Utafiti Sera Urban Governance House Project Inception Convening

The Utafiti Sera Urban Governance and City Transformation House, hosted by Pamoja Trust (PT), in collaboration with the Partnership for African Social & Governance Research (PASGR), has been implementing an Utafiti Sera project focussing on providing evidence for productive engagement and policy processes aimed at improving social aspects of urban infrastructure development Kenya. In the last five years, the House has, mobilized and empowered communities, trained and built professional networks, and generated evidence that has contributed to the development of technical inputs. These includes social safeguards guidelines, a social planning framework, and a reader on stakeholder engagement. The evidence has also been instrumental in defining the emerging policy directions within government agencies i.e., Policy on Social Risk Management (SRIM).

The House now moves into its fourth phase with a strategic shift. While earlier phases focused primarily on convening dialogue and generating evidence, this phase seeks to systematically trace, document, institutionalize and communicate how evidence influences policy, professional practice, and community outcomes.

The Inception Convening
This convening serves as the formal inception of the phase Integrating Social Safeguards into Policy and Practice Through Evidence-Informed. It will provide a structured platform to validate the draft Evidence Use Tracker tool, which is designed to document decision points, key actors, evidence triggers, and resulting changes. The convening will also facilitate the documentation of initial evidence-use cases emerging from legislative reform processes, shifts in professional practice, academic engagements, and community-led influence initiatives.

Participants will work together to identify current and upcoming policy opportunities that can serve as entry points for influencing infrastructure governance and social safeguards. This will include reviewing ongoing policy and legislative processes, regulatory reforms, and institutional reviews at county and national levels. Through this exercise, the House will develop a practical “Policy Windows and Entry Points Map” highlighting where, when, and how social safeguard evidence can be strategically used to influence policy change.