Lagos - ACRC

Is knowledge power? Reflections on water, sanitation and survival in informal settlements

Hannah — Wed, 20 May 2026 06:15:00 +0000

By Oluwaseun Muraina and Rasheed Shittu, ACRC Lagos action research project co-leads

When a key character in Game of Thrones tells Queen Cersei that “knowledge is power”, her immediate response is to order his death, with the retort that “power is power”.

We can draw a lesson from this. Knowledge alone does not determine outcomes – authority, institutions, enforcement and the ability to shape decisions do. The tension between knowledge and power is not confined to fictional kingdoms. It plays out daily in African cities, particularly in informal settlements, where communities possess deep knowledge of their realities but often lack formal authority to influence their preferred realities over land, infrastructure and services.

When the ACRC Lagos water and sanitation (WASH) team visited Mukuru in Nairobi, for a learning exchange, we carried a simple question: how do informal settlements secure dignified water and sanitation access in cities that often overlook them? What can Lagos learn from Nairobi in the struggle for equitable water and sanitation?

What we observed in Mukuru was not just community innovation, but well-organised influence. Alongside the improved water and sanitation provision, we witnessed how communities convert knowledge into structured bargaining power. In Mukuru’s informal settlements, the presence of community data, organised committees, transparent billing systems, and strategic engagement with city authorities has transformed lived experience into negotiating strength.

What we returned with was a series of more difficult questions: Is knowledge really power? How does a community move from understanding its deprivation to shaping the systems that govern it? And how does information translate into institutional authority?

Using data as a tool for community advocacy

Our visit began with Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT), which hosted the delegation and is a central protagonist of the Mukuru Special Planning Area (SPA) story. AMT revealed a critical insight: communities that are not counted are easily ignored. Through systematic profiling, mapping and documentation, AMT and Mukuru residents have strengthened their engagement with county authorities, in some cases contributing to more structured responses to displacement and upgrading.

In many of Nairobi’s informal settlements, communities document their conditions, map households, profile residents, and generate credible data. Yet data alone does not constitute power. Formal authority continues to reside in planning offices, budget committees and political institutions. But as we saw in Mukuru, communities can build negotiating power by forming alliances, demonstrating competence, and formalising their role in service delivery. In this way, data moves beyond information and becomes a tool for securing planning recognition, resisting eviction, and demanding inclusion in formal urban processes.

Building public trust, one sewer line at a time

Mukuru’s simplified sewer systems, facilitated by the state-owned Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company, serve hundreds of households through cost-effective design. Pre-paid water dispensers operate through token-based billing, reducing disputes and increasing transparency. These are technical solutions, but their deeper value lies in governance. Clear billing systems, defined management structures and accountable committees build trust. Trust strengthens legitimacy. Legitimacy strengthens negotiating authority.

What this means for Lagos

For Lagos, particularly in Okerube, where ACRC’s WASH project is ongoing, this lesson is critical. infrastructure must be accompanied by systems that institutionalise community governance. Without this, even the best technical model remains fragile.

The Lagos WASH team returned with clear actions to follow up on:

> Strengthening community data collection for advocacy.

> Deepening engagement with government and political office holders.

> Adapting proven solutions from Mukuru to improve service access, transparency and sustainability in Lagos informal settlements.

The broader insight is this: information without influence is vulnerable. Knowledge without organisation is limited. Power is the structured capacity to shape outcomes – built through committees, data systems, alliances, transparent management and sustained engagement with institutions.

In Mukuru, we witnessed how mobilised communities are combining all of these to deliver results – one water point, one dataset, and one negotiation at a time. The approach to WASH provision there demonstrates that when communities combine technical knowledge with collective organisation and strategic political engagement, they can move from surviving the city to shaping it.

Ultimately, power is the ability of ordinary citizens to influence how the city works. This is what we want to build.

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Podcast: Building community-driven WASH solutions in Lagos

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From Mukuru to Okerube: Reflections from the Nairobi–Lagos WASH exchange

Hannah — Wed, 20 May 2026 06:00:00 +0000

By Patrick Njoroge , Rex Otieno and Maureen Musya

In early February, the Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT) led a nine-person delegation from Nairobi for a weeklong learning exchange visit to Okerube informal settlement in Lagos. The visit built on a previous exchange, when the Lagos city team visited Mukuru informal settlement in Nairobi to learn from an established WASH intervention. It forms part of ACRC’s wider effort to strengthen learning across cities and projects.

The visit aimed to build institutional consensus and strengthen collaboration around an integrated planning process for Okerube – an approach proposed during the earlier Mukuru exchange to support coordinated and inclusive settlement planning. It created a space for the Kenyan delegation – comprising AMT, Nairobi City County Government (NCCG), Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC), and representatives from Mukuru community – to meaningfully engage with local government leadership, research institutions, technical partners, and community actors in Lagos.

The University of Lagos Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development hosted the visit with the ACRC Lagos city team and the Shantytown Empowerment Foundation (SHEF). Discussions focused on governance, service delivery, participatory planning and climate resilience. Further lessons were drawn from the Mukuru WASH intervention in Nairobi and contextualised within Lagos’s institutional framework.

Meeting local council members and visiting Okerube

The first day included a visit to the Executive Chairman of Igando/Ikotun Local Council Development Area (LCDA), a transect walk through the Okerube settlement and a meeting aimed at aligning government commitment with community priorities.

Meeting the Igando/Ikotun Chairman reinforced a need for structured collaboration between local and state governments in order to improve service delivery. He highlighted the importance of multistakeholder partnerships to address infrastructure deficits and expand access to basic services, also noting the need to grant greater autonomy to local governments to strengthen accountability and improve delivery.

During the engagement, the Chairman also formally confirmed institutional support for the WASH project in Okerube settlement, committing participation from relevant departments within the local government – specifically Budget and Planning, Agriculture, Health and Social Services, and Works and Development. The visit concluded with the Chairman expressing readiness to scale development interventions following implementation of the research project, reaffirming the institutional commitment to collaborative planning.

Following the meeting, the team visited Okerube settlement to better understand the spatial realities of the area – particularly the infrastructure conditions and flood-prone zones – as well as its socioeconomic dynamics. Unlike many highly congested informal settlements, Okerube has open spaces and defined plots, but inadequate infrastructure, weak drainage management and environmental vulnerability compound flooding in the settlement. While an active informal economy has emerged to fill service provision gaps, these enterprises are often located in high flood risk areas.

A community meeting was also convened to allow direct dialogue with Okerube residents. Although some community members were hesitant to openly discuss local challenges, other residents highlighted a number of priority needs – including improved water and sanitation, flood management, electricity supply, road and drainage infrastructure, secondary education, streetlighting and security. Flooding in particular emerged as a critical concern, with community members reporting severe flooding at least every two years and one resident describing having to carry her child on her shoulders through chest-level floodwaters to safety.

At the end of the day, the delegation had made progress in contextualising Okerube’s vulnerabilities and securing formal commitment from the LCDA to support the implementation of the WASH action research project.

Institutional learning and knowledge sharing

The second day of the exchange visit focused on sharing knowledge and laying the groundwork for coordinated participatory planning, bringing together representatives from the Nairobi delegation, ACRC Lagos, SHEF, academic partners and local stakeholders to examine the political, institutional and community frameworks shaping urban development processes in Nigeria and Kenya.

ACRC Lagos in-city politics lead Damilola Agbalajobi delivered a presentation on Nigeria’s political and governance system, contextualising the planning environment for the Okerube WASH initiative and exploring the political dynamics that influence development processes in Lagos.

Funmilayo Daniel separately presented on the Women Water Committees, covering their leadership structure, operational model and how organised community groups have improved water accountability in underserved areas. Her presentation underlined how women’s groups have emerged as critical actors in improving water access in communities.

Following this, the Nairobi delegation shared practical experiences from Kenya – with Maureen Musya presenting the Mukuru Special Planning Area process and Rex Otieno covering the Homa Bay planning process, detailing the methodology and highlighting how long-term frameworks can provide stability and allow for phased investment.

