General

Kenya's population is becoming increasingly urban. In Nairobi, over half the population lives in slums or informal settlements, which are plagued by cramped living conditions and poor access to basic services. Women face additional burdens, particularly in the area of personal security. In Nairobi's Mukuru settlement, the "poverty penalty" means that residents pay three to four times more for the available poor services than in wealthier neighbourhoods nearby. Behind the scenes is a complex informal and highly commercialized web of power and governance, where landlords and criminal organizations thrive, often through violence or extortion. In part, these conditions result from both gaps in existing laws and policies and from failures to apply them; however, Kenya's 2010 Constitution has provided some hope in confronting decades of exclusion and lack of access to justice by the poor. This project, implemented by local partner Muungano Wa Wanavijiji Akiba Mashinani Registered Trustees, will build on previous research efforts that have developed legal, financial and planning models that provide a first approach on how to unlock the poverty penalty. The solutions address both technical and governance obstacles to upgrading, improving service delivery and the security of land tenure that ensure basic rights and living conditions for Mukuru residents. Once living conditions are improved, residents can tap into their economic potential and escape the current cycle of exclusion and poverty. In Nairobi, new research and continued engagement with the county and with local residents will feed into the development of further tools to support upgrading programs and policies. Implementation of pilot projects, such as a special housing fund for the Mukuru settlement, will generate new legal, planning, and financial knowledge that can feed into scaling-up efforts across the county. In Kiambu County, research will focus on settlements in Thika, a fast-expanding peri-urban centre. Drawing on experiences from Mukuru, the research will support proactive efforts by the county to address informal settlement challenges, which are only now emerging, and not yet at a scale seen in large centres like Nairobi. The research in this case could then guide policies and practices in other peri-urban centres across the country.

Objectives

To achieve biodiversity conservation and land degradation neutrality in the Southern Highlands and Hela Provinces of Papua New Guinea through integrated landscape management and natural capital assessment

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The Project’s benefits include the Global Environmental Benefits as described in Section 1.a.6. Besides these, the Project yield substantial direct socio-economic co-benefits to the targeted beneficiaries (refer to Section 2) and indirect benefits to implementing partners and other stakeholders. The socio-economic benefits delivered by the Project include i) direct financial incentives for landowners to overcome the barrier to engage on SLM/SFM, ii) improved access to sustainable financing for SMEs and landowners, iii) setting up of long-term financing streams through AFOLU carbon projects and certified coffee production, iv) establishment of tax easements and subsidies that directly benefit landowners, v) improved food security through more efficient and sustainable agricultural production, vi) increase resilience and reduced vulnerability of the livelihood base to climate change and disaster risks, and vii) increased land-based livelihood opportunities particularly for women.

General

Industrial technology, market-oriented development and the modernization of agrifood in Ecuador has distanced Andean farmers from broader society and from their environments. This undermines social relations and the life-sustaining functionality of highland ecosystems. The resulting socio-biological collapse puts people’s health, well-being, and future into question. This project helps resource-poor Andean farmers transition to healthier, more productive regenerative food systems. It supports a pioneering group of women and youth from agroecology movements to strengthen food systems using insights into soil microbiology and the biome. It will enable them to put neglected or underused elements to work for greater food security, the economy and climate change mitigation. Intimate ties with the country’s Indigenous organizations and agrifood movements will help participants continually inform advocacy and policy interventions in their communities, social networks and government. This project will help Andean people test and open up pathways for rehabilitating ecologies and restoring ecosystems. This includes enhancing food security among highly vulnerable populations by combating land degradation and improving farm productivity. It also involves adaptation to climate variability by strengthening the biological functioning of soils and climate change mitigation through on-farm carbon accrual.