From Grey to Blue-Green, Water Responsive Urbanism and Sponge Cities for African Resilient Cities

African cities are facing an intensifying urban water crisis driven by climate change, rapid urbanisation, and the expansion of informal settlements. Increasing floods, prolonged droughts, water scarcity, and ecosystem degradation are undermining safe housing, urban services, and inclusive development—particularly in resource constrained and vulnerable communities. This side event will explore water responsive urbanism as a practical and scalable pathway for strengthening urban resilience in Africa. Focusing on sponge city approaches and nature based solutions, the session will examine how cities can integrate water management, climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration, and social inclusion into urban planning and design. By working with natural hydrological processes rather than against them, water responsive approaches can reduce flood risk, improve water security, protect housing—especially in informal settlements—and enhance urban liveability. With a primary focus on Kenya and the wider East African region, the event will showcase experiences from African cities alongside targeted lessons from China, the Netherlands, and South Africa. These comparative perspectives will highlight how sponge city principles can be adapted, financed, and scaled in African urban contexts, taking into account institutional capacity, resource constraints, and local socio ecological conditions. Convened under the Aqinile Partnership—a joint initiative of the African Union, UN Habitat, UNDP, UNEP, and UNDRR—the session will draw on insights from case studies across multiple African cities to make a compelling pitch for water responsive urbanism. The event brings together donors, private sector, development partners, and experts for a solution oriented dialogue on what it takes to prepare African cities for large scale investment in blue green and sponge city approaches. Discussions will centre on the enabling conditions required to unlock finance at scale, including policy and regulatory reforms, stronger institutional coordination, development of robust and bankable project pipelines, and the use of innovative financing mechanisms such as blended and climate finance. The session aims to identify priority entry points for scaling water responsive and nature based urban infrastructure, outline actionable pathways to move from small pilots to citywide implementation, and highlight opportunities for sustained collaboration to advance resilient urban development across Africa.