{"id":474672,"date":"2021-11-16T06:37:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T14:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=474672"},"modified":"2022-07-07T12:11:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T19:11:52","slug":"maps-empower-nairobi-unseen-communities","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/maps-empower-nairobi-unseen-communities","title":{"rendered":"Nairobi: Maps and Data Storytelling Empower Action for the Urban Poor"},"author":5642,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[461441],"tags":[476652,476642,173942,331752,476662],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478322],"esri_blog_department":[478192],"class_list":["post-474672","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equity-social-justice","tag-empowerment","tag-evictions","tag-kenya","tag-land-rights","tag-urban-poor","esri-blog-category-africa","esri_blog_department-gis-for-good"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"Humanitarian organizations empower Nairobi\u2019s vulnerable populations with location information.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Local organizations empower Nairobi\u2019s urban poor to know their land rights using maps and data storytelling.\r\n\r\nKey Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Most of Nairobi\u2019s urban poor are excluded from formal land rights and are vulnerable to forced evictions.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Maps illuminate the impacts of potential evictions due to a public works project, empowering residents to act.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Spatial data helps residents and policymakers engage in more informed decision-making about community rights.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In early May, amid a citywide COVID-19 stay-at-home curfew, some 7,000 people in Nairobi, Kenya, were forcibly evicted from their home, a low-income settlement of Kariobangi. In the days that followed, a large swath of the area was demolished to make way for a sewer infrastructure project.\r\n\r\nNews of the housing crisis quickly reached Pamoja Trust, an advocacy organization for urban poor in Kenya. \u201cThe government was very vocal about their intention to expand sewerage plants in different places in Nairobi,\u201d said Diana Wachira, program officer with Pamoja Trust. \u201cWe knew the evictions would continue if there was no reaction.\u201d\r\n\r\nWachira\u2019s team reached out to Cadasta,\u00a0a global nonprofit that provides technologies to support land and resource rights. The Pamoja Trust team wanted a way to measure the human cost of further evictions tied to the planned sewerage projects so they could make an evidence-based case against further loss of housing. What\u2019s more, they needed this information fast so they could boost awareness of the issue among at-risk communities before the projects continued.\r\n\r\nTogether, the Pamoja Trust and Cadasta teams reviewed the sewerage plans on a digital map created with geographic information system (GIS) technology\u2014an approach that allowed them to access and communicate the data they needed, creating visualizations within a single day. \u201cWith a web-based platform, information is analyzed in real time,\u201d Wachira said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big shift in terms of technology and advocacy for land.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":474762,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"They paired the locations slated for demolition with ready-to-use aerial imagery and population density estimates from Facebook\u2019s Data for Good collection. A pattern emerged: each of the six demolition sites were near settlements like the one in Kariobangi. Should the sewerage plans move forward, over 70,000 more people from Nairobi\u2019s poorest neighborhoods would be at risk of losing their home and community.\r\n<h3><strong>Nairobi\u2019s Urban Poor: A Vast and Vulnerable Population<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe Kariobangi demolitions were not the first time a government has forced evictions from lived-on land for a public works project. At the heart of the issue are questions of land rights: who owns the land, who can use it for what purpose, and what happens when ownership or use permissions change.\r\n\r\nIn Nairobi, the answers aren\u2019t clear\u2014because the communities impacted by the sewerage plans are urban informal settlements. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/57a089f240f0b64974000338\/NCSS2-FINAL-Report.pdf\">African Health and Population Research Center<\/a>, up to 70 percent of Nairobi\u2019s 4.92 million residents live in informal settlements. Despite being home to most of the capital city's population, these areas do not receive basic public services, and residents have unprotected land rights.\r\n\r\n\u201cInformal communities are always deemed invisible,\u201d Wachira said. \u201cAnd they are excluded from rights because of that invisibility.\u201d Without land rights, on paper, Nairobi\u2019s informal settlements are merely uninhabited land that\u2019s available for urban development\u2014an interpretation that is often used to justify shortcutting eviction standards like advance notice, property loss reimbursement, or providing alternative housing.