Designing an integrated plan for Okerube

The third day transitioned from knowledge sharing to structured design. Collectively, delegates made progress in defining a shared vision for Okerube informal settlement and outlining the structured actions required to guide the planning process. With support from AMT, the ACRC Lagos team prepared an integrated participatory plan for Okerube informal settlement, moving beyond WASH issues to address broader and interconnected challenges – such as flooding, infrastructure deficits, land issues, social amenities and environmental risks.

For relevance and sustainability, the plan required integration at several levels:

> Integration with existing statutory and development plans

> Sectoral coordination across thematic areas

> Spatial and non-spatial linkages

> Climate and environmental considerations

> Structured input from diverse stakeholders

By the end of the day, it was clear that structured governance arrangements, early and sustained stakeholder engagement, standardised data systems and data-led decision making were key to a phased and methodical planning pathway.

Building capacity around data collection

The fourth day saw the team returning to Okerube settlement for a field-based capacity sharing initiative, which involved hands-on training on enumeration and real-time testing of tools to prepare for a full-scale data collection exercise. After preliminary deliberations to agree on a numbering structure, the session formally commenced with an orientation exercise for 17 community researchers on data collection. The pilot exercise allowed testing of research tools and refinement of questions, to sharpen numbering prior to a full rollout.

Involving community co-researchers proved instrumental in facilitating access and building trust. Their familiarity with local pathways and residents helped cooperation and minimised resistance. The pilot also worked to strengthen enumerator confidence, clarify workflow expectations and provide a shared understanding of quality control standards.

Reflecting and mapping a way forward

As the Lagos and Nairobi teams met one last time for a structured debrief on day five, it was clear that the visit had successfully secured institutional commitment from the Igando/Ikoton LCDA, strengthened collaboration across city teams, and built a shared understanding of an integrated, community-centred and evidence-based planning framework. Strong emphasis was laid on the centrality of co-production between community members, government actors and technical partners.

The exchange visit closed with mutual commitment to advancing the integrated planning process for Okerube settlement, with a collaborative framework linking SHEF, the University of Lagos and the local government. Conscious of the comprehensive nature of planning processes, the team charted a two-phase approach, aligned with statutory planning frameworks and institutional mandates. The first phase will focus on generating evidence and building capacity for comprehensive household numbering, mapping and enumeration, and the second on collective interpretation of the evidence and consolidating the integrated people’s plan.

Continued learning and collaboration

The five-day visit illuminated a complex governance landscape in Lagos state, along with clear physical and environmental vulnerabilities in Okerube, the need for strategic planning and alignment with government priorities, and the centrality of community and evidence in collaborative planning. Beyond securing institutional commitment from the LCDA, the learning exchanges have led to commitment from regional and national governments to advance WASH reforms in Okerube, with SHEF being invited to submit a 145 million Naira (approximately USD 105,700) proposal towards upgrading of WASH infrastructure in Okerube.

As the teams in Nairobi and Lagos continue to grapple with ways of catalysing inclusive urban transformation, the exchange has helped mark a clear path ahead for the ACRC initiative in Okerube: forming multistakeholder consortia, settlement-wide enumeration and mapping, validating findings, and preparing an integrated people’s plan to submit through local government structures.

SDI affiliate SHEF will anchor the process locally, while AMT provides technical advisory support, guiding the strategic approach and ensuring methodological rigour. The team will also explore cross-project collaboration with other ACRC initiatives, such as flood modelling, property tax and waste management.

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Podcast: Building community-driven WASH solutions in Lagos

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Podcast: Building community-driven WASH solutions in Lagos

Hannah — Fri, 08 May 2026 07:00:00 +0000

“Sustainability for us would mean leaving behind capability and capacities, not dependency.”

In the informal settlement of Okerube in Lagos, the community faces significant challenges in accessing clean water and sanitation, which disproportionately impacts women and children. An ACRC action research project is aiming to address these issues through establishing a sustainable, community-driven social enterprise model.

In this podcast episode, Deji Akinpelu is joined by guests Temilade Sesan, ACRC Lagos city manager, Funmilayo Daniel, a woman leader from Okerube community, and project co-leads Oluwaseun Muraina and Rasheed Shittu. They discuss the importance of building trust with the community, harnessing existing women-led structures to advance water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) solutions, and supporting residents to advocate for their rights, so they can actively shape their community’s future.

Highlighting how community-driven initiatives like these can challenge urban inequality – by strengthening the capacities and capabilities of residents, and advocating for greater representation of informal settlements in urban planning – they also talk about the need for collaborative planning and community ownership, to ensure sustainability over the long term. Looking beyond Okerube to other informal settlements in Lagos, they conclude by talking about what a just and sustainable future would look like for these underserved areas.

Deji Akinpelu is co-founder of Rethinking Cities, an advocacy group working on urban development issues in Lagos, and part of the ACRC Lagos uptake team.

Temilade Sesan is a social development researcher and ACRC’s city manager for Lagos.

Funmilayo Daniel is a woman leader from the Okerube Water Committee in Lagos.

Oluwaseun Muraina is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development, University of Lagos, and co-lead of the ACRC WASH action research project in Lagos.

Rasheed Shittu is the founder and executive director of the Shantytown Empowerment Foundation (SHEF) and co-lead of the ACRC WASH action research project in Lagos.

Transcript

The full podcast transcript is available below.

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Deji Akinpelu Welcome to the African Cities podcast, brought to you by the African Cities Research Consortium, ACRC. Today we’ll be taking a closer look at how everyday communities are driving real change in water sanitation and hygiene, known as WASH, in the city of Lagos here in Nigeria. Our focus is on the Okerube community, one of the action research sites under the ACRC’s Lagos portfolio. This episode will explore how academic research connects with grassroots action and how communities are reclaiming local governance and how sustainable planning is taking shape from the ground up. With me on today’s episode are four amazing guests, who have all played key roles in this journey so far. I will allow them to introduce themselves. First, Dr Temilade, kindly introduce yourself.

Temilade Sesan Hello, everyone. My name is Temilade Sesan. I am the city manager for ACRC in Lagos.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you for being here. So let us have Mrs Daniel Funmilayo, a woman leader representative from the community. Mrs Daniel, can you please introduce yourself?

Funmilayo Mulikat Daniel I am Mrs Daniel, the women leader from Okerube water committee.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you for coming. Okay. Next is Seun. Please, can you introduce yourself?

Oluwaseun Muraina Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Oluwaseun. I’m a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development. I am also the co-lead on the WASH project at Okerube.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you. Followed by Mr Rasheed.

Rasheed Shittu So my name is Rasheed Shittu, the executive director of Shantytown Empowerment Foundation, SHEF, the professional support organisation to Nigerian Federation, Slum Dwellers International, SDI, affiliates, also the lead on the ACRC WASH project in Okerube community under Oluwaseun.

Deji Akinpelu Great, thank you to everyone for joining us. So we’ll just get it all started. Temilade, let’s start with you. What made Okerube such an important site for the ACRC project? And what does its story reveal about urban inequality in Lagos?

Temilade Sesan Thank you very much and thank you again for having me on this really important conversation. So ACRC really is all about demonstrating through what we call exemplar projects and how communities that have been historically overlooked in urban development can really lead the way in helping us to rethink and reimagine what a good African city should look like? You know, what is that definition of a good city, a good society? Hint, the answer really is, you know, a city that carries everyone along in development and leaves no one behind. And Okerube is one such community. Okerube, if you’ve been there, I have had the privilege of being there several times. It’s got great social, cultural, economic, even political capital, right? But it’s really on the fringes, right? In terms of services and infrastructure, like water and sanitation, which is one of the many wicked problems in the community that, you know, ACRC has chosen to start with. And what does it say about our society, you know, and urban inequality? The second part of your question. I think that Okerube and, you know, similar communities, I think that they hold up a mirror to who we are as a society. I think they show us how short-sighted we are and how inequality really is an unproductive strategy, if we can call it a strategy. So just imagine, I’ll give a thought experiment here. Imagine for a second that tomorrow there’s a cholera outbreak in Okerube, which is in one of the most populated, maybe even the most-populated LGA in Lagos, Alimosho. That there’s a cholera outbreak in the area due to the inadequacy of WASH facilities, what we’re trying to address. The ripple effects are going to be enormous, schools may be closed, travel advisories will be issued. We’ve seen advisories being issued for even, even less, shall I say consequential, occurrences, you know, investors will be wary. You have things like shares dropping, share prices and things dropping, in other words like, you know, the big big dreams – in Lagos, we like to say big big things, which is after big big things – but the big dreams that we are chasing as a city would be severely threatened by this seemingly humble and simple you know thing that is inadequate water and sanitation in the city. So it just shows that inequality does not pay. At the end of the day, it does not pay anyone. And if it doesn’t pay anyone, then it doesn’t pay everyone.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you very much, that was quite insightful I must say. Yeah, so let’s hear from the community side directly. So I’ll be moving on to Mrs Funmilayo. So Mrs Funmilayo, can you please paint a picture of what everyday life looks like in Okerube, especially around water and sanitation? What has been the challenges so far?

