The engagement with the diverse stakeholders was designed to get to know who is working among the ur- ban poor and their perception and understanding about risks facing the urban poor.
The hub strategically mapped and analyzed the local community leaders, city policymakers, national policymakers, researchers, academia, opinion leaders, practitioners, civil society organizations and global partners who have an interest in engaging in DRR in the poor neighborhoods not only in Nairobi but also other cities.
The Hub runs multilevel policy engagement comprising of local community, internal hub meetings, city, regional and international level. The local community leaders engagement’ outputs including identification of priority issues mainly the high levels of poverty, high cost of living exacerbated by COVID-19, insecurity of land access and affordable housing exacerbated by the implementation of Mukuru’ SPA for those living in Mukuru slum.
The local leaders also attributed high poverty to hazards, mainly perennial floods and fires which tend to occur concurrently due to high exposure (e.g. markets located near rivers) and dynamic vulnerabilities to environmental and physical factors like poor basic infrastructure. The document analysis and discussions yielded that risk is hardly integrated into even the emergency response activities at the local community and city level.
They attribute that to limited knowledge and resource capacity. The engagement also unpacked limited interaction between the urban poor and different disciplines ( social and physical sciences) and expertise revealing the limited understanding about the context, root causes of the risk, and potential remedies among the urban poor. There is also a persistent gap among the various stakeholders engaging the local communities in risk reduction.

The engagement process incorporated elements of co-production of knowledge and evidence. The key elements include facilitating local community-led discussion, listening to the local community and their leaders, creating space for dialogue with them and other stakeholders, to cross-fertilize ideas and knowledge, engaging all sectors at th city level and strengthening relations and incorporating them into research activities.
The engagement has facilitated buy-in from the city policymakers, local communities and stakeholders, which is evident in the ongoing implementation of the impact case. The engagements also enhance an in-depth understanding of the interactions between the social drivers and multiple physical hazards and their impacts that could provide a good framing for DRR plans for the city and spur a framework for collective action through the evidence-based convening of DRR decisions and actions.
This brief provides a summary of the Nairobi Risk Hub engagements from May 2020 to date.

Authors: Salome Okoth, Syorose Ochieng and Victoria Chengo (2021)