Community-led climate action
Across Harare’s informal settlements, climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a lived reality, manifesting in extreme weather patterns, disease outbreaks and environmental degradation that shape everyday survival. In the face of these challenges, communities are coming together to respond to the impacts collectively. Through ACRC’s Informal Settlements Climate Change Action (ISCCA) project, communities are organising to lead climate resilience efforts.
As part of a miniseries covering progress in the ISCCA project, this fourth blog post shares lessons on the importance of political alignment from two informal settlements. The first outlines the climate action goals the initiative is seeking to achieve and what’s been happening so far, the second explores the establishment of a community-led climate action network, the third spotlights grassroots activities taking place in different communities, and the fifth highlights the key role that climate savings groups play in advancing community climate resilience.
By Shiela Muganyi
Across Harare’s informal settlements, the Informal Settlements Climate Change Action (ISCCA) initiative is showing that responding to climate change is not just about technical solutions, but about how people organise, how decisions are made and how power is navigated.
From drainage issues in Stoneridge to water access in Hopley, communities are taking locally-led adaptation actions. To be effective, such actions require strong leadership and political commitment.
ISCCA’s experience highlights that implementation does not depend solely on resources or plans. In many cases, progress only accelerates when communities, institutions and political leaders align. Conversely, it often stalls when internal power dynamics disrupt unity.
In this blog post, we reflect on two contrasting ISCCA experiences in informal settlements. In Harare South settlement, alignment unlocked action; and in Boko Haram settlement, fragmented leadership slowed progress. These cases highlight the fact that change in informal settlements is not only technical but also deeply political. The speed at which change happens depends on the ability of communities, institutions and political leaders to align.
Accelerating action through strategic alignment in Harare South
The process of building resilience in Harare South is illustrative of how change happens.
At first, ISCCA’s work with the Member of Parliament’s (MP’s) Development Committee moved slowly because of hierarchy and gatekeeping, which made it hard to reach decision makers. But once we spoke directly with the MP, the process changed quickly. We obtained approval to move forward, and the MP’s office sent people to help ISCCA with its work in Stoneridge and Hopley. After weeks of delays, progress began almost immediately.
This demonstrates a critical insight: gaining the support of political leaders does not always happen through official channels. Instead, it often requires a strategic, focused approach. This involves an understanding of who holds power, finding the best way in and being flexible in how to connect.
At the same time, this process highlighted the importance of alignment. When the community, the MP’s leadership and the alliance worked together, it set the stage for things to start happening. When everyone is on the same page and leaders are committed, progress speeds up.
Power dynamics undermining collective action in Boko Haram
The experience of ISCCA in the Boko Haram settlement was very different. The settlement has three cooperatives, each with its own leaders. Two of these groups were ready to work with ISCCA, but one cooperative, led by a very influential chairman, blocked progress.
This chairman used his political position to delay and weaken efforts to reach an agreement, causing division in the community. Because of this, ISCCA found it hard to get everyone on board, and it is now unlikely that the project will move forward in this settlement.
This situation shows that the existence of community groups does not in itself guarantee that people will work together. When leadership is divided or challenged, even good projects can get stuck.
Key lessons learned
These two examples reveal some clear lessons:
> Collective action is not just about participation – it depends on aligned leadership, shared vision and the ability to navigate power.
> If local leaders are not united and there is no smart approach to working with those in power, even the most well designed projects might not succeed.
Building on these lessons, we have identified four key requirements to help us – and others working with communities on climate resilience – to deal with similar situations:
1. Understanding internal power dynamics early;
2. Identifying both enablers and blockers within leadership structures;
3. Investing in social cohesion and trust before implementation;
4. Remaining adaptive where alignment cannot be achieved.
These experiences are a reminder that building climate resilience in informal settlements is about more than infrastructure, funding or technical plans. People, power and alignment are crucial to unlocking progress. Where communities are organised and leadership is committed, change can happen quickly and meaningfully. But where power is fragmented or contested, even the most promising interventions can stall.
Photo credits: Know Your City TV Zimbabwe
Note: This article presents the views of the authors featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.
Generative AI statement: ChatGPT was used to help produce a first draft of this summary blog post. This draft was then extensively edited by the communications team and approved by the author of the article.
The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.
