. Public health institutions that may have negative impacts on poor and marginalized mobilized social networks to map contagion risk communities.42 The ability to target vulnerable populations hotspots and collect information on the impacts and track the changing conditions at the settlement of the pandemic in communities, which enabled and household level is vital to ensure that resources are targeting of health responses. They were also used being used efficiently to reduce climate risks and have a to disseminate information, distribute personal protection equipment, and target food and medicines positive economic impact on low-income households. The to affected groups. Social networks proved their absence of this capacity has led to patchworks of urban importance to enable the effective functioning of improvements, leaving many of the poorest residents city-wide health responses. behind. Weather Early Warning The gaps in disaggregated data covering urban informal settlements were evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Uganda and Tanzania, the Daraja project is The lack of spatial data on informal settlements, their providing simplified weather forecast information populations, and the levels of access to service provision to residents in informal settlements to help increased the difficulty of tracking the virus and managing them prepare for adverse conditions. National the effectiveness of public health measures. The crisis meteorological agencies provide five-day forecasts conditions did, however, encourage new patterns of working that are shared with residents of informal and innovation in sharing and use of data, with organized settlements to alert them to coming climate risks. communities collecting data and disseminating public Information is disseminated through schools and information (Box 3) and health agencies repurposing client in busy public areas to raise awareness of weather information to help efforts.43 44 45 46 conditions and encourage early responses. Alongside gaps in data, scientific knowledge on climate change is not connected to community-based information, which could identify the effects of weather Community data collection enables context- conditions on the health and well-being of low-income specific adaptation solutions and local ownership of populations. Linking data sources is vital to frame investments.47 Where data collection is undertaken jointly and evaluate the impact of interventions on vulnerable with local authorities and used to augment scientific data communities. Participatory forms of data collection can on climate and development issues,48 it can provide new improve the allocation and targeting of resources from insights and tailor responses to difficult adaptation issues. public programs to residents of informal settlements and Collaboration can also help strengthen partnerships inform the design of city development and adaptation between governments and organized communities, creating programs. Aligning official and local enumeration data can opportunities to reset institutionalized or adversarial help address gaps in the coverage or frequency of public relationships and reduce long-term vulnerability to climate census and administrative information to provide a more risks (Figure 3). accurate picture of the needs of marginalized communities. Combining official and scientific data with community- led household surveys can improve the use of existing information to identify vulnerabilities and support more effective targeting of interventions. 12  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  13 Figure 3: Benefits of Community-led Data Collection49 Entry point to engage with communities and to enable cities to partner with them for co-creating Collateral solutions. It can provide benefits include Geospatial data on empowered informal se lement communities, improved boundaries, basic socio-economic services, health benefits, centers, markets, inclusive growth, etc. and more. C O M M U N I T Y- L E D DATA C O L L E CT I O N Opportunity to It can provide improve digital quantitative data skills of communities on population, and to influence employment, number policies, programs of households & projects through disaggregated data disaggregated on age, gender, data It can provide etc. qualitative data on social capital, community needs, informal leadership, social networks, etc. Data provides a basis for people to make informed in Box 3, progress is being made in simplifying weather decisions about their responses to climate risks. The lack forecasts to help people better understand risks and of disaggregated and simplified technical information on avoid the worst impacts of climate events. While forecast climate risks is a barrier to more effective individual and data can be simplified, translating this into longer-term collective responses to risk in informal settlements. A lack risk-reducing actions and behaviors remains a challenge. of knowledge beyond experience of climate conditions However, working with and through CBOs provides a way to and an understanding of technical language are barriers educate residents about risks and enables better responses to adaptive behaviors and investments. As shown above, to changing climate conditions. 14  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Spotlight 1: Dar es Salaam Community-led Data Collection Understanding the experiences and impacts of climate change and how residents of informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania cope with climate risks. A lack of detailed and accurate information on how The Pakacha Settlement has an estimated population of changing climate conditions affect informal urban 5,869 people, and the area has historically experienced settlements is a major barrier to effective climate severe flooding from the tributaries running through it. adaptation. As part of the World Bank’s wider study The settlement, as part of a wider set of improvements into community-led climate adaptation for this report, across Kinondoni municipality, has benefited from major community members in two Dar es Salaam informal investment from the Dar es Salaam DMDP. Major capital settlements led in-depth data collection to explore the works have sought to significantly reduce flood risk with experiences, impacts, and responses to climate risks of the construction of river embankments, drainage channels, residents. This community-led research has enabled a and roads, alongside improvements to footpaths and street fuller understanding of the effects of climate conditions lighting. Like Kombo, the population of Pakacha is relatively and provided a basis for planning and collective action. stable, with two-thirds (65.3 percent) having lived in the It also opened potential entry points for collaboration settlement for five years or more. between the two communities and city government to reduce future vulnerability to climate risks and strengthen adaptive capacity. Figure 4: Dar es Salaam Research Sites Community members conducted participatory research between May and July 2024 in Kombo, located in the Vingunguti ward of Dar es Salaam City Council, and Pakacha, part of the Tandale ward of Kinondoni Municipality (Figure 4). The Kombo Settlement, with an estimated population of 19,358 people, is located near the Msimbazi River, an area that regularly floods. It is characterized by congested housing, with densities of up to 40 houses per hectare, and limited infrastructure. The settlement has seen little significant public investment. Kombo has a relatively stable population, with over three-quarters (76.5 percent) having lived there for five years or more. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  15 Data collection involved a participatory method to • How is climate change impacting the lives of explore the experience and effects of climate change. This residents of informal urban communities in Pakacha community-led approach recognized the unique knowledge and Kombo? and experience of people living in informal settlements and built capacity for local leadership and action to address • How are residents of these settlements responding growing climate risks. In this research, the data collectors to changing climate conditions? asked residents to consider their experiences of rainfall • Which adaptations could be used to reduce and flooding, rising heat levels, and the effects of wind and the impact of climate change on low-income storms on their settlements. To examine these issues, data communities? collectors focused on three broad questions to guide the design and delivery of the research. 16  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Two CBOs jointly led and delivered the research, the The research was delivered as a sequential process, with Center for Community Initiatives, a Tanzanian NGO the two CBOs leading the research design, ensuring a working on urban development issues, and the Tanzania focus on priority climate issues and engaging and training Federation for the Urban Poor, a grassroots group residents to undertake data collection (Figure 5, Table 2). organizing residents of informal settlements. Figure 5: Community-led Data Collection Structure, Dar es Salaam Engage / Train Community Researchers Household Survey Research Pilot Data Input Initial Design Focus Groups and Review Questionnaire Analysis Finalize Shareholder Research Interviews Tools Verification Workshop Reporting Table 2: Dar es Salaam Research Process and Findings Initiation and Planning Design Implementation Outcomes - NGO partner (CCI) - Identify and recruit 12 - Collect survey data over - Initial data analysis of appointed to lead delivery community researchers. five days using web-linked surveys, charts, mapping, of project. hand-held devices and transcripts to produce - Training workshop held key findings by CCI. - TUPF leaders and local over three days. - Data uploaded daily and government engaged to checked by CCI. - Findings presented and discuss the research. - Question frame and workshopped with TUPF language tested with - Nine focus group meetings leaders. - Workshop held to define community researchers. facilitated by CCI. research goals and methods. - Recommendations - Pilot and finalize - Five stakeholder interviews developed by CCI and TUPF. - Agree delivery process and questionnaire. led by CCI. timetable. - Draft report reviewed - Fieldwork planned and - Dataset reviewed prior to by TUPF prior to wider teams set up to collect analysis. consultation. survey data. - Report produced. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  17 3. Community-Led Adaptation to Climate Change Residents of informal urban settlements are exposed to overlapping climate risks, but they are not passive in responding to challenges. At the household and settlement scale, individuals and organized groups cope with risks and recover from shocks as best they can. In some circumstances, activity is led by communities to improve housing and environments and adapt to changing climate conditions, such as by creating barriers to block the path of floodwaters or using rocks to weigh down roofs. In others, partnerships have been formed between grassroots groups, NGOs, donors, and governments to develop integrated actions that tie into major development and adaptation investments in city infrastructure. In all cases, community-driven responses are critical to building climate resilience in the most vulnerable areas, especially in the face of increasing climate variability. This chapter examines some of the approaches being taken globally by residents of informal settlements to address climate risk through community-led action. These examples demonstrate the capacity and ingenuity of communities working in partnerships and how these are connected to global dialogue on local-level climate actions. 18  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Community-led climate action can complement national and sub-national climate plans by unlocking local knowledge and resources needed for sustainable change. 3.1 Framing Community-led Climate Action of services to include informal settlements as part of the ‘formal’ city. With population growth intensifying pressure The scale and complexity of fast-growing cities on already at-risk areas, urban resilience can only be and impacts of climate change on vulnerable urban achieved through partnerships that champion community- communities make bottom-up and inclusive approaches based leadership and create the necessary institutional and to climate adaptation a necessity. As explored in Chapter finance frameworks. 2, informal settlements face increasing risks over the next three decades from rising sea levels, increased rainfall, Community-led climate action can complement national extreme heat, and more erratic storm conditions. Focusing and sub-national climate plans by unlocking local on action at a local level in informal settlements, directly knowledge and resources needed for sustainable change. addressing those areas most at risk from climate change is A key to meeting the vast cost of wide-ranging urban a vital and urgent task for governments and donors. adaptation is diversifying the sources of funding and action that contribute to more sustainable and resilient cities. Building experience and the capacity for community- National climate strategies and infrastructure investment led climate action is essential to transform the delivery can be enhanced where communities are able to use their of urban development and climate adaptation. With local knowledge of risk and link household and collective informal settlements forming the bulk of residential action into wider programs of settlement upgrading and development across the Global South, governments must adaptation. Drawing on community capacity opens huge see communities as equal partners in addressing climate potential for additional decentralized action that is currently challenges. There is a need to upgrade, integrate, and excluded by top-down ‘business-as-usual’ approaches to adapt environments and housing and extend the provision urban development. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  19 Enabling community-led climate adaptation at scale in informal settlements will require changes to the systems of government decision making and investment. 