Funmilayo Mulikat Daniel The Okerube community is a place here that is highly populated and the population is increasing on a daily basis due to the newly constructed road in the area. But unfortunately, as the community is growing, the issue of water and sanitation is becoming larger. Water and sanitation are major issues in the Okerube community. When people wake up in the morning, the first thing they move for is water to start the day’s activities and in the process of doing that, since they wake up early, the people that give free water, the few of them that give free water, they are not set to come out to give them and the houses where they have to go and fetch the water, where there are water vendors, it’s about five to eight houses, far away from the users. And at that point, when our women and children, when they go to fetch water, looking for water around, they are victims of being attacked by miscreants in the community. And we all know that the provision of potable water gives way to sanitation and good health. Without water, there’s nothing, we cannot be talking of sanitation. Frankly speaking, Okerube is currently experiencing bad sanitation due to lack of water. And most houses don’t have clean environments, resulting to water-borne diseases. Unfortunately, the community is not pushing enough to get water and sanitation. So the CDA (Community Development Association) is purely funded by the residents. And the focus is not for them to be able to pay for the security charges, the maintenance of electricity, and some self-help projects that does not require intensive expenses. This is because even majority of the residents, they don’t believe that it is their responsibility to do that. They are waiting for government. Government is not forthcoming. And this nonchalant attitude has led us to this level. Even the development levy, the levies that we normally collect monthly, the people don’t pay. And there’s no legal backing for the CDA to be able to get their money from the residents. And that is another challenge that we have. You have to use appeal. You appeal to them to pay the little money they want to pay. And when you don’t enforce anything, you don’t want to enforce, our people will not even take it seriously. So that is the challenges that we have. We are just hoping and hoping that there should be community development awareness campaign among our people and then there should be a legal way from government for us to be able to collect our levy. Then if that’s the goal, we’ll be able to get what we want.

Deji Akinpelu Okay, I’ll come back to you, Mrs Funmilayo, again. Right now, I’d like to move to Mr Rasheed who is the project lead on this. Mr Rasheed, so far, what are the key activities in trying to address this issue? What are the activities that have been carried out in Okerube and how has the reception been?

Rasheed Shittu Yeah, thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be part of this podcast with regards to the WASH project in Okerube. Well, basically, since the inception of the project, the activities that we’ve been able to carry out in Okerube, one, we visited the community with the ACRC team from Manchester across all of the African cities. And there was a high level of enthusiasm from the community to receive the large team of ACRC and also the project itself. And again, we went around the community to visit the proposed land site for the hub, where the toilets and the borehole and the bathroom infrastructure, under water and sanitation. We visited the site, proposed site, with the ACRC team, with the community representatives. Also, one of the activities that we’ve been able to carry out was that we did a pre-project introduction in the community in ensuring that we are able to at least give the community an insight to the project that we intend to implement in their community and also we did the main project introduction in the community to be able to formally launch the project. And which, with regards to the reception, yeah, there was a high level of acceptance from the community during the project introduction and also joining the main project introduction, which is positive and we aim to ensure that the projects empower the women in the community and also key governance actors, to be able to improve water and sanitation services delivery in Okerube community. And also, there was a good acceptance from the local political appointee, which is the honourable councillor that is serving urban in Okerube Ward B, under Igando-Ikotun LCDA. Which also, there was the reception from the Lagos representative that attended the main launch of the project, and that would definitely address the challenges, the community phase in terms of water and sanitation, which also will serve as a learning space or a learning centre for all other informal settlements and slum communities that we work with in the city of Lagos.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you very much. It is good to hear that there are other stakeholders like government agencies and government appointees also participating in the project so far. And now to you, Seun. You also, you are a co-lead on this, so, okay. Okerube project, from what I gathered, was considering a very interesting approach in solving the WASH challenge in the community, using a social enterprise model rather than the traditional aid approach. Why this direction?

Oluwaseun Muraina Thank you. So the decision to adopt this social enterprise model it came about, or emerged from years, I’ll say years, of learning that the benevolent and the purely aid-driven projects often fail or collapse once external funding ends. And the same also applies to government provided infrastructure that hasn’t exactly put in the proper manmade frameworks increase. And so this persistent problem in these communities have often come from weak financial governance structures. So the first thing we did in Okerube was to, just like Mr Rasheed mentioned, there were a lot of preliminary activities, right? And the first thing we did was to know what currently exists and understand the people’s everyday realities, right? Some of things we wanted to find out: where the facilities, the services are available, you know, the mode of operations and the management existing. And what we found that was we noted was that the WASH interventions in this community have mainly been benevolent-based, you know, provisions, many times although they rely on government projects or charity. But the situation where what is available are meant for coming out. So we started to see that these things have not been sustained over time. For example, on toilet facilities, right, we noted one that was provided by the senator representing that district, another provided by the government, and another that’s privately owned, but mainly for commercial users. One of these three toilet facilities, especially the one provided by senator, you know, is currently non-functional. And another one, the one that’s provided by government has been taken over by an individual. And then the last one, of course, that’s privately owned for commercial users, where people have to pay tokens to access it. So we’re seeing situations where there is abandonment, there is non-functionality, and then we know what’s being meant for communal use that they’re taking over by an individual because proper structures have not been put in place, even with the government. And on the other hand, we’ve also realised that these residents are paying inflated prices for water. Of questionable quality, water that is not even potable, just to meet their daily need, and they are paying to unregulated water vendors who they have to rely on to provide this water. So, having analysed [inaudible] on ground is why we are proposing a more sustainable model, which we believe is going to be community-driven, of course, and which is in the form of this social enterprise model, so that we bridge the gap, and then they are able to move from of dependency to more self-reliance. So what is the social enterprise model? It is a model that is often adopted to address specific challenges and where a substantial portion of income generated through the sale of goods or services are then clawed back or reinvested into expanding the enterprise. And in this case, rather than this community solely relying on maybe donations or grants, they’re able to generate income that helps them to maintain this facility. So in form of [inaudible] in the form of remuneration for people who will be managing, you know, all of that. So that even when after long after we are out, this project has ended, these facilities are maintained long after this phase and then basically. So, of course, they need the greater details of it to still be fleshed out because there’s still a phase where we have to do community profiling and mapping to determine the exact needs of this community. But at least this is what we are proposing, a sustainable model. And every other thing we’re still planning.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you for that very in-depth explanation to the model being adopted for the programme. I’d like to move to Mrs Funmilayo, you’re a woman leader in the community and I would just like to know what has been the role being played by these women so far during this project and what are the possibilities that you see coming your way as a community, particularly as women?

Funmilayo Mulikat Daniel The role that women have played, they are numerous. They are numerous. Number one, the volunteering spirit of the Okerube Water Committee to work as a team is the key factor that plays a very vital role in shaping these initiatives. The spirit of unity in us. And we have been able to reach out to community members, creating awareness to the youth, to the market women, political office holders, advocating for the support of this initiative. And also, we hold our regular meeting, brainstorming on how to meet the initiative resources. And again, by active participation on all the programmes that are on ground for the initiative. That is the work that we have been doing. Now, we are hoping that with all this put in place, we will get where we are going. Thank you.

Deji Akinpelu Oh, thank you very much for that, your response. And still on the issue of gender, Dr Temilade, from your own research lens, how do you see gender shaping the outcome of this particular project?

