Briefing Paper

Climate Resilience in Developing Cities: Msimbazi Basin, Dar es Salaam

In Dar es Salaam, the Msimbazi Basin is one of the fastest growing and most rapidly urbanising areas. This, coupled with insufficient service provision, high poverty levels and frequent floods, has a significant impact on the population. To address the multitude of challenges, the Tanzania Urban Resilience Programme (TURP) was established with the aim of supporting flood mitigation efforts and taking an integrated approach to ensuring rehabilitation and building urban resilience. This programme, as well as Tanzania’s approach to building urban resilience, provides useful lessons to other developing cities. These lessons include moving away from hard-engineering approaches and investing in nature-based interventions, relying on in-depth and targeted stakeholder engagement, and packaging and framing projects in a manner that targets a multitude of funds. Such a holistic
approach is critical to ensuring climate adaptation and building climate resilient cities.