20  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Households and communities in informal settlements are risk-reducing measures.53 There is a clear overlap spend a significant proportion of their income and savings between creating safe, inclusive, and livable cities, often on coping with climate conditions. Recent research in five the focus of national and local government visions of city African cities shows that residents of informal settlements development and donor policy for urban development spend between 15 percent and 30 percent of their monthly programs, with adapting to changing climate conditions. income on housing repairs and improvements.50 As also Importantly, community-led settlement upgrading brings found in Dar es Salaam (Spotlight 3 below), families use to the fore key socio-economic issues,54 which are vital to earnings and savings to fund construction and housing addressing underlying factors such as poverty and tenure adaptation measures, but choices are difficult when there that limit individual investment in dwellings55 and heighten are competing priorities to meet basic needs, and most vulnerability to climate change. households can only afford short-term coping measures. These measures include creating barriers to block the path Enabling community-led climate adaptation at scale in of water during floods and raising foundation levels in areas informal settlements will require changes to the systems with high water tables, securing roofs using tires or blocks of government decision making and investment. Current of stone to reduce damage from high winds, and behavioral structures of governance and finance can create rigid changes that include wearing lighter clothing and changing frameworks for delivery that are barriers to community- sleeping arrangements to cope with heatwaves. led actions (explored in more detail in Chapter 4). Greater policy focus on risk-based planning, local capacity Household investment could be spent better if focused building, and the direct allocation of climate funds to on reducing longer-term risks. Tenure insecurity, a lack grassroots initiatives is needed to break these barriers. of investment in improvements by housing landlords, Governments need to incentivize and support bottom- low and unstable incomes, and a lack of knowledge on up climate adaptation. Institutional strengthening and adaptation techniques are barriers for households to move capacity building, using international policy and financial beyond reacting to climate events. While repairing and mechanisms, including flexible instruments such as RBF, restoring homes and possessions after weather damage is needed to create platforms for inclusive adaptation is important in the short-term, these investments do little solutions. Both within larger projects and as a stand-alone to reduce longer-term recurring climate risks. Household initiative, RBF is an underutilized instrument that can be adaptations, where disconnected from public infrastructure employed to support new patterns of working needed to improvement programs, have limited prospects of lessening meet urban climate challenges. Leveraging the experiences the burden of recovery for residents of informal settlements. of community-led action across a range of contexts and improving the leadership of governments and donors to Beyond individual coping strategies, communities drive decision making and action to the local level are organize to recover from climate disasters and upgrade foundations to build partnership approaches. settlements, contributing to climate adaptation. While climate adaptation has not typically been an explicit driver of community-led settlement upgrading,51 there is a growing awareness of how incremental in situ improvements can contribute to climate resilience.52 Using durable construction materials to formalize dwellings; reorganizing settlements to accommodate service infrastructure, such as sanitation networks, water supply, and electricity; and installing paved walkways and drainage systems COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  21 3.2 Community-led Climate Action Participatory slum upgrading is an important form of in Practice community-led action, with local leadership at the core.56 Local networks, such as neighborhood savings groups, Community-led actions to improve and adapt urban mobilize community members to collect data and define, settlements are particular to social and political plan, and deliver small-scale improvements to housing contexts. Community-led action can be positioned along and service infrastructure and to undertake locally a continuum from collective forms of self-help, undertaken determined initiatives, such as waste clearances. Frequently by groups of residents at a settlement level, through to initiated by women-led savings networks, community-led formalized structures for co-production involving organized upgrading often involves local NGOs providing technical or communities, NGOs, governments, donors, and other administrative support to residents’ groups. Relationships stakeholders, such as businesses and universities. With with NGOs are important for grassroots networks to engage this diversity of form, community-led action is best defined municipal government as a partner and access funding from by its characteristics (Box 4) which may change within and donors or philanthropic groups. Connecting stakeholders between different activities, as groups vary their approaches is essential for guaranteeing that adaptation plans are well- and negotiate with the many interests and institutions that resourced and legally recognized. The relationship between exist in cities. community-based groups and city governments can be vital to integrate community-led settlement upgrading with city-level infrastructure investment to gain policy support and regulatory approval (e.g., within planning laws) Box 4. Characteristics of Community-led Action and to potentially influence institutional responses to Community-led action puts people and their priori- informal settlements.57 ties at the forefront of decision making, tailoring activity to meet specific local needs. The geography Leading global networks, such as Slum Dwellers of ‘community-led’ is locally defined, ranging from International (SDI) and the Asian Coalition for Housing neighbors within a settlement through to city-level Rights (ACHR), provide a vital source of support to federated groups. ‘Bottom-up’ community-led action grassroots organizations.58 Through national and global shares the characteristics of: federated structures, these networks support information sharing, lobbying activity, and access to finance through • Local ownership of upgrading and adaptation programs such as SDI’s Urban Poor Funds 59 to enable processes, from conception to completion; local groups to scale settlement upgrading initiatives • Open processes of decision making and priority (Box 5). These networks preserve the essential community setting; character of participatory upgrading, while elevating • Involving all members of the community, ensuring engagement to influence national and international access for marginalized and vulnerable people; policy debate. • Encouraging partnerships within the community and with stakeholders including governments and NGOs; • Retaining economic value and assets within the community, addressing the conditions of poverty; and • Building capacity within communities through sharing knowledge and skills and engaging with experts and technical partners. 22  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Box 5: Community-led Settlement Upgrading Asian Coalition for Community Action Launched by the ACHR in 2008, ACCA is a model of dispersed and community-led settlement improvement, provid-ing small grants to organized communities matched by local savings, to undertake housing and environmental adaptations. With grants kept intentionally small, ACCA encouraged mobilization of community members’ own resources to deliver key improvements. ACCA investment has included: road building, sewers and drainage, commu-nity toilets, electricity supply, and housing upgrading. The community-led activity has been used to encourage local governments to invest in connecting infrastructure and to address tenure security issues, thereby extending and scaling impact. ACCA was deployed in close to 1,000 settlements in 165 cities in 19 Asian countries and strategically enhanced the capacity of communities to lead development and climate adaptation works. UN-Habitat PSUP Jamestown (Ga-Mashie) Low-income Settlements in Accra, Ghana The Participatory Slum Upgrading Program funded paved roads and sidewalks, creating public space ion markets and streets, improving public toilets and shower houses, and installing a drainage system connected to public waste disposal, within a city-wide program. These developments, completed before the pandemic, have had an important impact on the community, both in reducing flooding and improving sanitation. The improvements to WASH made a major difference during COVID-19. The program has also enhanced the capacity of community members to lead future settlement improvement schemes. Zimbabwe—Community-led Planning for Settlement Upgrading The Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation and its NGO partner Dialogue on Shelter Trust used a community-led approach to plan a settlement upgrading program in Epworth, Harare. They conducted a census to produce a profile of the community and fill gaps in official data and generated maps using GIS software to plan in-situ upgrading and infrastructure. The process enabled residents to articulate their priorities and, with the support of government, agree plans for improvement of the settlement. While participatory slum upgrading is founded in self- the SDI affiliate in Namibia and local government in four help and collective community action, residents of cities, jointly undertook local data collection, settlement informal settlements lack the resources to address upgrading, securing land titles, and improving basic major infrastructure needs without the engagement of services. As a co-production initiative, city authorities government and donor bodies. 60 Collaborative and financed the extension of service coverage of sewage co-productive approaches to settlement upgrading collection and water provision, while community members enhance the deliverability of urban development for both were responsible for construction works. Also, in Zimbabwe, government and communities, particularly where plans 62 local enumerations and profiling provided a basis are embedded in city-wide infrastructure and climate for discussions on settlement upgrading with the city strategies. For example, Cities Alliance 61 highlights how government (Box 5 above). COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  23 Leading global networks, such as Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), provide a vital source of support to grassroots organizations. Community participation can be included at all stages of maintaining consistency of involvement, with communities a settlement upgrading process. When space is made and included as stakeholders throughout the process, rather support provided for community engagement, established than as consultees with little ownership of settlement activities and tools can be deployed to support local improvements. involvement in program delivery (Table 3). A key factor is Table 3: Community Participation Across the Settlement Upgrading Process 63 Stage Activities Tools Examples • Outreach • Social marketing Settlement Executive Initiation • Community organization • Participatory diagnostic Committees formed as part of • Capacity building and survey the Kenya Upgrading Project training • Stakeholder mapping KISIP (Box 9) • Training module • Community mapping • Maps and diagrams UN Habitat Participatory Slum Planning • Design workshop • 3D model Upgrading Program (Box 5) • Focus group discussions • Games/role play • Virtual platform • Community meetings • Maps and diagrams Viet Nam use of Community Design • 3D model Upgrading Plans (Box 10) • Virtual platform • Community contracting • Construction handbook Jamaica Integrated Implementation • Monitoring and evaluation • Community savings Development Project (Box 12) • Management Information Systems • Community mapping • Focus group discussion • Citizen report cards Operation and • Self-help maintenance • Service charges (tariffs) Indonesia National Slum Maintenance • Cost recovery • Maintenance guide Upgrading Project (Box 9) • Schedule board • Platform for complaints and feedback 24  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Community-led data collection adds value to standard but also provides new insights into the perceptions and World Bank engagement and context analysis by drilling behaviors of target communities. It provides nuanced down spatially into targeted settlements and exploring insights to target delivery at the most vulnerable perceptions, experiences, and local responses to adverse communities. Geo-spatial analysis shows variation in environmental, economic, or climate conditions. It is need that can be used to focus investment. Linking social, scalable, flexible, and can adapt to changing conditions, economic, and environmental data highlights structural for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of issues of exclusion by such categories as gender, age, community-led data collection can complement official and and ethnicity. Mapping coping strategies may identify technical data to build a fuller picture of local conditions effective and scalable local solutions to development or and provide in-depth information that not only fill gaps climate challenges. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  25 Participatory slum upgrading can form part of the structure of program delivery. UN-Habitat’s PSUP, for example, works primarily with national and city governments, but allocates about 10 percent of its budget to a community-managed fund. Residents control and administer the fund, working closely with the city or national program lead and UN Habitat country office. The ringfenced element of the budget program requires governments to create space for community leadership and aims to have lasting effects on joint working and institutional relationships. As illustrated in Box 5 above, PSUP has had an important impact on the quality of the physical environment and strengthened organized communities to be active agents in the adaptation and upgrading of their neighborhoods. Similar to participatory slum upgrading, Community-based Adaptation (CBA) focuses on the specific role and capacity of people to use their local knowledge, strength of collective organizing, and resources to initiate adaptation actions within their own settlements. 64 Based on a social justice model of urban development, 65 CBA responds to a governance and finance system that marginalizes low-income communities. At a local level, CBA provides a space to challenge and/or work with institutions to secure improvements to informal settlements, which are not being delivered through mainstream policy and programming. 66 CBA is often facilitated by NGOs working in partnership with grassroots groups or integrated into government programs to support communities to define, plan for, and determine the goals and methods of adaptation. 67 CBA emphasizes processes of engagement, mobilization, and empowerment of communities to enable collective resident groups to own change rather than be involved as ‘consultees’ in decisions driven from outside the settlement. 