We believe it can.
On 9th May, UrbanBetter Nairobi Cityzens Hub hosted Hewa Safi, Maisha Bora, a community learning experience that took us beyond maps and reports into the everyday realities of Nairobi’s informal settlements.
Our goal wasn’t simply to observe communities.
It was to learn with them.
Together with community residents from the KDI Public Space Network, youth leaders, researchers, and urban practitioners, we explored three community spaces to understand an important question better:
How do green spaces influence the air we breathe, the lives we experience, and the resilience of the communities we call home?
As we moved from site to site, we assessed air quality, explored public spaces, documented lived experiences, and listened to stories that data alone could never tell.
One lesson became impossible to ignore:
The quality of a city is measured not only by its infrastructure, but by how healthy, inclusive and liveable its neighbourhoods are for everyone.
Green spaces are often viewed as an environmental luxury. Yet within informal settlements, they are much more than that. They are natural cooling systems during extreme heat; they improve air quality and create safer places for children and young people.
They strengthen mental wellbeing and build community resilience, and perhaps most importantly, they remind us that environmental justice is also social justice.
What inspired me most was seeing residents move beyond being viewed as beneficiaries to becoming co-creators of urban solutions. Through citizen science, local knowledge and shared experiences, communities are generating the evidence needed to influence better planning, stronger partnerships and smarter investments.
This is what SDG 11—Sustainable Cities and Communities—looks like in practice.
Not policies written in isolation.
But communities, local government, researchers, NGOs, the private sector and young leaders are learning from one another and designing solutions together.
As organisers of this activation, UrbanBetter Nairobi Cityzens Hub, I left with one powerful reminder:
The people living closest to urban challenges are often the people holding the clearest vision for solving them.
Now the question shifts to all of us.
How do we turn these conversations into long-term action?
How do we build stronger collaborations that ensure every community has access to clean air, quality public spaces and healthier environments?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you could champion just one investment to make Nairobi’s informal settlements healthier and more resilient, what would it be and who should be at the table to make it happen?
Let’s exchange ideas. Because the next breakthrough for sustainable cities may begin with a conversation.
Hewa Safi. Maisha Bora.
Together, we can build cities that are greener, healthier and designed with communities—not just for them.
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