Tactic 05: Public Space and Networks
In informal settlements, issues of rapid urbanisation, climate change, and inadequate infrastructure converge and cause environmental and social challenges, including poor sanitation, waste management, flooding and pollution. The ‘Productive Public Space’ approach focuses on urban improvement by addressing the unique needs and innovations of informal settlements. This model aims to create safe, clean, and usable public spaces in informal settlements, emphasising inclusive participation and community governance. It introduces much-needed features such as business support, environmental remediation, community spaces, and public health infrastructure.
Kibera Public Space Project
Key concepts
Characteristics of Public Space and Networks
Community-led model
The history of architecture and planning in many informal settlements reveals a consistent pattern: well-intentioned outside groups build structures as an act of charity using materials, tools, and construction techniques that locals do not have the training or resources to maintain. These projects become burdens on the community, often languishing in disrepair.
The Productive Public Space model takes a different approach. Sites are proposed by community groups, and selected based on maximal possible impact, transforming hotspots of risk into vibrant hubs of community life. This approach begins with community members proposing the space(s), stakeholder engagement and extensive participatory design are then conducted, positioning community members at the design table. Local workers are recruited, trained, and consulted to build and operate the sites sustainably. Residents take an active role throughout the design and planning processes, so the components of each project come directly from community voices.
Partnering
The KPSP has also provided 380 temporary construction jobs and 39 construction training opportunities for local contractors and unskilled labourers, most of them young men and women facing high unemployment rates and poor prospects. Finally, each CBO participating in the network contributes 5% of the construction cost for a KPSP site, often as in-kind labour. This financial model positions residents as partners rather than beneficiaries.
Multifunctional networks of public spaces
The Productive Public space model “layers” multi-sectoral strategies that reinforce and support each other, addressing challenges in a systemic, self-sustaining way. For example, a community hall is used for gatherings, hired events, school, and worship. Its roof captures rainwater, which reduces flood risk, irrigates the greenhouse, and provides a source of income. The result is a hub of physical, economic, and social resilience that does not require external funding to maintain and creates the development investment needed for the site to continue to support the wider community in new ways.
In Kibera, around 125,000 people live within just 200m of a KPSP site, and thousands use the toilets, laundry pads, and water taps on a daily basis. By providing a convenient, affordable alternative to services normally provided by cartels, as well as reducing flood risk, the Productive Public Space model brings considerable value to surrounding households in informal settlements.
Participatory governance
The Productive Public Space approach demonstrates that participatory, integrated development and governance can be both more effective and more sustainable than approaches that fail to truly include communities or integrate social, environmental or economic components. Over 100 employees and entrepreneurs, around 70% of whom are women, manage the KPSP sanitation centres, kiosks, water taps, hall rentals, and an array of businesses, building both income and skills in the process. Along with site-based microfinancing groups, these activities generate funding for site maintenance and take-home income.
How To
A - Demand-led Assessment
Ensure that public spaces are responding to real problems and demand.
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Outreach across the settlement through a Request for Proposals process.
Receive applications from existing resident action groups.
B - Stakeholder Mapping & Alignment
Actively engage and align with the local government, agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders.
C - Participatory Planning & Co-design
Partner with active community groups to plan, budget and co-design community projects.
Co-develop small businesses with community groups.
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Case Studies
Public Space and Networks is an iterative approach that grows networks organically through settlements, while enabling community members to advocate for solutions that work for them.
Public Space and Networks transform hotspots of risk into vibrant hubs of community life.
The Productive Public Space model places residents in the role of partners in planning, design, construction and long term management of public space.
The Productive Public Space model places residents in the role of partners in planning, design, construction and long term management of public space.
In the Productive Public Space model, sites are proposed by residents, and the components of each project come directly from community voices.
The Challenge
‘Productive Public Space’ is an approach to urban improvement that responds to the unique needs and intrinsic innovation of informal settlements. The Productive Public Space approach offers a model for establishing much-needed safe, clean, and usable open public spaces in informal settlements throughout Kenya.
In informal settlements, rapid urbanisation, climate change, and a lack of infrastructure expose residents to a variety of environmental risks and social challenges. These settlements, being densely populated and often located in hazard prone areas, face issues including inadequate sanitation infrastructure and poor waste management which leads to the disposal of rubbish in any available open spaces and the creation of informal drainage systems full of raw sewage that pollutes the environment.
In Nairobi, informal settlements are often located in the riparian zone, and flooding is common within the settlement and along the river due to the above described situation of lacking infrastructures and municipal services. In addition, flooding is likely to become more frequent and more devastating in the light of the adverse effects of climate change. Open and green space are scarce and together with the settlements’ density and building materials used for housing, mainly corrugated iron sheets, the settlement is facing poor air quality and increased temperatures.
Each space—open, public, safe, and equitable—can introduce features lacking from informal settlements, while also addressing a range of other challenges prioritised by residents, including small business and economic support, environmental remediation, community space, and public health infrastructure. Leveraging the Productive Public Space approach of inclusive participation and community governance, collective networks take shape to address complex regional challenges, including watershed management, climate resilience, social cohesiveness, and economic opportunity.