68 An important part of this process is creating the collective and individual efficacy 69 needed for people to feel that their viewpoints are listened to and that they can influence change in their settlement. An intended outcome of CBA is to create communities of interest 70 to lead the delivery of settlement improvements and climate adaptations. Priorities are determined and agreed locally in response to specific risks identified by communities, alongside the capacity of organized groups to deliver improvements. 26  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Forms of CBA have been used to deliver ecosystem- Box 6: Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) in India, based adaptations in urban and peri-urban areas at risk Bangladesh and Nepal of flooding from rivers and sea-level rises. The restoration of natural environments, such as forests, wetlands, and Women in informal settlements can access training coral reefs, can buffer extreme weather events, rising to implement low-cost adaptations to housing temperatures, and other environmental stressors. With energy use and water management to respond high proportions of informal settlements located in flood to rising heat and drought conditions. Operating plains, 71 riverbanks, steep hillsides, and low-lying coastal through networks at neighborhood levels, MHT has areas, 72 community-based actions can reduce climate trained over 1,500 women as ‘climate-saathis’, who risks and generate wider sets of community and livelihood are responsible for communicating the issue of co-benefits. 73 Examples such as land for pocket agriculture climate change with their community in their local (Box 7) 74 help protect long-term water supply and sustain language. The initiative puts women in the lead the biodiversity needed for food, timber, and water. 75 role, promoting small-scale climate adaptations Integrating community-led nature-based solutions (green) affordable and relevant to low-income communities. with urban infrastructure can be more cost-effective and less disruptive than adaptations reliant on engineered structures (grey) alone. Studies show how complementary use of ‘green and grey’ creates significant added value in the Community-level networks are a vital part of CBA, using sustainability and effectiveness of investment. 76 social structures to share information, co-ordinate activity, and track changes in settlements. These networks, maintained through neighborhood meetings or savings groups, provide architecture to enable community-based action. Networks provide a structure to support training and Box 7: Small-scale Urban Agriculture information sharing and to coordinate local-level adaptation With the support of the Metropolitan District of (as illustrated in Box 6). They empower individuals to create Quito, Ecuador female-headed households have capacity at a grassroots level to initiate and carry out established urban gardens to supplement livelihoods improvements to their homes and settlements. and food security and encourage planting of durable vegetation in settlements. As well as adaptation and mitigation benefits, the project promotes sustainable land management practices, reducing the degradation of environments in informal settlements. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  27 Box 8. Boosting Community-led Action Kenya – Devolved Governance Kenya’s County Climate Change Fund is making progress to mainstream locally defined adaptations, contributing to sub-regional and national climate NDC priorities. The structure has attracted other funding, such as the World Bank Financing Locally led Climate Action. This is the first World Bank national-level model of devolved climate finance to support the government of Kenya to translate its ambitious climate agenda into scaled-up action on the ground and expand the model nationwide. Argentina – Urban Labs In Buenos Aires, communities are incorporating nature into the redesign of the Villa 20 informal settlement, to address growing problems of rising temperatures and flooding. Through the structure of an Urban Lab, partners from local government, NGOs and universities engage in community discussion and consensus building to develop bespoke actions to build a more climate-resilient settlement. Results-based Financing – Incentives for Change Where governments lack the funding or motivation to address knowledge gaps, collaborate across silos or implement innovative climate adaptation solutions at a local level, the World Bank Results-based Financing program provides a mechanism to incentivize change. RBF offers a flexible framework to set targets and test new approaches that engage with communities and overcome institutional barriers to collaboration. Focusing on outcomes provides space to transform delivery processes and develop context-specific and cost-effective adaptation solutions. 3.3 Boosting Community-led While LLA offers positive signs of change, the translation Climate Action of these into practice is more challenging. There are significant institutional barriers to shifting established Realizing the full potential of community-led climate governance structures and operational arrangements adaptation requires changes in the governance and of international finance. 78 Changes to decision-making finance systems that shape decision making on climate processes can be hampered by a complex set of finance and development. The growing adoption of LLA preconceptions about the relative legitimacy of actions principles by donor organizations is a positive sign of the and actors, multiple tiers of accountability for public devolution of resources and power to the community level. funding, and the practical aspects of capacity and technical LLA, championed by the Global Commission on Adaptation capability to deliver local interventions (discussed further (GCA) at the climate change conference COP26,77 calls for in Chapter 4). 79 Additionally, many governments and subsidiarity of authority and investment in the capacity donors remain hesitant to allocate major funding directly needed at a local level to build leadership on climate issues. to community groups without enhanced safeguards and Programs such as LDC (least developed countries) Initiative transparent reporting measures. However, existing models for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR) call for and instruments could be scaled to boost community-led ‘business unusual,’ including increasing the amount of action (Box 8), 80 and financial mechanisms, such as RBF, climate finance reaching the local level from 10 percent can incentivize change, leverage and improve the impacts to 70 percent by 2030; fuller integration of adaptation, of donor-funded programs, and create the space to test mitigation, and development goals; and funding and devolved forms of climate adaptation delivery. decision making that prioritizes social justice outcomes. Community-led climate adaptation offers significant potential but needs to be mainstreamed to make a difference. As shown in this chapter, a myriad of projects and examples of community-led action are making a difference in communities. However, a transition is needed to invest in and scale what works and to incentivize changes to finance systems and governments to support local-level action. 28  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Spotlight 2: Dar es Salaam Erosion of Msimbazi River Kombo Settlement Vulnerability to Climate Change Poverty and locational risk factors overlap to make residents of informal settlements highly vulnerable to adverse climate conditions. Solid Waste Blocking Drainage, Pakacha The location and poor conditions within settlements are also a major cause of vulnerability. Housing located in high water table areas and close to rivers and drainage channels is exposed to regular flooding, particularly where watercourses are blocked by high volumes of solid waste. About one-third of residents confirmed that they live in flood-prone areas and are at risk from overflowing rivers and water encroachment through the foundations of their homes. Flood Damaged Dwelling, Pakacha Low and unstable incomes increase the vulnerability of communities to the effects of climate change. About half the residents in the Kombo and Pakacha informal settlements have earnings below the international poverty line of US$2.15 per day. With the majority reliant on small- scale trade in the informal economy, adverse weather events can easily cause a loss of earnings and goods for sale, putting additional pressure on savings to meet basic needs. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  29 ”Flooding is one of the most [serious] challenges I face. When it rains water enters to my house, things are destroyed. Since my house is in a high-water table area, it always floods whenever it rains.” - Focus Group Discussion, Kombo Low construction standards and the use of repurposed Additionally, the use of poor-quality materials means that materials to build homes increase the climate vulnerability homes need frequent repairs, increasing regular costs to of communities. The use of low-grade cement and clay recover from weather events and replace assets. In Dar bricks, tin for walls and roofing, and few small windows es Salaam, residents said that the costs of recovering from provide limited resilience to adverse weather conditions. flooding can total between one- and two-months’ earnings, depending on the severity of impact. Climate events that happen in quick succession can significantly increase the vulnerability of households, reducing their ability to recover from the next occurrence. Figure 6: Main Climate Risk Concerns, Pakacha Settlement LEGEND Pakacha sub ward Key climate risk Heavy rainy Extreme heat Extreme wind Improved roads Unimproved mzinga drainage Kiboko drainage Unimproved Kwa Lymo drainage Contour Scale 1:2000 30  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Exposure to climate risks can have a major impact on the health and well-being of residents of informal settlements. Pervasive extreme heat leads to skin conditions for about half the population and causes respiratory problems and urinary infections among about one in 10 people. Hot weather and concerns about flooding and high winds cause a loss of sleep and stress. Health issues have financial impacts, with about half of residents in the settlements seeking medical assistance for climate- related illnesses. However, only one in 10 people has access to medical insurance—creating additional burdens on families. “Children have difficulty sleeping and sometimes they get skin rashes, due to extreme heat. Also, adults with blood pressure are much affected by extreme heat.” - Focus Group Discussion, Pakacha. Vulnerabilities are not evenly distributed across communities. Climate risks disproportionately affect women, children, and people with disabilities. Hot and humid conditions can give infants skin irritations and chest infections. Children face difficulties attending school when roads are flooded and during periods of extreme heat overcrowded and hot classrooms make learning difficult. Rising water levels cause drainage channels to overflow, flooding homes and contaminating water leading to stomach complaints. People with chronic illness or mobility issues can be isolated in their homes during storms and floods, unable to access their support networks. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  31 4. Finance for Community-Led Climate Adaptation While there is a growing global interest in expanding the involvement of communities in the design and delivery of major urban programs, this can be problematic when schemes are managed through national governments and investment is focused on large-scale public infrastructure. Established governance and accountability arrangements for public resources are often poorly suited to the inclusion of communities in decision-making and delivery. Nonetheless, communities have a vital role to play as stakeholders and experts in their contexts, working alongside governments and funders to realize the full local benefits of major investments. This chapter first examines the context of adaptation finance and then evidence from the World Bank’s Integrated Urban Development Programs to identify how spaces for community- led action can be created within multi-sector schemes. 32  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS The flow of global climate finance needs to better reflect the scale and complexity of climate change. 4.1 Landscape for Adaptation Finance private finance and incentivize household and community investment in reducing climate risk. 83 These systemic There is a significant gap in overall levels of global finance changes are essential to ensure that increased finance for climate change. While the value of climate finance commitments are effective in tackling key vulnerabilities to has been rising since 2018 to an estimated US$1.55 trillion climate change. in 2023, this is just one-fifth of the annual requirement of US$7.4 trillion per year needed between 2024 and 2030 Little global climate finance finds its way to informal under a 1.5oC global warming scenario.81 settlements. 84 Detailed analysis by the Cities Alliance of 22 global climate funds operating between 2003 and 2023 The flow of global climate finance needs to better reflect shows that just 2.1 percent of all projects and 3.5 percent the scale and complexity of climate change. While overall of approved budgets targeted informal settlements and the levels of investment must rise, this will need to be driven urban poor. While funding may find its way through national strategically at the national and international level through and local governments to urban poor people, there is clearly refocusing funding from multi-lateral development banks, a gap in targeting the groups most vulnerable to climate expanding concessional finance, and tackling the high debt change and in the reporting systems that track allocations levels in developing countries. 82 It will also require more of budgets. inclusive effort at city and local levels to mobilize domestic COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  33 There are significant institutional and procedural barriers how arrangements might affect participation. Three to the flow of finance to community-based organizations. connected aspects to the management of development Barriers reflect the processes and requirements of finance can be identified, as limits to community-level governmental organizations, which, rather than intentionally financing (Figure 7). excluding community-level finance, do not actively consider Figure 7: Barriers to Financing Community-Level Adaptation Action85 Power and perceptions—unequal levels of authority, Power and decision-making cultures, and pre-conceived ideas perceptions about what CBOs can and should do, shape the willingness of governments and donors to direct resources to communities. Risk and accountability—donor requirements Performance Delivery for reporting and finance systems and the use of Expectations Models competitive selection processes are barriers to participation by community-based groups and may inhibit innovation. Grant values and timescales—large funding packages Risk and Control Grant value that have limited scope for capacity building, with accountability Mechanisms and delivery over timescales that do not allow for full timescales engagement of communities are barriers to inclusive project delivery. It is important to overcome these embedded barriers to tailor investment and action in ways that are contextually to target adaptation finance to the most vulnerable specific, relevant, and impactful. In contexts that are communities. Adaptation finance needs to be better inherently uncertain, development and adaptation funding integrated in frameworks delivering rapid and resilient must be patient and transparent and create a positive development and in countries that are most exposed to institutional legacy of inclusion. 