The Kibera Public Space Project is a network of 11 public spaces improving access to basic services and creating climate-resilient infrastructure, brought to life with small businesses. Co-designed, built and managed by local residents with the Kounkuey Design Initiative, the project paves the way for inclusive, integrated upgrading at scale while reducing climate risks.
Like many informal settlements, Kibera is home to both extremely challenging conditions and innovation, ingenuity and low-impact living. Prior to the interventions, housing was dense and of poor quality, tenure was insecure and infrastructure was utterly inadequate, creating a high-risk environment that disproportionately impacted women, youth and children. On top of this, Kibera faces increasingly severe and unpredictable rainy seasons, with the resulting floods bringing destruction, disease and outsized impacts on broader ecosystems and economies. Previous efforts to upgrade informal settlements failed to properly include residents in the decision-making process, leading to oversimplified, one-dimensional strategies, unintended consequences and a breakdown of trust between residents and institutions.
- Used participatory design to conduct a program development process
- Restored polluted land and created essential community facilities
- Employed underserved groups in the construction process
- Developed green spaces and sanitation infrastructure
- Created 11 new open spaces, accounting for ~35% of total public space available in Kibera
- Remediated 9,075 square meters of polluted land, cleared eight dumpsites, planted 130 trees, installed 840 meters of drainage and 520 meters of buffer zones and removed 27 latrines that drained into the Ngong River
- Improved climate resilience for ~8,000 households, especially low-income and single-mother households that tend to live in the most affordable and dilapidated housing by the Ngong River
- Built seven sanitation centers, nine water taps, six playgrounds—improving quality and accessibility of basic urban services
- Constructed five new bridges that facilitate ~1.7 million journeys in and out of Kibera each year
- Supported the creation of community-managed green-grey and green infrastructure including four decentralized toilet blocks and three urban farms, which can create income-generating products like compost
- Created opportunities to integrate new data, technologies, practices and perspectives into municipal climate action
- Provided new employment opportunities:
- Employed 100 residents, ~70% of them women, to manage sanitation centers, kiosks, water taps, hall rentals and other businesses—building both income and skills in the process
- Generated $10,120 for site maintenance and take-home income in 2019 (with the help of site-based microfinancing groups)
- Provided 380 temporary construction jobs and 39 construction training opportunities for local contractors and unskilled laborers
- Increased social cohesion and capital through community engagement, specifically with youth, and participation in project activities like river cleanups and site maintenance
