Sharing knowledge and building community: Reflections from KADI cities

The final KADI knowledge-exchange workshop took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from 12th–15th August 2025, bringing together over 15 early-career scientists and PhD students from across Africa, along with local participants from Tanzania.

Framed as a hands-on training event, the workshop focused on open geospatial data, low-cost tools, and participatory approaches for urban climate services in Africa. Teams from the KADI city pilots in Abidjan, Nairobi, and Dar es Salaam led the workshop and shared their experiences through presentations, field visits, and practical exercises, while exchanging knowledge between the participants.

Highlights

  • Field immersion in Kigogo and Tandale: Participants engaged directly with community members in Dar es Salaam’s informal settlements, witnessing first-hand the challenges of flooding, heat stress, poor air quality and insufficient urban infrastructure and services. In addition, a low-cost participatory mapping solution for mapping thermal comfort was tested on-site.
  • Co-creating climate services: Through interactive group work, participants designed context-specific services for African cities, such as early warning systems. The co-creation simulation was run by the Kenya Meteorological Department team with a systematic approach from understanding the local context, mapping stakeholders, and conducting a rapid climate service design. 
  • Hands-on training: Practical sessions introduced open-source tools like PARTIMAP and QGIS analysis, enabling participants to design participatory surveys and analyze local participatory mapping data from KADI Dar es Salaam pilot on community members’ climate stressor experiences.
  • Networking and exchange: The workshop fostered connections among researchers and practitioners across Africa, strengthening the foundation for future collaborations.
Rapid climate service co-creation simulation by Patricia Nying’uro and Christine Mahonga (Kenya Meteorological Department) urged workshop participants to tie their expertise from different backgrounds together. Photo: Godfrey Kassano

Day 1: Orientation at Ardhi University

Presentations introduced the KADI project, city pilot cases, and climate risks in urban Africa, click to the links below to access the presentation slides. Participants shared their own experiences, comments, and insightful views on orientation presentations. Most lively discussion was triggered by a presentation by one of the participants regarding their innovative, low-cost participatory mapping solution.

“The simple tools available to collect data are often more powerful than complex applications that take lots of time and expertise.” – Patricia Mwangi, Kenyatta University

Day 2: Field visit

During a full-day walking tour in Tandale and Kigogo wards of Dar es Salaam, participants observed climate and urban fabric induced challenges, engaged with community members, and tested a participatory mapping solution in action. 

“Local people best understand how they are affected by floods and what solutions serve them most effectively.” – Selma Ndeshimona Iilonga, University of Namibia

Visit to Tandale and Kigogo wards provided a sunny break from the office. With good walking shoes on, the day was full of conversations, sharing experiences, and building understanding on the realities of climate risk effects on urban communities. Photos: Handsome Bongani Nyoni

Day 3: Co-creation and stakeholder event

On day three, a design exercise on climate services highlighted the importance of engaging diverse actors. It was followed by KADI’s final stakeholder meeting and a social evening at barbeque dinner, music and dance.

“Citizen science plays a crucial role in shaping sustainable solutions.” – Fidele Mwizerwa, University of Rwanda

Day 4: Practical training and wrap-up

On the final day, participants built participatory mapping surveys, explored participatory data analysis with QGIS, and tested KADI’s research infrastructure blueprint before closing with certificates and reflections. Click here to access the participant mapping tool presentation. 

“I was inspired by practical sessions on mapping urban climate stressors, which demonstrated how technical tools can be adapted for community use.” – Andrew Okello, MEARL Hub Afrika, Uganda

Vastness of workshop participants’ technical skill and availability of data across African regions became concretely visible as participants listed data sources, tools and software they use in their own work. Photo: Venla Aaltonen

Looking forward

The workshop concluded with the launch of a Community of Practice (CoP) for Urban Climate Services in Africa. This network will continue knowledge sharing, collaborative project design, and joint efforts to scale up practical, community-centered climate solutions across African cities. If you wish to join this network, please reach out to us: info(at)kadi-project.eu 

“Together everyone achieves more.” – Handsome Bongani Nyoni, Midlands State University of Zimbabwe

Managing climate risks in cities call for efforts to build climate resilient urban infrastructure: Ensuring good drainage of rainfall water, taking care of natural rivers and streams, protecting and increasing urban greenery, and building with climate-safe materials and techniques. Photo: Andrew Okello