90 Locally tailored funding climate impacts.86 As discussed in Chapter 2 above, low- has a major role to play when directed to respond to the income and informal urban settlements face the greatest complex experience of vulnerability to reduce intersectional risks from climate change, and a more purposeful approach inequalities that marginalize communities. is needed to explicitly include climate risk reduction in settlement upgrading programs. Flexible funding, such Progressive implementation of community-level as RBF, should be deployed to address procedural and funding and decision making will accelerate the pace of administrative barriers to community-level financing, build reform, as decentralized approaches to finance become the capacity for institutional change, and design processes normalized. Major schemes including the Adaptation that enable community-led action. Fund91 provide funding opportunities for local projects. The long-established Global Environment Facility small grants Improving information flow on climate risks and including program 92 and initiatives such as the Climate Investment communities in decision making contributes to more Funds Smart Cities Program 93 demonstrate the potential for effective use of adaptation finance. The adoption of reshaping adaptation finance. But there remain significant principles for LLA 87 and locally-led climate action 88 requires barriers to local allocation of finance, which include donor greater subsidiarity of decision making and finance flows, accreditation and program management requirements, 94 supported by corresponding changes in the finance and the lack of information and focus on sub-national climate governance systems that direct resources. While definitions risks, and the high proportion of finance routed as market of ‘local’ can vary significantly across contexts, 89 LLA rate debt or concessional lending. 95 principles help focus on the key barriers and opportunities 34  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS 4.2 Learning from World Bank Integrated Urban Development Programs The World Bank is investing US $5 billion annually in sustainable urban development. Working primarily through national and local governments, the World Bank is focusing on enhanced planning, strengthening financial systems, promoting territorial development, building climate resilience, and investing in inclusivity. 96 The World Bank climate action plan prioritizes cities and urban systems, with support for governments to implement solutions 4.2.1 Community Engagement in Decision that help build city resilience to climate change and to Making decarbonize. World Bank urban programs create structures to In the context of fast-paced urbanization, cities are a key communicate with and involve communities. Often focus for World Bank activity to help meet demand for temporary and specific to the projects being delivered, affordable housing, viable infrastructure, basic services, these are intended to inform delivery and remove barriers and jobs. The World Bank is helping countries cope with to project implementation. They can also help address demand for land and services in ways that do not further under-representation of women and marginalized groups degrade environments or increase climate risks for future and create a platform to reset relationships between generations. Cities will require massive investment and communities and government. They predominantly are the capacity and skills to build livable, resilient, and consultative and involve the formation of area committees inclusive urban communities. The World Bank takes an and grievance redress mechanisms, with some examples inclusive approach to improving the physical fabric of (Box 8 above) of devolved decision making about local plans. cities, incorporating slum upgrading within integrated development programming alongside building the resilience World Bank urban programs primarily establish new of infrastructure and communities to climate change. community engagement structures that reflect delivery requirements, rather than use existing networks (Box Inclusion is a corporate commitment and central to 9).98 While this may have the benefit of aligning the form of the World Bank’s methodology for investment and community involvement to project goals, with membership partnerships. Undertaking participatory assessments drawn to reflect targets for stakeholder engagement, it may to identify key development needs and to establishing also bypass existing networks or CBOs. Working through structures for communication, grievance management, established groups can enhance credibility with settlement and consultation at settlement level. Involving local leaders residents and reinforce the efficacy of grassroots structures. and networks in decision-making processes is a key Trust building is important for all marginalized communities, component of program delivery arrangements. 97 As the particularly in fragile or conflict-affected contexts. primary form of local engagement is consultative, at various stages during planning and implementation, there are opportunities to enhance community-level data gathering to gain greater insights into the socio-economic conditions within settlements. Devolved funding for community-led In the context of fast-paced research and development actions have been used in some circumstances to complement capital works, however, urbanization, cities are a key focus flexible RBF could be used more extensively to include for World Bank activity to help meet organized communities in the planning and implementation of projects. The following explores how the World Bank demand for affordable housing, has supported and enabled community involvement and leadership in integrated programs. viable infrastructure, basic services, and jobs. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  35 Box 9. Types of Community Engagement Kenya—Community Upgrading Plans Within the KISIP program, settlement executive committees (SEC) were a prerequisite to ensure that upgrading plans reflected the priorities of communities. SECs had representatives of youth; the business community; women’s groups; groups representing disabled people; religious groups; local professionals, for example, teachers; landlords; tenants; and local members of the county Assembly. As local-level structures, SECs were responsible for mobilizing the community, linking residents to program managers and contractors, facilitating enumerations, and producing settlement upgrading plans. Republic of Congo—Participatory Data Collection Residents of informal settlements in Brazzaville were trained in open-source mapping to capture local experience of flood, soil erosion, and other natural disasters affecting the targeted settlements. Being able to collect and digitalize local knowledge and perceptions of climate risk improved the targeting of investment and created an information resource for community-led adaptation actions. Indonesia—Community Participation The National Slum Upgrading Project supported strengthening community participation in planning, implementation, and monitoring through training community members to prepare sub-project proposals and provide feedback on financial and project management. The activities were aimed at building the role of community organizations and creating the capacity for groups to undertake the operation and maintenance of community infrastructure, working with local governments. Training and capacity building enabled communities to monitor the performance of improved infrastructure and to undertake small works, under the supervision of local government. 36  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS The World Bank works with local committees and 4.2.2 Enabling Community-led Actions consultative groups to undertake or support the collection of local data. The involvement of community In addition to major capital expenditure on infrastructure, leaders is vitally important to gain access to hard-to- climate-adaptation programs can create a positive reach residents. Working with leaders builds trust and environment for ongoing household, private sector, and gives confidence to residents of informal settlements to social enterprise investment in informal settlements. A share information. When data collection is undertaken key outcome of risk-reducing infrastructure is an improved with local groups, the analysis can be used beyond the environment for investment in housing and businesses immediate program to inform community-led action and (Box 10). 99 Areas suffering from flooding and poor access to improve evidence on unmet needs. The experience of data electricity are unlikely to attract private finance. Reducing collection also builds community awareness of issues and risks in settlements through new infrastructure can the capacity to undertake similar tasks in the future. incentivize homeowners to improve dwellings, making them more resilient to changing climate conditions, and giving Community participation in decision making enhances a confidence to businesses to create new enterprise. sense of local ownership of improvements. Making space for residents of informal settlements to influence the design Similarly, clarification of land titles and improving tenure and delivery of programs helps ensure that investments security in informal settlements can provide a major boost are effective and sustainable. When communities can take to household investment. In Kenya,100 transferring land titles ownership of new facilities and infrastructure (e.g., through to residents of informal settlements reduced instability and maintenance contracts or transfer of assets) they are more risk of eviction and enabled households to leverage assets likely to use them and contribute to the ongoing operation. to further improve their living conditions. Improved tenure Lessons from World Bank programs in Indonesia and security is a positive incentive for households to make Viet Nam show that early engagement of communities and longer-term investments and adaptations that reduce risks dividing upgrading contracts into smaller units that can be from climate events. let to MSMEs, delivers outcomes that are better aligned to Devolved funding for complementary environmental and need than large-scale ‘top-down’ contracting. economic development activity encourages innovation and builds capacity for community leadership. Lessons from World Bank programs in Viet Nam 101 show how small grant budgets allocated to CBOs led to successful initiatives such as tree planting, waste collection, and a reduction in the use of plastics. Small grant budgets for community-led actions enabled settlement-level adaptations that raised awareness of climate issues and protected environments and public spaces. Bank programs in Jamaica 102 used community-based contracting to provide grants for small- scale neighborhood improvements and procured local suppliers to deliver small-works contracts to economically benefit the community. The parceling of works into smaller lots may increase contract administration, but local procurement generates wider social and economic benefits. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  37 Box 10. Examples of Community-led Action Viet Nam—Household Investment in Climate Adaptation The World Bank’s Mekong Delta Region Urban Upgrading Project sought to induce household investment through voluntary financial and land contributions to improvements and, indirectly, own-account investment in housing. While seeking 4.2.3 Applying RBF to Community-led voluntary contributions had limited success over the life of the program, the settlement improvements Adaptation coincided with occupier investment in properties. An While significant improvements can be achieved in cities end-of-project survey shows that more than four in through major capital investment in infrastructure and 10 households surveyed (41.9 percent) had upgraded adaptation, ensuring that the poorest households benefit their houses, and that the proportion of homes built remains a key challenge. The World Bank has worked to with temporary materials had decreased from 29.2 address this issue by using financial incentives that remove percent to 4.9 percent. structural and cost barriers to basic service provision Djibouti—Community Development Funds (including water, sanitation and energy) and encourage change in the behaviors of governments and communities. By setting up a community development fund The World Bank has developed an in-depth understanding as part of a wider program of infrastructure of how to incentivize change in markets and institutions investment, partners were able to support the through deploying RBF (Box 11). While RBF has not yet been delivery of local initiatives that achieved skills and used for multi-sector urban development, Bank experience employment outcomes for young people. Focusing in health and education sectors provides some lessons for on environmental improvements and adaptations, how to shift toward community-led adaptation. communities could access grant funding to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities and undertake tree planting, and solid waste collection. Box 11: Definition of Results-based Finance RBF includes a range of financing mechanisms Delivery through community-led groups and social in which funds are linked to, and provided after, enterprises can also provide cost savings. Indonesia,103 the delivery of pre-agreed and verified results. has established strong community capacity for delivery of Instruments range from results-based aid for the tertiary infrastructure schemes. This included Community- delivery of strategic development targets by national Driven Development programs that allocated block grants governments to performance-based contracts to for community infrastructure and revolving funds for improve the outputs and effectiveness of service income-generating activities. In the World Bank funded providers and impact bonds, in which an investor National Slum Upgrading Project, community-based gets paid when agreed results are achieved. RBF has delivery enhanced local ownership of improvements been used to strengthen institutional capacity, scale and was at least 20 percent less expensive than local evidence-based programs, catalyze the adoption government contractors, without any reduction in quality of promising programs, and encourage outcomes- on technically simple works. Social enterprises had a key oriented interventions. service delivery role throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the added value of community-based and socially oriented businesses to reach informal settlements. Evidence suggests that social enterprises as service deliverers can be highly effective and achieve lower costs by working at a local level. 