Urban Nature for All: Healing, Equity, and Resilient Green Spaces in Africa

🌿 This session explores how nature-based solutions can draw on traditional connections to nature and cultural roots, evolving into inclusive, community-owned approaches that support mental health, strengthen social cohesion, and make life in African cities healthier for all.

🌱 Nature-based connection and therapy are increasingly recognised for their mental health and wellbeing benefits. Too often, though, they are framed as wellness services for those who can afford them. In Africa, the question is whether these approaches will remain an elite luxury, or whether they can be adapted into affordable, culturally grounded strategies that advance health equity.

🌍 We know from high-income countries that nature-based solutions can be applied successfully in underprivileged communities, improving mental health and strengthening social connections, showing they can serve as effective public health tools.

🏙️ The urgency is clear in Africa’s cities. Rapid urbanisation brings overcrowding, pollution, heat, and limited access to safe green space—stressors that fall most heavily on low-income communities. At the same time, as people move from rural to urban life, there is a real risk of losing cultural traditions deeply rooted in nature—whether in farming, herbal medicine, rituals, or communal gatherings.

🌸 The opportunity lies in reimagining these practices for urban settings, so they remain sources of resilience, belonging, and healing. Imagine schools that turn gardens and outdoor play into spaces of learning and resilience, clinics that use green courtyards to reduce stress for patients and health workers, or public spaces that integrate cultural practices into new urban forms.

🤝 Co-organised with ICLEI Africa, this webinar invites us to explore how Africa can prevent the loss of these cultural links and transform them into inclusive, community-owned nature-based solutions for cities; practical strategies that support mental health, strengthen social cohesion, and make urban life healthier for all. Presentations will share examples of nature-based solutions being deployed in Africa, and how they can be tailored to meet the specific needs of different communities.