Temilade Sesan Okay, thanks for that question. So I think one of the things that really excited me at the start of this, you know, while we were even shaping this proposal led by Mr Rasheed, was really this woman-led lens, because it is absolutely central to what we’re trying to do here. Women and children, you know, are traditionally the custodians of water provision, water access, I mean in households and communities here. So that’s something that you would write in like a research paper, right? In an academic paper. But what does it really mean in practice? I mean, for me, I do have lived experience of this. Growing up, the other day, I was telling my ten-year-old, and I tell them some of these scary stories about when I was growing up sometimes just to scare them straight. And I’m like, you know, when I, as your age, I used to fetch water. My mum would send me and my siblings, all girls, naturally, to go and fetch water in buckets on our heads that we’d carry on our heads two streets away. So I remember it was this military barracks, not very… for children was quite far, like a, I don’t know, ten-minute trek. So you’d go, and then fetch the water and balance it on your head and cross streets with cars, moving cars, no sidewalks, nothing. And back, I really don’t know how, you know, we survived that phase, but this is the picture of people, women, children, growing up in Lagos. And so you find that they are more implicated than any group, than any demographic in this problem. And so having women on the supply side and in management, right, as this project is doing, really does improve the quality of the decisions that are made with regard to community-led water provision. For example, like, you know, inciting the infrastructure and safeguarding it. Mrs Daniel mentioned earlier how sometimes, you know you have, you know harassment going on with the young girls that go to fetch water. These are everyday realities and we cannot hide our heads in the sand pretending they don’t exist. They do. You know, pricing the water, all those kinds of decisions, having women, not just as maybe sitting ducks, waiting for decisions to be made on their behalf on something that they are the most affected by, you know, it’s really a relief. And so we will have more of the lived experiences of women going to those decisions. So that’s a really big win for the kinds of outcomes that we can expect from this kind of project. And maybe just to add, finally, that beyond the actual infrastructure provision and use, we’re looking to use this project as an opportunity to broaden the space for women, not just for agency and being able to do things, but also for voice, for being able to express their voice, not just at the community level, first of all, starting from there, but also at the local government and state government levels. It’s not a secret that Nigeria has one of the lowest levels of women’s representation just in decision-making politically at all levels. And so this is also going to be a window to begin to make more space for those voices to be expressed.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you. Very, very important. Having a gender lens into development issues is very, very key and important. It’s one of the key learnings that have come out in previous research works all over the world. And that will bring me to my next question to Seun. What are some of the key learnings so far and how are you thinking about sustainability going forward? I know that’s a two in one question, but just help us to just quickly address that. The key learnings so far and then sustainability going forward.

Oluwaseun Muraina Alright, thank you. There’s been quite a few learnings so far, to be honest. Speaking from someone coming from the academia, to having to work on the action research projects. People in ACRC would know that an action research project is definitely different from the way that we do traditional research, right? And so for me, I’ll speak to a few learnings. But one major one is that trust and transparency are the foundation of community collaboration, right? So we didn’t come in assuming trust will be automatically gotten from these people, right. We realised earlier on that, you know, community buy-in must be earned. Which is what informed many of the project teams for engagement meetings and activities. So I think understanding that early on has helped us and especially in the any buy-in and acceptance that we’ve gotten so far. So we went in, assuring them, you know, through different formats and meetings, helping them to clarify our roles, helping to clarify expectations, you know. Creating forums and dialogues to clear out issues early on and then we could see the results in the major town hall meeting that we had. So all of this helped us to also prevent conflict. So that’s one major thing for me, not to assume that community buy-ins, it’s automatically gotten, but should be earned. Another thing which applies to a typical action research is that it is a dynamic process. It’s more like iterative. There’s always a constant back and forth, buy-in, right? So we don’t come in with fixed solutions, right, but we’re co-creating all of this with the community and they know, which is why we have community, you know, representatives on the team, who are more like the face of the entire community and it doesn’t stop there. We also take it to the larger house so that we are all speaking with one voice and some of the feedback we get, we go back to the table, the drawing table, you know, to also make sure that all of that is reflecting to the best of how we can, you know, impute all of the feedback that we’re getting. And so it’s more iterative than one-way. So there are no fixed solutions, we are co-creating and then adapting as we go on, right? And so that’s also a major key point for me. And another one I would like to share is the fact that these women-led structures are in fact very effective. We are happy to ride on the work that the key NGO, the last year, has been doing so far. And so having to build on that has been very helpful for us. Recognising these informal structures, the governance at play, you know, is what has been helping us achieve success so far. Well, if I do say so, success so far. So, recognising this community and the work that they’ve done so far and also helping to strengthen their capacity, especially in the areas of governance, has been very key. So, yeah, those are the key learnings I will speak to. There’s so much more. Now, to the second question you asked, on how we are thinking about sustainability going forward. I will say, sustainability for us would mean leaving behind capability and capacities, not dependency. I spoke earlier about the fact that even when the research phase is over, you know, we can still pinpoint to the fact, that even years down the line, that this project is successful because the project we want to leave behind, we still find it’s [inaudible]. And so that’s what sustainability [inaudible], we’re living behind capability. And so going forward, we want to further strengthen the structure that is available in terms of all the groups, not only the women now, all the groups, all the groups. Somewhere that they can continue without the need for external support. And if, because it’s still the pilot phase, if this is accepted, it means that we can replicate the same scale up across even the larger Okerube community, and then other informal communities, you know, in the future. That’ll be taken on in the future. So that’s what sustainability critically is to us. You know, how we’re able to leave behind capabilities. And also, recognition and representation. So by the time you develop these people’s capabilities, they’re aware of their needs and how they should demand for their needs to be met. And they are not going there without informed knowledge. So they are able to know who’s responsible for what. And call them into action because we’ve empowered them. You know, they call these people into action and they’re able to ask for their rights and also basically just shape their lives going forward. And they can do all of this with the information that they have. And one thing we’re also trying to do is the mapping and profiling base will get them involved, especially the youth. So the community owns this information in the form of data. And they can demand for their rights, yeah, from that.

Deji Akinpelu Yeah, thank you so much for that lovely response. I mean, this is really speaking to the possibility of change. And my next question will go to Dr Temilade. At the ACRC, there is the concept and the theory concerning change. So far, from the ACRC conceptual framework, what are you seeing in terms of the possibility of change coming up from this project, from the ACRC theory of change?

Temilade Sesan Okay, great. So just to say, first of all, that we are testing the theory of change on ACRC, meaning that we have come in with this theory and seeing how it will pan out in practice. And our experiences on the ground will inform this theory of change, ie, are there parts of it that need to be tweaked, you know, to fit the reality as opposed to the other way around? So the four central pillars of the ACRC theory of change: the elite commitment, enhanced state capacity, mobilised citizens, and building reform coalitions. I would say that the latter, the last two, are the first ones that we are sort of starting with, because this is very much community-driven. So mobilised citizens at the grassroots level, mobilised through organisations, movements like the Federation and SHEF, which is like the presiding organisation for SDI and the Federation. And then those movements and organisations linking to broader allies, as it were, with like people, organisations of like mind, right, and trying to build momentum, right, around not just infrastructure in one community, but also just raising the profile of WASH more broadly in Lagos. So in the short term, these are the pillars that we are starting with. But in the long term, we see, as Seun has just said, the evidence coming out of that, we see that then informing potentially elite commitment, political elites at the local government and state government levels, as well as enhanced state capacity to engage with communities. Yes, there is the technical capacity that maybe a lot of people focus on, but it’s also the capacity to work with communities to determine what the needs are, you know, and to respond appropriately. So that would be like, if you will, in a sense, WASH 2.0 from our perspective. But yeah, that’s what we hope to do from the short to the medium to the long-term.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you very much. And to Mr Rasheed, as we close the… wind up. Mr Rasheed, tell me, what are your hopes for this project in terms of not just Okerube, but in terms of Lagos in general? What do you hope that this project will be able to achieve, in terms of how the government relates with informal communities in the city of Lagos? What do you think you are going to be able to achieve with this initiative at Okerube?