104 38  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS When applied to the specific contexts of urban informal settlements, RBF can support community-led adaptation but is not suitable in all contexts. RBF is a flexible financing instrument that can be It can be used tactically to build capacity and to incentivize shaped to target specific delivery barriers or vulnerable targeting at-risk populations, such as refugees or internally communities, keeping a clear focus on local solutions displaced persons in cities.107 and outcomes.105 This makes RBF suitable for use in complex urban environments, where there is a need to When applied to the specific contexts of urban informal support the development and testing of bespoke delivery settlements, RBF can support community-led adaptation models. The focus on outcomes gives local partners and but is not suitable in all contexts. RBF can help shift providers the space to respond to the context, rather expectations and behaviors to support the delivery of than follow prescribed delivery pathways. RBF has been community-led adaptation actions, but arrangements need used by the World Bank to target underserved or hard-to- to build capacity to deliver (in both communities and local reach communities in large-scale health and education government), and funding needs to be tailored to reflect programs106 and to address specific sectoral issues as part the financial position of community-based groups (Table of wider urban development programs (Box 12). RBF is most 4). Output and performance targets need to be carefully effective when complementing other finance instruments. framed to maintain a clear incentive and not become obstacles to positive outcomes in fragile contexts. Table 4: Benefits and Barriers—Results-based Approaches for Community-led Adaptation Benefits of Results-based Approaches Barriers to Results-Based Approaches Focus on outcomes—enhances accountability of Requirement for upfront funding— may deter community- government and service providers to communities. led organizations. Emphasis on blended funding—creates space for inclusion Need for supportive institutions—RBF may be difficult to of private sector and community funds (e.g., investment implement where settlements lack official recognition. by utility companies and the use of community collective savings). Closing market and service gaps—removes cost barriers to RBF can be complex to set up—particularly where there is service provision extended into low-income areas. contested land ownership or where performance targets are hard to achieve. Verification system—strengthens local-level data collection Needs good public administration— capacity to effectively when combined with community enumerations. set and manage contracts. Integrated learning—encourages experimentation and Responsive private sector— requires existing market use of local knowledge to design bespoke local adaptation capacity among MSME as providers and specialist solutions. contractors. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  39 RBF has been used for institutional strengthening to improve investment conditions. Communities can be Box 12: Incentives for Community-led Action discouraged from investing in their homes because of tenure insecurity and a lack of access to private capital. Jamaica—Improving Solid Waste Collection A World Bank project in the West Bank108 accelerated the transfer of property rights, with activity focused on As part of major investment in waste management facilities and services, the World Bank engaged CBOs supporting and incentivizing government capacity to to support behavior changes in informal settlements improve land administration. The project addressed both a focusing on increasing recycling and reduced fundamental issue of housing insecurity and weaknesses littering in neighborhoods. Alongside investment in in public capacity to create the foundational conditions collection facilities and recruitment of local wardens for investment. Improved land tenure, as was also found to encourage behavior changes, community groups in Kenya, removed barriers to enable households and received financial bonuses when they met qualitative communities to leverage their assets to adapt to changing cleanliness targets. This approach was effective in climate conditions or make productive investment in changing perceptions and behaviors and reduced property to address climate risks. waste in the target settlements. Incentives can also be used to encourage communities Ghana—Extending Sanitation Networks to behave differently to realize the value of infrastructure improvements. This is evident in improved drainage The World Bank used RBF to reduce the costs of systems and solid waste management. Cities face connecting households to trunk sanitation networks challenges in maintaining the effectiveness of water and incentivize service providers to extend their management infrastructure, where there is often large- operations to low-income areas. Subsidies were scale dumping of solid waste. Any consequential flooding provided to make the sanitation facilities affordable, from blocked drains is likely to be most severe in informal and communication campaigns were used to settlements. RBF has been used to incentivize and educate and create a demand for households to connect to sanitation systems. The project faced reward changes in behaviors that support the efficacy of several challenges to creating demand, due to a improved infrastructure. Local ownership and leadership are lack of grounded evidence on the hidden costs important in these contexts, as communities are not only of microfinance schemes and on the capacity of the intended beneficiaries of improvements but also need micro and small enterprises expected to undertake to be positioned as long-term custodians. contracting works. Improvements in urban infrastructure, such as sanitation and energy systems, may be inaccessible to low-income households. Even where trunk infrastructure (e.g., water, sanitation and energy) is improved, covering the ‘last The flexibility of RBF can also create the conditions for yard’ to connect low-income households may require blending of finance to support local-level adaptation targeted interventions that secure rights of access actions. For example, conditional payments were used in or subsidize connection costs. RBF has been used to the World Bank project to incentivize the provision of water address market failure, for example in Ghana, where the and sanitation in low-income areas in Kenya. 110 Subsidies benefits of sanitation infrastructure improvements had were only available to water service providers where they not been shared in low-income areas (Box 12).109 While accessed commercial funding to extend service provision this scheme had some success, a World Bank review to underserved areas. This approach helped leverage of the implementation found that subsidies alone were public funding, create a framework to attract private-sector inadequate to motivate households in low-income areas to investment, and, importantly, allowed a financial model for seek improved sanitation. Financial incentives need to be services to be priced at a level affordable to people on low accompanied by outreach and activity to adjust behaviors and insecure incomes. that encourage households to take up service provision. This type of community engagement is most effectively delivered locally by local leaders and community-based groups that have the knowledge and credibility to connect with residents. 40  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Spotlight 3: Dar es Salaam Housing in Pakacha Settlement Adaptive Capacity and Climate Change The ability of households to strengthen resilience to avoid future risks from climate change is vital to reducing vulnerability. Communities are not passive in coping with climate Adaptations vary according to climate risk, with actions change. Individual households and collective groups of to reduce flooding being the most substantial and costly. residents deal with adverse weather conditions the best The construction of barriers to prevent floodwater from they can in contexts of low and insecure incomes. However, entering housing, alongside raising foundations or door evidence from Dar es Salaam indicates that individuals levels, can reduce risks. Structural modifications contrast have little knowledge or capacity to adapt and are locked with lower-cost adaptations to high winds, which are limited into short-term recovery until the next event. This pattern to nailing or weighing down tin roofing to reduce impact of behavior has diminishing returns as climate conditions from storm conditions. People in informal settlements worsen, with each crisis reducing the financial stability and typically cope with extreme heat by changing behaviors, ability of households to recover. such as using fans, staying in the shade where possible, and drinking extra water. Investments in adaptations to housing and the environment inevitably compete with meeting everyday The cost of adaptations and coping measures vary, from needs. A lack of technical knowledge on methods of additional construction works to reduce flooding being adaptation and limited access to banking services the most expensive to lower additional energy costs mean that people make decisions based on immediate for the use of fans. However, coping and recovering from affordability, rather than on measures to reduce risks climate events is a constant pressure as residents manage over the medium- or long-term. With limited improved overlapping weather conditions. In the two settlements, infrastructure in informal settlements and public policy households indicate that they can spend up to one third prioritizing disaster risk reduction over settlement of their earnings on repairs, maintenance, and property upgrading, coping is the primary option open to residents replacements, related to climate conditions. of Pakacha and Kombo, which may include temporary relocation for some (Figure 9). COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  41 There is limited preparation for adverse weather Figure 8: Responding to Climate Events conditions. This is confirmed by data on when people take 100 1.1 action on climate risks. As shown in Figure 8, people act early primarily to manage rainfall and the risks of floods, 90 with the majority of action for heat taken during heatwaves 29.3 29 80 and during and after high winds. 70 In extreme cases, residents temporarily move out of their homes until the climate risk has passed. But because 60 of the high costs and disruption of relocation, just one in 92.9 34.9 50 five people across the two settlements take this option. 53.9 40 Decisions to relocate depend on the severity of the risk. As can be seen on the map (figure 9), people at high risk 30 of flooding near the Msimbazi River are much more likely 20 35.8 to take this option than people in less affected parts of the settlement. 10 17.1 6.0 0 % Heat Rain Wind Before During A er Figure 9: Temporary Relocation Due to Climate Risks, Kombo Collective and community-based action to reduce climate risks are also evident in Pakacha and Kombo. Communities take collective action to plant trees, clear drainage channels, and reduce the erosion of land during floods. However, limited capacity and information on adaptation constrain the effectiveness of these actions. Communities in the two settlements look to partnerships with the local government to deliver upgrading and adaptation measures to reduce climate risks. There is community interest in working with the city government to support the extension and operation of drainage systems to reduce flooding, building on the recent investment in Pakacha through the Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project. The community is also interested in planting trees and creating more green spaces to help manage heat and increase the absorptive capacity of land. City government has a key role to play in incorporating upgrading action in planning policy. The community also needs more information on how to manage climate risks and to adapt housing and environments. LEGEND Kombo Subward Dwellers Heat moved out of the se lement Erosion Yes No Extreme Wind Scale 1:2500 42  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS “The government should help us to plant trees […] and encourage at least every individual to plant a single tree to reduce extreme heat.” - Focus group discussion, Kombo. Adaptation to Reduce Erosion, Pakacha COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  43 5. Putting Community-Led Adaptation into Practice There are clear advantages to community-led climate adaptation in informal settlements, but implementation can be challenging. Established methods of project design and delivery by public- and private-sector organizations often leave little space for communities to play a meaningful role. The inherent limitations of scale and capacity in community-led activity restrict potential impact, particularly when adaptation requires major investment in infrastructure, environments or housing. However, bringing together the different skillsets and capacities of governments and communities increases the effectiveness of adaptation actions. Facilitating community leadership by devolving decision-making and using RBF to build incentives and capacity for local delivery can improve targeting of the most vulnerable places and people, inform the design of bespoke solutions for local problems, and have a lasting impact on the resilience of settlements. This chapter focuses on putting community-led adaptation into practice, building on the examples presented earlier in this report. 44  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Community involvement, data collection, and local leadership in informal settlements can fill gaps in information and create capacity for action. 