\r\n<h3><strong>Data Empowerment: The Silent Majority Reclaims Their Voice<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nBut digital visualization tools bring the city\u2019s landscape to life in a way that\u2019s much harder to ignore. As the teams at Pamoja Trust and Cadasta set out to communicate what they\u2019d learned about the sewerage plans, they created a <a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/91236dd6c0a3433cb435cc62fdfd0756\">publicly accessible, online multimedia story<\/a> that showed the population density on maps with numbers of people affected and described the methodology and findings. This resource was urgently shared with community members and a coalition of local organizations, including Muungano\u00a0wa\u00a0Wanavijiji, Kenya\u2019s federation\u00a0of urban poor.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis story really helped us sensitize the communities and let them know they were within the demolition zones, and that if they were within these zones, they were at risk of losing their property,\u201d said Justus Wambayi, program specialist for Cadasta."},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[475822,474722,474742]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Activating the power of the community made all the difference. \u201cSeeing the impact on these maps with this kind of proximity analysis, it gave people the urgency to act,\u201d Wachira said. Local coalitions quickly mobilized to effect change with reports and petitions that were submitted to the government. The sewerage plans halted.\r\n\r\nHowever, the delay is temporary by necessity. Sewerage in Nairobi is a critical issue: the city\u2019s wastewater and clean water infrastructure are severely underdeveloped. Each of the six informal settlements impacted by the plans are near deteriorating facilities in dire need of improvement.\r\n\r\nAs a result of the efforts so far, the communities at risk can now be included in the conversations. They will have a voice about next steps, and appropriate accommodations can be made for residents who will be displaced by new infrastructure. According to Ezekiel Rema, president of Muungano wa Wanavijiji, \u201cSuch work is\u00a0one of the\u00a0best\u00a0ways for\u00a0informal communities\u00a0to be\u00a0<em>informed<\/em>\u2014which enables fact-driven\u00a0advocacy by the\u00a0communities\u00a0and stronger\u00a0negotiation.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis is exactly the goal of organizations like Cadasta and Pamoja Trust, which are driven by a concept in humanitarian work called data empowerment. Rather than stepping in and advocating for communities, they provide tools and information that allow community members to advocate for themselves\u2014a sustainable solution that promotes long-term engagement in local policy.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you\u2019re extracting data and seeing it digitally on a map, but not fully engaging the communities around that information, the outcome is very different,\u201d said Amy Coughenour Betancourt, CEO of\u00a0Cadasta. \u201cThe powerful advocacy piece comes from collaboration and acting as a catalyst for the community to mobilize.\u201d\r\n<h3><strong>Spatial Technology: Seeing Communities in Context<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nData empowerment by nature relies on information. When it comes to empowering communities to protect place-based rights like land and housing, the information residents need most is likewise spatial in nature and best seen on a map. Understanding the physical size of a community, its proximity to infrastructure, or its population density, for example, validates the space communities occupy to residents and policymakers alike."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":475812,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"For informal settlements particularly, Olando Samuel, executive director at Pamoja Trust, said, \u201cConventional planning concepts do not appreciate their space and voice as part of the city. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/spatial-analytics-data-science\/overview\">Spatial data<\/a> thus provides an opportunity for them to be visible and to engage with the authorities in improving their lives.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd, Wachira explains, for data-driven advocacy groups like Pamoja Trust and Cadasta, maps and location information show how people and place come together to create something that\u2019s more valuable than the sum of its parts. \u201cWe really try to show where our communities are, what communities are doing, how communities are interacting with the spaces where they live\u2014understanding that social-spatial relationship so that when, for example, there's a threat of an eviction, you're able to show the kind of loss they would have.\u201d\r\n\r\nWambayi echoed the sentiment, saying, \u201cIn the case of these communities in Nairobi, these are people who have been living here for generations. They have homes, shops and business enterprises.\u201d But without the technology to quantify and qualify their existence to decision-makers, these communities remain invisible.\r\n\r\n\u201cCreating visibility gives attention to their plight, gives attention to their voice,\u201d Wachira said. \u201cAnd of course, with visibility, communities are able to be confident and to negotiate for the recognition and protection of their spaces because they feel seen.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/land-administration\/overview\">GIS is essential for effective land administration and land records<\/a>."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nairobi: Maps and Data Storytelling Empower Action for the Urban Poor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Digital maps empower residents of 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