Rasheed Shittu Thank you so much for that brilliant question, Deji. I’m glad you came up with that question. Yeah, I will use two words to kind of explain and maybe expand it more. [Inaudible] to assessibility and acceptability because reason being that the informal and slum communities have been marginalised. They are deprived communities. Which the gap has been created between the government and the governed, and which the community or the informal people doesn’t have any trust when it comes to government officials’ engagements. Because the reason being that it has been planning for them, not planned with them. There has been a major reason why most of the project has been a failed project or abandoned project. But when there is accessibility, the project we give room as Okerube as a learning space and as a pilot to be able to have access to the government, the political elite, and to be able to accept them, and that we kind of give a change that Dr Temilade spoke about when it comes to sustainability. And now and again, there’s going to be acceptability because if they cannot assess the government or the political elected representative, how would they accept them? So after that, there is going to acceptability of the concept itself, and also what is coming from the community. Because the majority of them believe that these community people has nothing to offer or has no knowledge at all. But I’m glad that one of the responses from Seun, she made mention of the academia, research is just a pure, maybe theoretical aspects. But the project gave room for, the AR project gave room for action research projects, which kind of let people understand that the community have their own knowledge, they understand their community more, they know where it pinches, they are the one that wear the shoes. So, by and large, at the end of the day, we were able to achieve the assessibility and acceptability on the part of the political elites, who would definitely achieve a greater part in scaling up and also accepting the project, not only in Lagos alone, but across Nigeria as a nation. Thank you so much.

Deji Akinpelu Oh, great. Fantastic. So we’ll just wrap up with the with pretty much our last question to everyone. Maybe I’m going to start with Dr Temilade. And this is what I call the picture painting session. So tell us. We’ve spoken about Okerube as an informal settlement, but just tell us in your closing remarks, what exactly should a just and sustainable future look like for informal settlements like Okerube in the city of Lagos? What should we be aspiring towards? That would be our last question. I’ll let Dr Temilade go first.

Temilade Sesan Great. Thanks, Deji. So you’re giving me a blank canvas here. I could paint. I could paint, you know, all day on this. I think that the big picture is broad, is very broad. But I’ll just pick on maybe one thing, and piggyback on Mr Rasheed’s last comment around, you know, what would a just and sustainable future look like? It would be one that harnesses the assets, you know, in Okerube and similar communities. I think that for too long, we have approached, when I saw we – government, development actors have approached – communities like Okerube from a deficit perspective. And it is true that, you know, they are vulnerable, they are marginalised, but that’s because, that’s a cause and effect thing. That’s because they’ve been, you know, they’re not actually poor, but impoverished, right? It’s a condition that has been brought about by structural issues, but the reality remains that there are assets in the communities, there’s knowledge, there is experience, there are resources, there is capital even, there is money, for example, which is what we’re trying to demonstrate through the AR project, where the monies that are being currently used, we just want to pull it together more efficiently, right, and manage it better. So including those communities as active shapers of policy and practise as equals, really. So we’re talking of equality and equity, okay? And so we will have more equitable outputs if we were to start from that premise. Thank you.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you. Seun, can we have your perspective?

Oluwaseun Muraina Yes, so I think I’ve spoken earlier about what sustainability is, so I’ll emphasise more on a just future for communities like Okerube, you know, for all informal settlements. To me, it would mean recognition and representation; recognition that these communities are parts of the city, not temporal spaces to be ignored or displaced. You remember when Dr Temi was speaking about the implication of ignoring them much earlier in our discussion, because often for long, right, we viewed informal communities as a nuisance, right? So far. But we’re increasingly seeing that they can be centres of local agency, which is what’s been influencing this project, right. Centres of resilience and local agency. I think the way it comes to me is that these people, in spite of the conditions of their environment, is their ability to still survive. So you want to look critically at, you know, the adaptive tendency of human beings, right? How are they surviving in this community? It means that there’s something that they hold that we need to really look into, right. So for me, it’s essentially now shifting from doing it for these communities or doing for these communities to doing it with them. So much that the system gives them the right to shape decisions affecting their lives, where governance is collaborative, data is co-owned, and infrastructure is built on local knowledge. So yes, I will say it in a word, it will be like, this is our project, our data, our future, you know, and having the capacity to sustain it without wanting for external help. Thank you.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you, Mr Rasheed.

Rasheed Shittu It’s been a very productive and insightful discussion today. And I will say that from my end, I will hang the discussion till when we’ll pick it up by saying that there will be need for government to kind of promote community ownership, not by saying, but by doing. And by so doing, there should be more community engagement through participatory planning. That will kind of include the community, not only just like maybe okay we’ve engaged them, no from inception there should be uh they should be involved in the planning and also in the implementation. That would now kind of ensure community ownership that will translate to long-time maintainers and sustainability, so that is where I’m going to hang for now. Thank you so much.

Deji Akinpelu Okay, thank you very much. Mrs Funmilayo.

Funmilayo Mulikat Daniel Okay, I just want to say that our little little effort that should help us out, so that we can have what will make better our life, both from the ACRC and the government, that this should be made to government as well so that our people will live a better life. God will help us.

Deji Akinpelu Thank you so much. And it’s all about a better life for the people. I’d like to thank everyone who has been part of today’s show. The discussion so far shows that transformation begins when knowledge meets shared experiences, particularly in our local communities. Okerube’s story to us right here is not just about water. It’s about power, participation and giving the people the opportunity to reclaim the control of their own urban futures and planning with them and developing ideas with them. You’ve been listening to the African Cities podcast. I am your host, Deji Akinpelu. Until next time, keep building cities rooted in the strength of the people. Thank you once again to all our guests. Bye. See you next time.

Rasheed Shittu Thanks, bye.

Temilade Sesan Thank you.

Outro You have been listening to the African Cities podcast. Remember to subscribe for more urban development insights and interviews from the African Cities Research Consortium.

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Nairobi to Naija: Inclusive service delivery in African cities is not a pipe dream

Hannah — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:00:00 +0000

By Temilade Sesan, ACRC Lagos city manager

One of the less visible but highly impactful aspects of the ACRC programme is the opportunity for cross-learning that it presents for urban development researchers, practitioners and policymakers working in different city contexts.

This was precisely the case for an ACRC Lagos delegation that went to Nairobi on a learning visit in December 2025. The delegation comprised researchers helping to launch a community-led water and sanitation (WASH) project in Okerube, an informal settlement in Lagos; community members leading mobilisation and data collection efforts on the ground; and officials from relevant local, state and federal government departments.

The Lagos team set out to gain inspiration from an established WASH intervention in Mukuru – a sprawling informal settlement in Nairobi in which, as of 2017, only 1% of the population of roughly 400,000 people had access to private WASH facilities.

Following years of advocacy and dialogue by a broad-based reform coalition co-chaired by local NGOs and the Nairobi County City Government, Mukuru moved from being a target of demolition to being declared a Special Planning Area by the latter.

Crucially, this declaration has paved the way for reform actors, including the county government, to expand access to WASH infrastructure in the community, resulting in a rise in plot-level sewer connections to an impressive 20% as of 2025. These features make the Mukuru case highly interesting and instructive for us in Lagos.

Lessons for governance

Lagos, a “megacity” of about 22 million people, has a severe public water deficit, with existing waterworks serving less than 10% of the population. This falls far short of the urban average of 57% coverage (and even the rural average of 22%) reported for sub-Saharan Africa. It certainly lags behind coverage in Nairobi, where 71% of the city’s 5 million residents are connected to the public water system, which is run by the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (henceforth Nairobi Water).

Apart from the direct benefit of piped water access for the majority of residents connected to the service, what the coverage data in Nairobi show is that the state does have the capacity to operate and maintain a substantial, albeit incomplete, networked system for WASH. This, in turn, ensures the existence of a public service around which residents can engage the state and hold it accountable.

The observed contrast with Lagos threw a key lesson into relief for the delegation to Nairobi: poor public service delivery in the former – in WASH, but also in health, education, transport, waste management and several other sectors – makes it difficult for residents to participate in a vibrant democracy premised on tangible experience of a social contract with the state.

How are citizens supposed to hold their government accountable when there is very little – in concrete terms – to hold it accountable for?

A public water point fitted with smart metering technology in Mukuru

Cities of systems

This takes us to the core of ACRC’s “city of systems” approach, which recognises that urban development systems – for water, energy, health, education, and so on – are interdependent and must therefore be considered in relation to one another. Our engagement with state agencies is premised on the assumption that they do, in fact, run these systems in service of the public good, and that interaction with evidence-informed advocacy and action can help them to do better. This scenario appears to have played out more or less as expected in the Mukuru WASH case.