5.1 Understanding the Context Community involvement, data collection, and local leadership in informal settlements can fill gaps in A detailed understanding of the environmental and information and create capacity for action. When designed socio-economic conditions of informal settlements is into project and management arrangements, community- vital to designing effective adaptation measures. City- led action can use participatory methods to engage level context analysis of climate risks may overlook how residents of informal settlements and reach individuals informal settlements work and the trade-offs that people in typically under-represented in data because of language poverty make to cope with everyday conditions. A nuanced or literacy barriers.111 Such approaches can fill information understanding of how individuals respond to risks can help gaps and mobilize communities, 112 bringing individuals improve the effectiveness of investment. As illustrated together through research tasks to reinforce the social in the Spotlight sections, households in poverty focus on bonds needed for collective action. Gathering and analyzing coping and recovery, which can undermine their longer- data is a reflective task that can help strengthen agency 113 term adaptive capacity. In the Dar es Salaam settlements, and efficacy 114 among community members to act and hold a lack of affordable solid waste collection leads to dumping public agencies accountable for settlement improvements. of waste, which blocks the flow of drainage channels and Creating and sustaining these links are vital to enabling increases the risk of flooding. The Spotlight case studies community-led adaptation. underline that understanding the intersection of climate risk (rainfall), socio-economic conditions (poverty), and the lack of service provision (solid waste management) is vital to designing effective urban adaptation measures. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  45 Integrating local knowledge of contexts into project Box 13. Viet Nam—Tailoring Infrastructure Delivery to design can help connect infrastructure and household Reflect Local Needs investment in ways that directly deliver adaptive and quality-of-life improvements. Understanding the specific The World Bank Mekong Delta Region Urban conditions and needs of informal settlements creates Upgrading Project tailored construction schemes to opportunities to tailor delivery to enable households and address localized flooding risks in low-lying deltas and collective groups of residents to maximize the benefits of connect with household-led improvements. Local city-level investment. Varying design specifications can both knowledge, captured in Community Upgrading Plans address specific local risks and incentivize complementary and flood modeling, was used to vary specifications investment in housing and environmental improvements of works to allow follow-on improvements by (Box 13). When scaled, connecting trunk infrastructure households. These included lowering the elevation of to settlement-level improvements, led by organized drainage/sewage pipes, adjusting designs of sewage communities, can multiply the value and wider benefits systems along alleys to connect residents’ septic of public investment. Similarly, off-grid local solutions, tanks, and creating temporary water retention areas such as involving social enterprises to deliver ‘last-yard’ in gardens. Designing-in these features made it more services, where communities and the private sector work in likely that private investment would follow and extend partnership with utilities (or government entities) on design, the benefits of public works. implementation, and operations and maintenance can also provide contextually relevant adaptation. Table 5: Using RBF to Understand the Context Objective Results-Based Finance Understand the context and interdependences of climate, Grant funding for community-led data collection, targeting socio-economic, and institutional factors. and engaging the most vulnerable groups. Build capacity of grassroots networks to co-ordinate Performance-based funding to develop the capacity community engagement and lead adaptation delivery. and technical skills of local stakeholders, including local governments and grassroots and NGO groups. Shift the use of short-term household expenditure on Incentivizing household investment in housing recovery into investments that increase resilience to improvements or extending and using improved climate conditions. infrastructure. Implementing community-led data collection and engagement requires flexible funding to complement main delivery budgets. RBF can be used to build community- level capacity to make the connections between major capital programs and activity at the settlement level. RBF can take the form of grants or performance and incentive payments to support collaborative and exploratory actions to tackle complex issues and maximize the value of investment (Table 5). 46  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS 5.2 Creating Receptive Institutional Environments Box 14. Kenya— – Mukuru Special Planning Area The Mukuru Special Planning Area (SPA) in Nairobi, Institutional context is vital for community-led climate Kenya is a well-documented example of community- adaptation. Organized communities in informal settlements led settlement upgrading within a supportive will primarily engage with local governments on housing institutional framework. Mukuru is one of the largest and infrastructure upgrading and on climate adaptation informal settlements in Nairobi, with an estimated issues. This relationship and how it is framed in policy and population of over 100,000 people living in a densely regulation, will determine the scope for community-led packed 689 acres with little access to basic services. action. Adversarial relationships with local governments The Nairobi City County designated Mukuru a SPA, may undermine community leadership and the opportunity as a first step to producing a statutory integrated to scale effective interventions. As communities in informal development plan. settlements need to be viewed as part of the solution to urban climate adaptation, improving institutional capacity The SPA was championed by an alliance of community and relationships are key. partners (Muungano wa Wanavijiji, a women-led savings groups based in informal settlements; SDI- The relationships between local governments and Kenya, a technical assistance NGO; and the Akiba organized communities of informal settlements can Mashinani Trust, a community-led finance facility) be challenging, particularly when there is a history with the aim of creating an inclusive planning process. of evictions and site clearance. Ingrained negative Community groups mobilized residents and involved perceptions, on both sides, and a lack of experience of them in thematic discussions on improvements to working together are disincentives to collaborating on infrastructure, housing, services, the environment, climate adaptation. Even when there is a will to look at climate adaptation, and commerce. more inclusive approaches to urban development, a lack of The SPA has provided a structure to resolve long- capacity to engage, politicized institutional processes, and standing conflicts over occupation of urban land to insufficient data on informal settlements are barriers focus on settlement upgrading and reducing climate to strengthening relationships. risks. Mukuru shows how relationships between Community-led adaptation requires strong foundations governments and organized communities can be in policy and practice. Along with the political will and transformed to support participatory local actions and organizational capacity to look beyond ‘business-as-usual’ create institutional space in government and capacity within communities to deliver adaptation. operations, governments need supportive institutional frameworks, for example, land-use and planning policies that recognize the existence of informal settlements and permit community-led upgrading of informal settlements. Communities need security of tenure to encourage outputs rather than outcomes deters innovation and individual investment in homes and infrastructure.115 Local the use of social mechanisms to deliver adaptation and governments should be willing to engage in dialogue and development. Procedures and contract terms can be set up governance structures that include residents of varied to enable community groups to access and deliver informal settlements. These structures, for example, in funded project activities, with grassroots organizations Mukuru, located in Nairobi, Kenya, create the basis for playing a key role in providing access to hard-to-reach inclusive development of informal settlements (Box 14). 116 urban communities (Table 6). Arrangements that favor Institutional arrangements need to be shaped to enable partnerships over tight contract management have contracting and partnerships between local governments the potential to stimulate more creative and inclusive and community-based groups. The contracting and approaches to problem-solving and achieving key reporting arrangements often used by governments outcomes. Additionally, partnerships are more likely to build and donors can be ill-suited to the limited capacity and the capacity of community groups than short-term contract working arrangements of grassroots organizations. High arrangements. contract values, strict financial management procedures, and lengthy reporting requirements create barriers to engagement and joint working. In addition, a focus on COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  47 48  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Table 6: Contract Arrangements to Enable Community Leadership117 Barriers to Community-level Finance High Low Tightly Controlled Contracts Flexible Management Arrangements Partnership Agreements Prescribed contract conditions Core requirements with variable Priorities set, but contract outputs and elements related to context process open to negotiation Limit bidding opportunities to include Simplified bidding open/accessible to Preferred suppliers list community-based lead organizations domestic partner organizations Core outputs linked to overall priorities Headline outcomes, with outputs open Fixed deliverables and timescales for donors to negotiation Management control systems allow for Formalize joint partnership manage- Low risk/low innovation model piloting and learning ment agreements Large budgets that can be sub-divided Variable values to allow smaller groups Large value funding calls or sub-contracted to smaller CSOs to engage. Core measures of success variable Mix of output and outcome measures Fixed measures of success by level to determine return on investment. Shifting institutional behaviors requires targeted With the commitment of organized communities in resources and incentives to build capacity and motivate Pakacha and Kombo and the support of local government change. RBF is a particularly useful tool to encourage and donors, there is significant potential to deliver a shifts in institutionalized perceptions and practices, using long-term program of adaptation to reduce climate risks. performance and incentive payments to link funding This recognizes the essential role of community members to changes in policy and procedures. RBF’s focus on as full partners in processes of change. The complexity of achievement of outcomes, creates space to tailor delivery urban contexts, the scale of need, and the urgency created arrangements to the local context and, where new by climate change make it essential that all actors use their arrangements are being trialed, to support or de-risk new capacity creatively to build inclusive and sustainable cities. practices (Table 7). Table 7: Using RBF to Improve the Institutional Environment Objective Results-Based Finance Institutional strengthening of local governments, for Capacity building and performance payments, for example, example, in land administration completed transfers of land rights. Build governance structures that enable local Incentivize the creation of project boards with equal governments and organized communities to collectively representation from local government and communities. prioritize investment. Establish contracting arrangements that give delivery De-risk local government contracting arrangements to responsibility to communities. encourage devolved community-led delivery. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  49 5.3 Enabling Community-led Delivery Delivery of community-led climate adaptation in informal settlements relies on effective collaboration between government and residents. Inclusive community-led climate action is a co-production, whether it is initiated by communities that want to scale settlement-level activity or by local governments making spaces for community leadership. As a co-production, partners should maximize the benefits of shared knowledge and capacity, with inputs to governance and implementation negotiated at the outset and recorded in a delivery plan. The respective Box 15. Sierra Leone – Freetown the Tree Town roles of governments and communities are determined Program based on the context. However, in general, governments and specialist contractors can best deliver large-scale Reforestation of Freetown is a pillar of the city climate improvements, with organized communities undertaking strategy and has been supported by the World Bank complementary local actions, which ensure that low- Freetown Emergency Recovery Project to remediate income households can share benefits. and stabilize steep slopes and reduce the risk of Delivery can also be structured to disperse adaptation future landslides. Freetown City Council and CBOs jointly designed and manage the Tree Town program. actions at a city level. Improvement and adaptation Community members work with the city to identify programs need not be undertaken as single large schemes where trees should be planted to achieve maximum when the elements can be broken down and parceled adaptation benefits and have contracts to plant and out for local level delivery. The ACCA118 program in Asian maintain trees in designated plots across the city. cities shows how overall impact can be achieved through Micro-payments are made, via mobile money, to the delivery of multiple community-led improvements at community growers when trees are planted, and then a settlement level (Box 5 above). With each community every two months over three to five years if the trees identifying priority needs, actions are targeted at the survive into maturity. issues and areas requiring investment. Despite each ACCA adaptation being small-scale, the aggregate value and The propagation of trees and mangrove takes place in impact can be significant. While this process may require local nurseries, keeping the economic value in the city more project management for the funder, the focus on and creating employment and training opportunities. prioritizing local improvements and leveraging household Around 80 percent of the total resources leveraged for investment makes this model of delivery highly effective. the project have been injected into local communities, with the remaining 20 percent meeting project costs. Designing-in collaboration and local delivery can deliver major climate adaptation improvements. Evidence The project employs a digital tracking app system from Freetown, Sierra Leone shows the effectiveness that logs each tree planted, providing a basis for of incorporating community-led action into large-scale verification and payment for ongoing maintenance. adaptation programs (Box 15).119 In this example, the project The system incentivizes and rewards community has included community leadership from the outset, members for planting and caring for trees. The with manageable roles for grassroots groups delivering digital record on each tree planted enables trees tangible adaptation benefits over time. The community and to be counted together and ‘bundled’ to attract city government have co-designed and co-managed the Corporate Social Responsibility investment by private project, with community groups taking responsibility for companies. the planting and care of trees, providing a long-term role for residents as environmental custodians. 