Our work

ACRC is a consortium of various organizations with expertise in research, policy work, community engagement and mobilization, and government engagement to generate evidence that will lead to a project that can be implemented. The project is currently in 13 African cities: Kampala, Lilongwe, Modagishu, Harare, Nairobi, Addis, Bukavu, Dar es Salaam, Freetown, Lagos, Khartoum, Maidiguri and Accra.

ACRC seeks to collaboratively and jointly build all-inclusive cities with a human face rather than an infrastructure to respond to citizens' needs. ACRC was founded to catalyze reforms that can enable transformation within African cities and generate evidence that allows stakeholders to communicate with one another. A silo approach has characterized urban development in African cities. As a result, ACRC will help to break down those silos by producing robust new knowledge that enables stakeholders to:

1. Understand the political functioning in our cities, and how political systems undermine or promote development

2. Use that political understanding to shift the conversation into cities as systems as a prerequisite to addressing complex development challenges

3. Use that theoretical understanding to develop pro-development policies

The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of the movement of the urban poor to promote inclusion of urban informal settlements in planning and enhance their resilience towards climate change, pro-poor and climate-just urban planning, and socio-economic development. It also aims to advance two key outcome areas of the Kenya SDI Alliance:

1. Increased evidence-based advocacy that amplifies community voices, enhances economic livelihoods, and increases climate action by the urban poor, especially women and youth
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2. Increased capacity of the urban poor to organize and sustain an inclusive and cohesive social movement through a federation of empowered grassroots organizations, which are able to respond to the needs of their communities and demand accountability in governance processes

Investing in these outcome areas gives urban informal settlement residents an opportunity to gain political, economic, and social capital, thereby reducing exclusivity and advancing local development in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Mombasa.

ARISE (Accountability Responsiveness in Informal Settlements for Equity) was launched in 2019 with the main aim/vision of catalyzing change by enhancing accountability and improving the health and well-being of marginalized individuals living in informal urban settlements. The project was funded by UKRI and ran for 5 years in 10 countries, with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine leading and supporting the country teams. In Kenya, the project was implemented by SDI-Kenya, LVCT Health, and APHRC. At SDI-Kenya, the project was mainly focused on Mathare Valley settlements.

The objective of ARISE was to harness the power of community-based participatory research to strengthen community 'voices' in order to promote equitable responsiveness and accountability for the health and well-being of urban marginalized people. Existing learning on accountability points to the need for transformative approaches that reinvigorate the ‘long-route’ of citizens influencing policymakers, who in turn influence providers, rather than confining itself to the ‘short-route’ (citizens directly holding service providers to account).

ARISE activities aimed to facilitate this shift by supporting social accountability processes that brought together the relevant actors in context-specific ‘accountability ecosystems’ and strengthened their capacities to engage in open and data-based dialogue with the aim of co-developing solutions to priority challenges. Facilitated meetings and dialogue between marginalized urban people and local governance actors were effective in promoting strengthened, more equitable relationships and increased response (acknowledgement of challenges) and responsiveness (actions to address challenges) within local governance systems.

The Urban Fabric Initiative is a 2-year program that aims at improving the quality of life in urban informal settlements by focusing on comprehensive improvements to infrastructure, public spaces, and community services. It emphasizes participatory planning, sustainable design, and resilience-building to address both immediate and long-term needs. The initiative aims to improve safety, health, and economic opportunities for residents while fostering a vibrant and inclusive urban environment. The project is being implemented by KDI in City Carton, AMT in Kayole Soweto, and SDI-Kenya, which focuses on and implements the project in Kahawa Soweto.

The UFI project aims at complementing the KISIP project under Component II, which focuses on socio-economic inclusion and planning. The projects look at how they could empower communities through groups to achieve this. The main aspects of UFI are:

• Community Participation: Engaging residents in the planning and decision-making processes to ensure that solutions address their actual needs and preferences
• Infrastructure Development: Upgrading essential infrastructure such as roads, drainage systems, and sanitation facilities to improve living conditions and promote health and safety
• Public Spaces: Enhancing or creating public spaces that foster community interaction, support local activities, and contribute to overall well-being
• Safety and Security: Implementing measures to improve safety and security in urban areas, such as better street lighting and community policing initiatives
• Sustainable Design: Integrating sustainable design principles to ensure that developments are environmentally friendly and resilient to climate change impacts
• Economic Empowerment: Supporting local economic activities and providing opportunities for income generation through vocational training, micro-financing, and other support mechanisms
• Health and Hygiene: Improving access to health services and promoting hygiene practices through better sanitation facilities and health education programs.‍
• Resilience Building: Developing strategies to enhance community resilience to environmental and social challenges, including climate change and socio-economic pressures

SDI-Kenya, in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), SouthSouthNorth (SSN), Akina Mama Afrika, and Hivos, is implementing a five-year lobby and advocacy program aimed at scaling up climate action responses targeting vulnerable communities.

The program aims to ensure that by 2025, local civil society and underrepresented groups will have taken on a central role as creators, facilitators, and advocates of innovative and inclusive climate solutions. Inclusion is crucial for effective and lasting climate responses. The program ultimately aims to amplify community voices for just climate action, especially in relation to the following outcomes:

• Strengthened capacity and collective action of local civil society and marginalized groups for inclusive policy dialogue and leadership in climate solutions
• Establishment of a powerful narrative and shared platform to effectively amplify the voices of local and national civil society for a just transition
• Documentation, formal recognition, and adoption of locally shaped climate solutions (including local food systems, decentralized renewable energy, nature-based solutions, new financial schemes, technological innovation and access, local knowledge and wisdom, and governance of natural resources)

The program targets 10 counties in Kenya. SDI-Kenya plans to implement the program in the Nakuru, Nairobi, and Kisumu regions, working closely with community groups to advance the climate change agenda and create momentum for climate action at the grassroots level

In this regard, SDI-Kenya seeks to collaborate with the Nakuru County Government to implement the program in the Nakuru region. In line with the program’s overall vision, this collaboration will strengthen grassroots participation in climate action and amplify community voices

We look forward to fostering a successful collaboration that will further support the efficient implementation of the program at the community level.