Mukuru, like many other informal settlements in Nairobi, has been historically excluded from the formal water and sewerage connections managed by Nairobi Water. Upon the declaration of the community as an SPA, however, Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT), a key coalition member, began working with Nairobi Water to build a Simplified Sewer System that enables temporary but durable connections from individual plots to main sewer lines.

Combined with access to finance facilitated by AMT and other coalition members, this has made it possible for many more landlords to construct shared toilets for residents. In addition, Nairobi Water installed public taps with smart metering technology that provide residents with water at a fraction of the cost charged by private vendors – a big win from an equity standpoint.

Work underway on Mukuru’s Simplified Sewer System

A plot-level toilet in Mukuru connected to Nairobi Water’s Simplified Sewer System

The crucial point to note is that these state-supported improvements to WASH in Mukuru were possible precisely because there was already a state-run system in place; advocacy and action by reform actors provided the impetus for the state to do better by bringing in populations that were previously excluded from this system. This was an important insight for the Lagos delegation: the idea of the city taking responsibility for WASH service provision in one of its most disadvantaged neighbourhoods – and in the process, strengthening both its systems and its social contract with citizens.

The Lagos delegation came away with a realisation of how the dearth of functional networked systems makes our attempts to apply a city of systems lens in our work decidedly more challenging. Fortunately, we also emerged with ideas for how to make incremental progress toward the change we seek in our context.

Moving forward

It is important to note that there are sectors – such as transportation, waste management and health – in which the Lagos state government has taken steps to build out existing public infrastructure. While the reach of the state is often narrow compared to that of private actors, especially those in the informal economy, these sectors are obvious candidates for the task of coalition-enabled systems strengthening.

We outline below some transferable lessons from the Mukuru WASH case in this regard, in line with the four components of the ACRC theory of change.

1. Elite commitment: Progress is accelerated when organs of the state join up to promote the wellbeing and welfare of citizens. Nairobi Water investing in short- and medium-term WASH infrastructure in Mukuru, while the housing ministry works to resettle residents and rebuild the neighbourhood with long-term sewerage connections, is an example of this.

2. Enhanced state capacity: State agencies stand a better chance of enhancing their technical capacity to deliver infrastructure and services if they begin with a commitment to manage small-scale systems effectively for the public good.

3. Mobilised citizens: Communities must continue organising for improved service delivery grounded in secure land tenure. The experience of Mukuru indicates that, while it is not yet Uhuru, sustained advocacy at the grassroots can ultimately lead to the ceding of ground to residents of informal settlements.

4. Reform coalitions: Professional elites, especially those in academia, civil society and the media, must take up the charge of mobilising various forms of capital – whether financial, social, political or cultural – and channelling these toward improved service delivery across the city, including in historically disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Back in Lagos, we continue to work from the understanding that the city’s political settlement is one in which power is highly consolidated among a few key actors. The difference is that we are more inspired than ever to work with reform actors, including those within the government, to transform the might of the state into meaningful action for all citizens.

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Podcast: Building community-driven WASH solutions in Lagos

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Journalism and urban challenges in Lagos

Hannah — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

By Mojeed Alabi, ACRC Lagos uptake lead

Media coverage can play a critical role in securing political traction for urban issues and ensuring accountability of decision makers. While researchers are ideally placed to highlight new trends, problems and potential solutions, in practice, there is often a gap.

There is a critical need for a symbiotic relationship between journalists and academic researchers. Without researchers, journalists risk superficial reporting, and without journalists, research remains locked away from the public that needs it most.

To address this, DevReporting – in partnership with the Pro-Poor Development Media Network (PDM Network) and with support from ACRC – recently convened a capacity building workshop for 30 journalists and researchers in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

The workshop aimed to strengthen the link between academic research and development journalism by equipping selected journalists to produce evidence-informed and advocacy-driven stories on key urban issues such as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), flooding, evictions, housing gaps and other urban challenges in Lagos. It also sought to support ACRC researchers in communicating their findings more clearly and in ways that are accessible to the public, thereby enhancing the impact of research on public discourse and policy.

Presentation of ACRC’s Lagos city report

Taibat Lawanson, Professor of Planning and Heritage at the University of Liverpool, UK, presented findings from ACRC’s Foundation Phase research in the city, which she led from the University of Lagos (UNILAG). She explained that researchers examined nine major systems that determine how cities function. These include water supply, sanitation, transportation, health, education and energy, alongside food distribution, finance and digital connectivity. They found significant gaps in access to essential services, particularly for residents living in informal settlements.

According to the research, proximity to formal systems often determines access to essential services, leaving many urban residents underserved. On access to water, Taibat noted that although the Lagos State Government provides about 40% of the state’s daily water supply capacity, only about 30% of residents currently have access to public water.

WASH interventions and community-led governance

The co-lead of ACRC’s Lagos WASH project, Oluwaseun Muraina, explained how the initiative adopts community-led governance and social enterprise financing to improve water and sanitation services. Using the Okerube community as an example, she described engagement meetings held with community leaders, residents and landowners, culminating in a town hall discussion. She also highlighted a peer learning exchange visit to the Mukuru community in Nairobi, where the team studied existing solutions and explored lessons that could be adapted to the Nigerian context.

Waste management and community health

Team lead for the Lagos waste management project, Deji Akinpelu, spoke about the critical need for local government involvement in waste management. He advocated for a community-centred approach that prioritises community health over political expediency. He also issued a call for stricter enforcement against illegal refuse dumping, particularly on expressways, noting that the current situation is not sustainable.

Telling compelling stories on urban challenges

Veteran broadcaster and co-chair of the PDM Network, Bimbo Oloyede, outlined the myriad challenges facing urban centres. She urged journalists to focus on clarity, connection and memorable storytelling, while highlighting the human impact of urban problems. She emphasised the importance of bringing the reader on an imaginative journey by showing rather than telling.

Communicating research for public impact

The commissioning editor at The Conversation Africa, Wale Fatade, delivered a practical session on communicating research, arguing that academic findings should move beyond scholarly circles and be accessible to the public and policymakers. He noted that researchers too often publish in inaccessible journals using technical jargon. He challenged journalists to bridge the gap by converting dense academic work into clear, digestible content across formats such as news articles, features, and podcasts. He stressed that simplicity is the benchmark of genuine understanding.

Experience from the field

The managing editor of The Guardian Nigeria, Chinedum Uwaegbulam, drew on his experience covering property and environment to reframe stakeholder mapping as a strategic journalistic tool. Rather than a simple contact list, he argued that a well-constructed map shifts reporting from reactive event coverage to systems journalism, revealing power dynamics, conflicts of interest, and regulatory gaps behind the headlines.

Using Lagos as a case study, he walked participants through key actors spanning government regulators, international financiers, vulnerable waterfront communities, and informal sector workers. He stressed that combining stakeholder maps with data sources such as budget allocations and floodplain records enables evidence-based accountability reporting.

The regional coordinator for sub-Saharan Africa at SciDev.net, Ogechi Ekeanyanwu, framed science reporting as a mindset challenge rather than a technical one, encouraging journalists to translate broad research findings into human-scale stories and to build personal relationships with researchers to facilitate clearer communication.

The Guardian Nigeria’s weekend editor, Kabir Garba, cautioned against recycled data, urging reporters to interrogate why statistics remain unchanged over time and to focus reporting on accountability and the impact on neglected communities.

On her part, Thomson Reuters Foundation correspondent, Bukola Adebayo, challenged journalists to refresh tired narratives around evictions and demolitions by focusing on victims’ experiences and pursuing government accountability. She strongly advocated for multimedia storytelling as a more powerful means of audience engagement than text alone.

The board secretary for the PDM Network, Omobayo Azeez, thanked the participants for their engagement, the partners for their support, and the presenters for their generosity. He expressed a strong hope that the relationships forged would endure for the future of journalism in Nigeria and Africa, by extension.

Strengthening urban development reporting

The workshop successfully fostered meaningful exchange between journalists, researchers, and development practitioners, strengthening the bridge between academic research and urban reporting. Participants left with practical frameworks and a renewed commitment to in-depth reporting on housing, environment, and WASH in Lagos.