50  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS RBF can be an important tool to enable community-led with larger capital programs, RBF can enable locally led delivery of climate adaptations. When there is limited leadership and community delivery of climate adaptation. experience within national and local governments with Community-led research has helped highlight the devolved adaptation projects, RBF can help structure experiences of climate change and its impacts on low- delivery around the achievement of progress and output income communities in Dar es Salaam. Communities are measures. RBF can be used to encourage and reward increasingly vulnerable to worsening climate conditions and attainment of targets, meet additional costs created by are locked into short term patterns of coping and recovery, parceling of contracts, and incentivize governments and which undermine their longer-term adaptive capacity. the private sector to design more inclusive and contextually relevant climate adaptations (Table 8). When combined Table 8: Using RBF to Enable Community-led Delivery Objective Results-Based Finance Performance payments and rewards for adaptation to Climate adaptations meet identified local needs climate risks. Adaptation is at a scale that can be managed by Incentivize or subsidize community-led small delivery communities, without reducing overall impact. contracts. Performance-based contracting, linked to operation and Community-led action is sustainable over the long-term. maintenance, ensures the involvement of organized communities. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  51 Spotlight 4: Dar es Salaam Community-led Research, Kombo Settlement Collaborative and Community Actions Community-led data collection in Dar es Salaam identified priority actions and strengthening partnerships between residents and the local government to deliver climate adaptation. While communities are not passive in their responses to Delivering collaborative climate adaptation will require a climate change, they cannot fundamentally reduce their shift in how urban development is planned and delivered vulnerability without support from government. As part to make space for community-led action. More inclusive of the study, communities identified a series of actions, approaches to decision making and more diverse resources including improving infrastructure and services; reducing and delivery capacity are essential to address the scale exposure to erosion and flooding; enhancing the resilience and complexity of climate risk. This can partly be achieved of housing and the built environment to climate conditions; through better use of existing government and donor and, to reinstate the natural environment, adopting nature- funds, but performance-based finance is also needed to based solutions to deliver sustainable adaptation (Figure incentivize institutional change and create capacity for 10). These priority actions are connected by closing gaps in problem solving. data on the experiences and needs of residents of informal settlements, investing in knowledge sharing, and building the capacity of governments and communities to deliver Figure 10: Integrated Adaptation Actions, joint adaptation activity. Dar es Salaam Community Discussions, Kombo Closing Data and Knowledge Gaps Improved Infrastructure Resilient Built and Services Environment Reduced Exposure Reduced Impact to Flooding and from Heat, Rain Erosion and Wind Delivering Nature-Based Solutions 52  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS The use of RBF could strengthen collaborative working With the commitment of organized communities in in Dar es Salaam. Where aligned with the DMDP phase Pakacha and Kombo and the support of local government 2 program, it could be used to test and deliver innovative and donors, there is significant potential to deliver a partnership actions that complement and extend major long-term program of adaptation to reduce climate risks. works planned for the city. This recognizes the essential role of community members as full partners in processes of change. The complexity of When applied to the recommendations made for Pakacha urban contexts, the scale of need, and the urgency created and Kombo, RBF can have a significant role in incentivizing by climate change make it essential that all actors use their the shifts needed to deliver meaningful change. When capacity creatively to build inclusive and sustainable cities. aligned with government and donor grant funding, it could unleash community resources and capacity, to make a major impact in Dar es Salaam (Table 9). Table 9: The Potential for RBF funding in Dar es Salaam Adaptation Theme Example Actions RBF Funding Nature-based - Settlement greening Community contracting with performance payments for solutions - Tree planting training planting and maintaining trees Infrastructure and - Extend drainage Subsidy payments to fund sanitation and drainage services - Improve solid waste management service extension to settlements Resilient built - Housing upgrading Incentivize household investment in sustainable Environment - Heat-resistant roofs housing improvements - Knowledge hub Closing data and Funding for grassroots and NGO to develop skills and - Craft skills training knowledge gaps undertake community research - Partnership structu Community-led Environmental Improvements COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  53 6. Conclusion Climate change is severely impacting cities and informal settlements. Evidence clearly shows that overlapping conditions of poverty and exposure to risk are increasing the vulnerability of urban informal settlements to worsening climate conditions. There is an urgent need to focus climate adaptation on the local level to target investment at the people and places that are most affected by adverse weather patterns. With informal settlements forming the bulk of residential development across the Global South, governments must see communities as part of the solution to climate challenges. They need to upgrade, integrate, and adapt environments and housing and extend the provision of services to include informal settlements as part of the ‘formal’ city. Increasing pressure from population growth and vulnerability of settlements in at-risk areas means that urban resilience can only be achieved through partnerships championed by governments that create the institutional and finance frameworks to enable local leadership. 54  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Community-led climate action can complement national and sub-national climate plans, releasing the local knowledge and resources needed for sustainable change. A key to meeting the vast cost of urban adaptation is diversifying sources of funding and action that contribute to more sustainable and resilient cities. National climate strategy and infrastructure investment can be enhanced to enable communities to use their local knowledge of risk and link household and collective action into wider programs of settlement upgrading and adaptation. Drawing on community capacity opens huge potential for additional action, currently excluded by top-down ‘business-as-usual’ approaches to urban development. Enabling community-led climate action at scale requires a shift in thinking and resources to position communities as full delivery partners. RBF has a key role to complement public finance and more effectively target underserved and at-risk urban populations, closing knowledge and resource gaps to enable community-led action. Changing ingrained patterns of institutional behavior will require both incentives and investment to create space for more inclusive planning and delivery processes. RBF offers the flexibility to target blockages and de-risk new solutions for the most difficult urban and climate challenges. Cities and informal settlements face an uncertain future. Rapid urbanization, worsening climate conditions, and rigid finance and governance systems make it difficult to deliver a transformative urban change. However, the risks to billions of people across the globe make action essential. Using the combined strength of the public, business, and community sectors working together can create the momentum to build resilient and inclusive cities for all. COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  55 Endnotes 1 IPCC. 2022. Sixth Assessment Report. Summary for Policymakers Headline Statements. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2 McKinsey. Protecting people from a changing climate: The case for resilience. Website accessed May 22, 2024. 3 World Bank. 2024. Rising to the Challenge: Success Stories and Strategies for Achieving Climate Adaptation and Resilience. World Bank. Washington DC. 4 UN Habitat. 2022. World Cities Report 2022: Envisioning the Future of Cities 5 .Ibid. 6 International Organization for Migration and UN Habitat. 2021 Integrating Migration into Urban Development Interventions. IOM. 7 IPCC. 2022. Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure. In Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 8 IPCC. 2022. Ibid. 9 World Health Organization. Heat and Health. Website accessed May 22, 2024. 10 Soanes, M., Bahadur, A., Shakya, C., Smith, B., Patel, S., Rumbaitis del Rio, C., Coger, T., Dinshaw, A., Patel, S., Huq, S., Musa M., Rahman, F., Gupta, S., Dolcemascolo, G., and Mann, T. 2021. Principles for locally led adaptation: A call to action. IIED, London. 11 Colenbrander, S., Dodman, D., and Mitlin, D. 2018. Using climate finance to advance climate justice: the politics and practice of channelling resources to the local level, Climate Policy, 18:7, 902-915. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2017.1388212 12 UN DESA. 2019. World Urbanization Prospects, 2018. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 13 International Organization for Migration and UN Habitat. 2021. Integrating Migration into Urban Development Interventions. IOM. 14 UN DESA. 2019. 15 UN DESA. 2019. 16 Megha, M., and Roberts, M. (eds). 2023. Thriving: Making Cities Green, Resilient, and Inclusive in a Changing Climate. World Bank. Washington, DC. 17 Dovey, K., Shafique, T., van Oostrum, M., Chaterjee, I. 2021. Informal settlement is not a euphemism for ‘slum:’ what’s at stake beyond the language? International Development Planning Review 43(2): 139 – 150 https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2020.14 18 Satterthwaite, D., et al. 2020. Building Resilience to Climate Change in Informal Settlements. One Earth 2(2): 143–156 https://doi. org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.02.002 19 See Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable - Our World in Data. Accessed January 29, 2024 20 UN Habitat. 2018. Pro-poor Climate Action in Informal Settlements. UN Habitat Nairobi. 21 UN Habitat Urban Indicators Database. Accessed January 26, 2024. 22 Reproduced from UN Statistics Division, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. Accessed October 29, 2024. 23 Sverdlik , A. and Walnycki, A. 2021. Better cities after COVID-19. IIED, London. 24 Cities Alliance. 2021. Understanding Informality - Towards a Multi-dimensional Analysis of the Concept. Cities Alliance, Brussels. 25 ILO Statistics on the informal economy. Website accessed November 21, 2024. 26 UN Habitat. 2018. Pro-poor Climate Action in Informal Settlements. UN Habitat Nairobi. 27 IPCC. 2022. Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure. In Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 28 Megha, M. and Roberts, M. (eds). 2023. Thriving: Making Cities Green, Resilient, and Inclusive in a Changing Climate. World Bank. Washington, DC. 29 McGranahan, G., Balk, D., Colenbrander, S., Engin, H., and MacManus, K. 2023. Is rapid urbanization of low-elevation deltas undermining adaptation to climate change? A global review. Environment and Urbanization, 35(2), 527-559. https://doi.org/10.1177/09562478231192176 30 UN Habitat. 2022. Multi-level Governance for Effective Urban Climate Action in the Global South. UN Habitat Nairobi. 31 World Bank. 2017. Sierra Leone - Rapid damage and loss assessment of August 14th, 2017 landslides and floods in the western area. World Bank Group. Washington, D.C. 32 United Nations. 2024. UN Secretary General’s Call to Action on Extreme Heat. 56  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS 33 Naicker, N., Teare, J., Balakrishna, Y., Wright, C.Y., and Mathee, A. 2017. Indoor temperatures in low-cost housing in Johannesburg, South Africa. International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health 14(11), 1410 https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph14111410 34 Ramsay, E., Duffy, G.A., Burge, K., Taruc, R.R., Fleming, G.M., Faber, P.A., and Chown, S.L. 2023. Spatio-temporal development of the urban heat island in a socioeconomically diverse tropical city, Environmental Pollution. Volume 316 (1) :120443 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120443. 35 IIED Building Housing Justice: Construction Materials in Informal Settlements. Blog page. International Institute for Environment and Development. Accessed October 31, 2024. 36 IPCC. 2022. Cities, Op cit. 37 Soanes, M., et al. 2021. Principles for locally led adaptation: A call to action. IIED, London. 38 Source: authors 39 For example, access to improved urban infrastructure, such as sanitation, may not benefit low-income households that cannot afford connection fees or the costs of adaptations to homes. RBF has used incentive models and subsidies to bridge affordability gaps and shift operational practice to improve service access. See for example World Bank. 2021. Output-based Aid Sanitation Facility for Greater Accra in Ghana: RBF Case Study. World Bank GPRBA. Washington DC. 40 Satterthwaite, D., Archer, D., Colenbrander, S., Hardoy, J., Dodman, D., Mitlin, D., and S. Patel. 2020. Building Resilience to Climate Change in Informal Settlements. One Earth 2(2): 143 – 156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.02.002 41 UN Habitat. 2022. World Cities Report 2022: Envisioning the Future of Cities. 42 IPCC. 2022. Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [http://doi:10.1017/9781009325844.008 43 World Bank. 2021. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives. World Bank Washington, DC. 44 Cities Alliance/SDI. 2022. From Recovery to Resilience Community-led Responses to Covid-19 in Informal Settlements. Cities Alliance UN Ops. Brussels. 