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Melting metropolis? Why Lagos urgently needs an inclusive heat action plan

Hannah — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

By Olumuyiwa Adegun, ACRC Lagos in-city urban development research lead

A sweltering city

Climate change has unveiled challenges for urban centres in Africa, especially large cities like Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. Lagos has a tropical savanna climate with distinct wet (often cooler) and dry (often hotter) seasons. Average monthly temperature can reach 35°C, with over 70% humidity in February and March, usually the hottest months in the year.

With a current population of approximately 20 million, the current rate of growth indicates that Lagos might become the largest city globally by 2100. Physical development patterns associated with the current urbanisation rate result in urban heat island (UHI) effects. There is a notable difference in temperature of up to 7°C between the dense, hotter central parts of Lagos and the peripheral areas of urban sprawl.

Urban heat in Lagos can be analysed through the lens of “cities as a series of material and social systems that are drawn together and interrelated in certain domains”, as conceptualised by ACRC. A systems approach is necessary to properly understand urban heat in Lagos. Heat impacts social systems – public health, economy (through livelihoods and financial implications of heat-related disasters), food security (for example, lower crop yield, post-harvest losses due to higher temperatures), education and so on.

The impact of heat is also apparent on urban materialities. The material situation often determines levels of exposure and adaptation to heat. For instance, energy and water are crucial to cooling persons or spaces.

Heat stress disproportionately affects informal settlement residents

Exposure to high temperatures and heat stress is unequally distributed in Lagos, with lower income households experiencing greater exposure. A recent heat stress analysis over Lagos metropolis shows that the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas – those categorised as slums and informal neighbourhoods – were most affected, with “hot” heat stress conditions observed over 90% of the time.

The meteorological situations are exacerbated by physical conditions – the nature of dwellings (heat-absorbing wall materials, poorly ventilated rooms, and so on), overcrowding, absence of green spaces, poor service coverage and inadequate infrastructure, especially for water and electricity. Socioeconomic conditions also contribute to heat stress vulnerability. Many slum dwellers engage in informal work outdoors, which leaves them continuously exposed to extreme heat. For instance, street traders, waste scavengers, cart pushers and construction workers often endure long hours working in the direct sun.

Recent studies show that residents of Lagos’s informal settlements experience significant health challenges from exposure to excess heat. Dizziness, headaches, malaria and skin rashes are common heat-health problems that have been reported within some informal settlements in the city. These challenges are exacerbated through poor access to quality, affordable healthcare facilities.

Cooling strategies that residents deploy involve diverse practices often linked to water and housing features. The most popular responses are bathing, opening doors/windows, drinking water/fluids (hydration), staying outdoors and wearing light clothing. The use of cooling appliances such air conditioners is not common, due to electricity power cuts and the high cost of purchasing such appliances.

Heat action plan – a comprehensive strategy

A heat action plan typically contains a comprehensive strategy to prepare for, respond to and reduce the diverse impacts of exposure to extreme heat. The plan should include framework(s) for systematic heat monitoring, timely early warnings, preventive actions expected and targeted adaptation interventions, usually for those communities and groups who are most vulnerable.

Based on global standards and good practices, heat action plans should include:

1. A definition of a heat wave;
2. Preparedness and early warning systems;
3. Response mechanisms;
4. Coordination, implementation and monitoring;
5. Risk mapping and vulnerability assessment;
6. Public and stakeholder engagement;
7. Adaptation and long-term planning; and
8. Integration and governance strategies.

Learning from other cities

Lagos can learn from other cities. In February 2025, the City of Freetown launched its heat action plan – the first in Africa. The plan was developed considering the following principles that can be emulated:

> Equity and inclusion (ensuring all residents, especially those in vulnerable communities, can benefit from heat adaptation strategies);

> Data-driven and evidence-based planning;

> The pursuit of co-benefits (solutions that simultaneously deliver health, economic, environmental and social impacts);

> The promotion of nature-based approaches; and

> A commitment to community-centredness.

Ahmedabad, one of India’s largest cities, implemented South Asia’s first heat action plan after the deadly 2010 heatwave. The heatwave led to mortalities, with over 1,344 deaths recorded in May 2010 alone, a 43.1% increase over the baseline mortality rate. A group of epidemiologists showed that implementation of the heat action plan in the city led to a decrease in summertime mortalities in subsequent years, with the largest declines at the highest temperatures. This translated into averting over 1,000 deaths annually.

Acting, now!

The city of Lagos need not wait till heat reaches catastrophic levels before taking appropriate steps. There is an urgent need take steps to develop and start implementing a heat action plan.

Existing state resources and frameworks can be harnessed. To start, a chief heat officer should be appointed for Lagos, initially based within, or working directly with, the Lagos Resilience Office (LASRO), whose current multidisciplinary approach can be adapted for urban heat resilience. The chief heat officer would anchor the process of developing the heat action plan, coordinating the integrated and participatory process needed to create an inclusive plan.

The state cannot do it alone. In line with ACRC’s theory of change, commitment from elites, mobilisation of citizens, enhanced capacity of state officials as well as formal and informal coalitions are crucial to successfully creating and implementing an inclusive plan for the megacity. Beating the heat is a collective task.

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Streetlights in Lagos can boost safety and grow the economy – why not everyone benefits

Hannah — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 07:00:00 +0000

By Adewumi Badiora, ACRC Lagos action research lead and senior lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Olabisi Onabanjo University

Nigeria is urbanising at a remarkable speed. Some of the world’s fastest growing cities are in the west African country.

With the current rate of urbanisation, Kano, Ibadan, Abuja and Port Harcourt will surpass the 10 million inhabitants mega city threshold by 2050. According to United Nations estimates, Lagos will be the largest city in the world by 2100, accommodating more than 88 million people, up from the present population of about 25 million.

The rapid urbanisation and other issues, such as climate change, limited public finance and extreme poverty, are putting pressure on the government to provide better basic public infrastructure, especially in informal settlements.

Streetlighting is one area of public infrastructure where there is a clear need, and potential, for improvement.

Streetlighting plays a crucial role in public safety and security, and it promotes inclusive social and economic development by boosting local commerce, street businesses and community engagement.

Conventional grid-based streetlights and other technologies like LED lights powered by solar energy have been installed in parts of Nigeria but are still lacking in many cities.

I have been researching various aspects of urban and community safety in Nigeria, particularly in the country’s south-west. I currently lead the African Cities Research Consortium safety and security domain action research in Lagos.

I co-authored a recent research report about the condition of streetlights in Lagos. I interviewed 17 key informants in a bid to understand the provision, challenges, quality and impact of streetlighting in Africa’s foremost mega city. Respondents included residents and community associations, state agencies, private sector companies, and nongovernmental agencies.

We found that streetlight provision by the state has been orientated towards elite neighbourhoods, while households in disadvantaged settlements have less access.

Nevertheless, low-income communities across the city have come together to drive progress. They have enabled residents to achieve some level of streetlight infrastructure in their neighbourhood by working with the local government, civil society organisations and NGOs.

We argue that solutions will only be found through inclusive engagements that push against established approaches to infrastructure development.

Multiple paybacks of streetlighting

Research was conducted in three selected communities: Ilaje-Bariga on the Mainland, Brazilian Quarters on the Island and Ajegunle-Ikorodu in the peri-urban area. The three communities have either past or ongoing streetlight projects being delivered via sponsorship or collaboration between the Community Development Association, state or nonstate institutions.

Economic and social benefits were particularly prominent. Residents feel safer going out after dark when streets are well lit, while workers feel safer walking to and from their homes early in the morning and at night.

Businesses on newly lit streets have seen increased revenue as a result of vendors and traders being able to operate for longer after nightfall.

A previous case study established that extending trading times beyond daylight hours could add tens of thousands of working hours daily to the economy.

A respondent commented: “Policing work is now better in the night and we do not need to rely on battery-powered torchlight while on street patrol or checks.”

Another added: “We used to have cases of robbery, but the streetlight makes everywhere lit like daytime … the hoodlums are no longer able to perpetrate their act.”

Hurdles of streetlight provisions

Some obstacles remain, however. Our research uncovered many reasons as to why streetlight projects are not long-lasting or are unsuccessful. Limited budgeting and politically driven procurement are key challenges.