45 World Bank. Local communities should be equal partners in post pandemic recovery. World Bank Blog, June 2022. 46 Further information on the Daraja project can be found here. 47 World Bank. 2021. Guidance Note on Community Participation in Slum Upgrading. World Bank. Washington DC. 48 UN Habitat. 2018. Pro-poor Climate Action in Informal Settlements. UN Habitat Nairobi. 49 World Bank. Local communities should be equal partners in post pandemic recovery. World Bank Blog, June 2022. 50 ACRC. 2023. Rising costs and worsening housing conditions in Africa’s informal settlements. Blog page. African Cities Research Consortium. Accessed October 31, 2024. 51 Global Center on Adaptation (n.d.). Upgrading Informal Settlements for Climate Resilience. 52 City Climate Finance Gap Fund. 2023. Low Carbon Slum Upgrading. World Bank Washington DC. 53 UN Habitat. 2018. Pro-poor Climate Action in Informal Settlements. UN Habitat Nairobi. 54 Sheng, Y.K., Brown, A., Sommer, K., Gachie, G. 2018. Prosperity for All: Enhancing the Informal Economy Through Participatory Slum Upgrading. UN Habitat Nairobi. 55 Galiani, S., Gertler, P. J., Undurraga, R., Cooper, R., Martínez, S., & Ross, A. 2017. Shelter from the storm: Upgrading housing infrastructure in Latin American slums. Journal of Urban Economics, 98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2016.11.001 56 Cities Alliance. 2021. An international review of slum upgrading practices – Lessons learned and remaining challenges of projects and programs. Cities Alliance. Brussels. 57 Cities Alliance. 2021. Community-led mechanisms – For upgrading informal settlements and informal work in southern cities. Cities Alliance Brussels. 58 Shand, W. and Colenbrander, S. 2018. Financing the Inclusive City: The Catalytic Role of Community Savings. Environment and Urbanization 30(1): 175–190 doi.org/10.1177/0956247817751340 59 Schermbrucker, N., Patel, N., and N. Keijzer. 2015. A view from below: what Shack Dwellers International (SDI) has learnt from its Urban Poor Fund International (UPFI), International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2015.1046075. 60 Wilbard, K., Kyessi, A. G., and Limbumba, T.M. 2022. How co-production contributes to urban equality: retrospective lessons from Dar es Salaam. Environment and Urbanization, 34(2), 278-293. https://doi.org/10.1177/09562478221114023 COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  57 61 Cities Alliance. 2019. Do You Know Your City? Results from Collaborative Data Initiatives to Drive Innovation in Cities. Cities Alliance. Brussels. 62 Chitekwe-Biti, B., Mudimu, P., Masimba Nyama, G., and Jera, T. 2012. Developing an Informal Settlement Upgrading Protocol in Zimbabwe- the Epworth Story. Environment and Urbanization (24): 131–148. 63 Adapted from World Bank. 2021. Guidance Note on Community Participation in Slum Upgrading. World Bank. Washington DC. 64 IIED Introduction to community-based adaptation to climate change. Accessed January 30, 2024 65 Hannah Reid. 2016. Ecosystem- and community-based adaptation: learning from community-based natural resource management, Climate and Development, 8:1, 4-9, https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2015.1034233. 66 Archer, D., Almansi, F., DiGregorio, M., Roberts, D., Sharma, D., and Syam, D. 2014. Moving towards inclusive urban adaptation: approaches to integrating community-based adaptation to climate change at city and national scale. Climate and Development, 6(4), 345-356. https:// doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2014.918868. 67 Kirkby, P., Williams, C., and Huq, S. 2015. A Brief Overview of Community-based Adaptation. International Centre for Climate Change and Development. Briefing paper. Accessed January 31, 2024. 68 UNDP. 2014. Guidance note on how to plan and mainstream community based adaptation at the local, sub-national and national levels. Accessed January 31, 2024 69 Shand, W. 2017. ‘Efficacy in Action: Mobilizing Community Participation for Inclusive Urban Development’ Urban Forum 29(2): 109 – 126 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-017-9326-z. 70 Chung, J-h. 2023. Who defines community in community-based adaptation: different perceptions of community between government and citizens in Ethiopia, Climate and Development, 15:2, 122-131, DOI:10.1080/17565529.2022.2061894 71 Chu, E., Brown, A., Michael, K., Du, J., Lwasa, S., and Mahendra, A. 2019. Unlocking the Potential for Transformative Climate Adaptation in Cities. Ross Center background paper. World Resources Institute. Washington, DC. 72 WeAdapt. Ecosystem-based adaptation to increase flood resilience of vulnerable people – Evidence from central Vietnam. Briefing paper. Accessed February 7, 2024 73 European Environment Agency. 2021. Nature-based solutions in Europe: Policy, knowledge and practice for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Luxembourg. 74 UNFCCC. Sustainable Agriculture with Gender Inclusion and Participation. Briefing. Accessed February 7, 2024. 75 UNEP. 2022. Harnessing Nature to Build Climate Resilience: Scaling the Use of Ecosystem-based Adaptation. 76 Green-Gray Community of Practice. 2020. Practical Guide to Implementing Green-Gray Infrastructure. Arlington, VA. 77 Global Commission on Adaptation. Principles for Locally Led Adaptation. Accessed February 1, 2024. 78 BOND. 2021. Catalyzing Locally-led Development in the UK Aid System. BOND. London. 79 Shand, W. 2022. Community-based Finance. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) 80 Sources for box 8. Kenya - Chaudhury, M., T. Summerlin, and N. Ginoya. 2020. Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Kenya: Lessons from Makueni and Wajir Counties. Working Paper. World Resources Institute Washington, DC. World Bank Blog. 2021. Keyna Moves to Locally led Climate Action. Accessed 2 February 2024. Argentina - Almansi, F., Motta, J. M., and J. Hardoy 2020. Incorporating a resilience lens into the social and urban transformation of informal settlements: the participatory upgrading process in Villa 20, Buenos Aires. 2016–2020. Environment and Urbanization, 32(2), 407- 428. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247820935717. RBF - World Bank. 2018. A Guide for Effective Results-based Financing Strategies. World Bank. Washington DC. 81 Climate Policy Initiative. 2024. Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2024. Web version accessed November 7, 2024. 82 Songwe, V., Stern N., and Bhattacharya, A. 2022 Finance for Climate Action: Scaling-up Investment for Climate and Development. London: Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science. 83 Colenbrander, S., Dodman, D., and D. Mitlin. 2018. Using climate finance to advance climate justice: the politics and practice of channeling resources to the local level, Climate Policy, 18:7, 902-915. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2017.1388212 84 Cities Alliance. 2024. Climate Finance for the Urban Poor: A Review of Global Climate Funds. Cities Alliance/UNOPS, Brussels. 85 Shand, W. 2022. Community-based Finance. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ). 86 World Bank Blog. June 20, 2024. The many stories of adaptation finance. Accessed November 7, 2024 87 See Global Center on Adaptation website on Locally-led Adaptation and IIED materials on LLA for definitions and scope. 88 World Bank. Locally Led Climate Action: Empowering Communities on the Frontlines webpage. 89 OECD. 2023. Framing DAC member approaches to enabling locally led development. OECD Discussion Paper 47. 58  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS 90 GCA website. Locally-led Adaptation. Accessed July 3, 2024 91 Adaptation Fund website. Accessed July 3, 2024. 92 Global Environment Fund website. Accessed July 3, 2024. 93 Climate Investment Funds website Accessed July 3, 2024. 94 Donback, N. Why is so Little Climate Finance Going to Local Organizations? Devex Blog. May 29, 2024. Accessed July 3, 2024. 95 Buchner et al. 2023. Global Landscape of Climate Finance. Climate Policy Initiative. 96 World Bank web pages for Sustainable Cities, Urban Development and Results-based Finance. Accessed December 17, 2024. 97 World Bank Citizen Engagement website. Accessed July 12, 2024. 98 Sources for box 9 – World Bank (n.d.) Tenure Security and improved infrastructure for informal settlements in Kenya’s Cities. Case Note. World Bank. Washington DC. World Bank (n.d.) Upgrading Informal Settlements in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Case Note. World Bank. Washington DC. World Bank. 2024. Indonesia National Slum Upgrading Project. Implementation Completion and Results Report. World Bank. Washington DC 99 Sources for box 10 - World Bank. 2019. Viet Nam Mekong Delta Regional Urban Upgrading Project. Implementation Completion and Results Report. World Bank Washington DC. World Bank (n.d.) Implementing a Zero Slums Program in Djibouti. Case Note. World Bank. Washington DC 100 World Bank. 2020. Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project (KISIP) Implementation Completion and Results Report. World Bank. Washington DC 101 World Bank. 2019. Viet Nam Mekong Delta Regional Urban Upgrading Project. Implementation Completion and Results Report. World Bank Washington DC. 102 World Bank (n.d.) Building Better and Safer Communities in Jamaica. Case Note. World Bank. Washington DC 103 World Bank.2024. Indonesia National Slum Upgrading Project. Implementation Completion and Results Report. World Bank. Washington DC. 104 World Bank. 2020. Results-based Financing through Social Enterprises. World Bank GPRBA. Washington DC. 105 GPRBA. 2021. Outcome-Based Financing for Service Delivery with Key Considerations for the Recovery From COVID-19 World Bank. Washington DC 106 World Bank. 2018. A Guide for Effective Results-based Financing Strategies. World Bank. Washington DC. World Bank. 2019. Results-based Financing in Education: Learning from What Works. World Bank. Washington DC 107 World Bank (forthcoming) Using Results-based Finance to Address Forced Displacement in Cities. World Bank. Washington DC. 108 World Bank. 2020. Securing Land and Property Rights: Exploring the Scope for Results-based Financing Approaches. GPRBA World Bank. Washington DC 109 Sources for box 12. World Bank (n.d.) Building Better and Safer Communities in Jamaica. Case Note. World Bank. Washington DC. World Bank. 2021. Output-based Aid Sanitation Facility for Greater Accra in Ghana: RBF Case Study. World Bank GPRBA. Washington DC. 110 World Bank. 2021. Kenya Urban Water and Sanitation OBS Fund for Low-Income Areas. Implementation Completion and Results Report. World Bank. Washington DC 111 Pateman, R., Tuhkanen, H., and Cinderby, S. 2021. Citizen science and the sustainable development goals in low- and middle-income country cities. Sustainability 13(17): 9534 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179534 112 Patel, S., Baptist, C., and D’cruz, C. 2012. Knowledge is power – informal communities assert their right to the city through SDI and community-led enumerations. Environment & Urbanization 24(1): 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247812438366 113 Appadurai, A. 2012. Why Enumeration Counts. Environment and Urbanization 24(2): 639 – 641. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247812447511 114 Shand, W. 2017. Efficacy in Action: Mobilising Community Participation for Inclusive Urban Development Urban Forum 29(2): 109 – 126 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-017-9326-z 115 See section 4.2.3 for a discussion of how this has been used to improve property rights and tenure security in the West Bank and as part of an integrated urban development project in Kenya. 116 Ouma, S. 2023. Participation as ‘city-making:’ a critical assessment of participatory planning in the Mukuru Special Planning Area in Nairobi, Kenya. Environment and Urbanization, 35(2), 470-489. https://doi.org/10.1177/09562478231175031 117 Shand, W. 2022. Community-based Finance. 118 Asian Coalition Community Action (ACCA) program run by ACHR in 165 cites delivered small scale improvements in around 1,000 settlements. 119 C40 Knowledge Hub. Freetown’s highly replicable way of self-financing urban reforestation. Webpages accessed November 29, 2024 COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  59 Photographs and Maps Front Cover Page 23 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page ii Page 25 Ahturner / Shutterstock TLF Images / Shutterstock Aerial view of a township near Cape Town, South Africa. Bissau, Republic of Guinea-Bissau - February 6, 2018: Group of people at a community meeting at the Missira neighborhood in the city of Page vii Bissau, Guinea Bissau Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 26 Page x Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 29 Page xiv Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 30 Page xv Map from QGIS Geographic Information System. Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania QGIS Association, with analysis by CCI Tanzania Page xvi Page 31 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page xvii Page 33 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Agus Subekti / Shutterstock Village community meeting, West Kalimantan, Indonesia Page xix on April 07, 2025 Sadek Husein / Shutterstock Rohingya refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh Page 36 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 1 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 41 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 2 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 42 Map from QGIS Geographic Information System. Page 5 QGIS Association, with analysis by CCI Tanzania Melnikov Dmitriy / Shutterstock View of corrugated iron huts at Nairobi downtown Page 43 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 7 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 45 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 8 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 46 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 13 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 48 SDI, Dharavi slum Mumbai Page 15 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 51 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Map from QGIS Geographic Information System. QGIS Association, with analysis by CCI Tanzania Page 52 Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania Page 16 SDI, Dharavi slum Mumbai Page 53 OlegD / Shutterstock Page 19 African men working on the straw roof of Zanzibar island, Tanzania, Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania East Africa on November 27, 2019 Page 20 Page 55 Rehman Asad / Shutterstock Centre for Community Initiatives, CCI Tanzania A workshop in Sathkhira, Bangladesh on January 5, 2021. Millions of people are affected by the climate crisis in the coastal belts of Bangladesh. 60  COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS COMMUNITY-LED CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS  61