We found that the high costs and limited state budgets mean that certain areas of the city are prioritised and other areas neglected. The ruling class receives more political and economic support.

Across the three communities researched, the average cost of installation of one solar streetlight pole is USD 200-800, compared to USD 1,150 for a conventional grid powered streetlight. The difference in operating costs is where the economics of solar powered, compared to conventional, streetlighting becomes most compelling.

Politically driven procurement spotlights the need to favour cronies on the selection, awarding and implementation of streetlight infrastructure. Projects are awarded in favour of individuals (usually party members and not necessarily an expert) in exchange for political support.

The lack of technical expertise at the local and state levels remains a critical barrier, according to our study. This is displayed in poor procurement processes, infrastructure maintenance issues and inefficient use of limited public funds.

Because of corruption, the full value of project allocation is rarely received by suppliers. As one respondent explained: “In most cases, the money allocated for projects does not get to us. There are bottlenecks here and there that will drain off most of the project fund.” This leaves limited capital to deliver quality infrastructure and streetlight projects are poorly delivered or abandoned before completion, for want of funds.

Other streetlighting projects are abandoned because succeeding regimes refuse to continue predecessor projects.

There is also the challenge of vandalism and theft involving streetlight equipment. There have been situations where “area boys” – Lagos street gangs – restricted streetlight installation and where equipment parts were stolen.

Overcoming the obstacles

The solutions can only be found through inclusive engagements. Our study recommends the following steps:

Involve a wide range of players, particularly local communities, in planning and delivering streetlighting.
Build an enabling environment for private-sector-led renewable solutions and investment in sustainable lighting technologies, such as LED lights.
Create a robust regulatory framework to produce sustainable lighting technologies locally.
Improve state budget and investment funding for streetlighting.
Develop capacity in the public sector to plan, design, finance and deliver projects.
Support low-income neighbourhoods and informal communities.
Separate political, personal interests from good governance and ensure transparency in the procurement process in practice.

So far, the large-scale initiative involving the deployment of over 22,000 solar streetlights has engaged with residents in areas like Ikotun, Alausa, Ketu, Kosofe, Marina, Lekki and Surulere. Community feedback on the safety and environmental benefits has been integrated into the project. The project adopted LED lighting, which is more cost effective and energy efficient.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Crime-fighting in Lagos: Community watch groups are the preferred choice for residents, but they carry risks

Hannah — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:00:00 +0000

By Adewumi Badiora, ACRC Lagos action research lead and senior lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Olabisi Onabanjo University

Criminal activities have developed into a security crisis in Nigeria. Alongside the responses of security agencies such as the police and military, there has been a huge local response, with community groups mobilising in the face of criminal attacks.

For example, communities in Zamfara State, north-west region, repelled a bandit attack, causing the death of 37 bandits in August 2024. In Sokoto State, north-west region, residents rescued kidnapped individuals and recovered the body of the deceased village head in August 2024. In Kwara state, north-central region, community groups rescued people from their abductors in December 2025.

But how effective are these community-organised interventions?

I’m an urban and community safety researcher who has studied various aspects of insecurity in Nigeria, particularly in the country’s south-west, for more than a decade now.

In a recent paper I sought to answer this question in relation to Lagos. As Nigeria’s largest city with an estimated population exceeding 20 million, Lagos faces severe, complex crime challenges driven by rapid, poorly managed urbanisation and high unemployment rates. I surveyed 62 stakeholders in a bid to evaluate community-driven crime prevention strategies. Respondents included residents, members of the state and community groups who were playing important roles in the city’s security processes. This was qualitative research.

Many respondents expressed little or no trust in formal security agencies. Their expectations that the police could protect them were low.

A resident interviewed for the study said that while people like politicians got police protection, ordinary citizens did not:

“That is why everyone has devised ways to protect themselves and family.”

My research found that these community-organised interventions have emerged in different forms. The commonest is community vigilante groups. These are self-appointed resident security volunteers who take it upon themselves to confront criminals in their neighbourhood. This is common in low-income neighbourhoods of Lagos because they have to deal with crime but feel they can’t rely on the police to patrol, unlike elite neighbourhoods.

A successful urban security strategy

Lagos community vigilante groups range from small groups of volunteers on streets, and informal neighbourhood watches, to well structured local community bodies. Community vigilante members are mostly men. But women are not explicitly excluded, and they are an important source of information.

The groups were using local knowledge to help the police. They compiled information on crimes, suspicious activity and criminal suspects in their area and provided it to the police as needed. In some cases, they joined the police intelligence response team to raid hideouts of criminals in their areas.

A resident interviewed for the study said:

“We are local people. We know our community very well. We can easily spot strangers and suspicious movements. This local knowledge is what we have, that the police do not have. So, we complement their efforts by providing dependable intelligence for their work. Beyond that, we also escort police patrol, and our presence has helped them to penetrate streets they would not have been able to navigate by themselves.”

The relationship between the police and community groups was “semi-formal”. Arrangements were made by the communities with little or no intervention by the state. The collaborations were owned, structured and sustained by residents.

Some of those involved in the groups were remunerated through financial contributions by residents. However, they “occasionally” received financial support from the local government authorities, individual local politicians and donors.

Successes

My research showed there had been some positive results. Residents confirmed that the collaborations brought safety to their community and had helped to reduce crime and insecurity, particularly where the police were lacking.

A resident interviewed for the study said:

“Things are a little better. Before now, it was dreadful as criminals and hoodlums operate openly. Although there is still a long way to go, there has been a commendable level of improvements in our security in the last five years.”

Some ongoing issues

Despite its success, several concerns were raised in my study.

First, community vigilante groups are a patchwork of isolated groups. Organisations are fragmented and weak. This could be dangerous because it creates unaccountable groups that can easily change from being protectors to being a threat. That can be seen in the Bakassi Boys (south-east Nigeria), Yan Sakai (north-west Nigeria) and global examples like Mungiki (Kenya) and Autodefensas (Mexico).

Second is the question of the legality of community groups in terms of the provisions of the Nigerian constitution, the Police Act and the Public Order Act. Their legal status is “complex” as they operate in a grey area. Most of them do not have the backing of the federal government, which has the constitutional authority to manage policies regarding them.

Third, while community vigilante groups fill security gaps created by an under-resourced police force, their activities sometimes lead to conflicts because they act as judge, jury and executioner.

A police officer interviewed for the study said:

“The activities of vigilantes are usually unlawful in the way and manner they deal with suspected criminals … The lawful thing for them is to report suspected criminals to the police, but many times, they take law into their own hands.”

Still, residents view the groups as legitimate because of their perceived effectiveness, deep local knowledge, community ties and quick action.

Fourth, relationships between community groups and the police range from amiable and collaborative to distrustful and hostile. Mutual distrust risks escalating violence rather than reducing it.

A member of a vigilante group put it this way:

“We cannot totally entrust suspects and our community to the police. We have situations where suspects were released without any investigation and prosecution. Not only that, corrupt police officers do give hints to these suspects about key vigilante members behind their arrests, and these criminals go all-out for them after their unlawful freedom from the police custody.”

Moving forward

To overcome the challenges, the following steps should be taken:

> Reform of Nigeria’s security governance, allowing states to create their own police forces;

> Formal recognition and support of community groups;

> Adopting policies to curb the proliferation of the groups;

> Working more closely with community groups to deal with some of the underlying reasons for insecurity. These include political negligence, youth unemployment, poverty and inequality.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Left in the dark: Understanding streetlighting provision challenges in Lagos and its informal settlements

Hannah — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Safe streets make for safe cities, but a lack of lighting can exacerbate the everyday insecurity of urban residents. ACRC’s safety and security research in Lagos found the absence of streetlighting in low-income areas to be a key concern among residents, as the cover of darkness facilitates urban crime and makes law enforcement more difficult.

Building on this, researchers have been looking into the condition of streetlighting in Lagos, conducting an in-depth assessment to better understand the provision, quality and impact of streetlighting in the city. With a focus on improving safety, security and livelihoods, they also aimed to uncover the challenges of streetlight provision in informal settlements.

A new research report presents the findings from this study and offers a framework for examining the challenges and opportunities of streetlighting systems – especially around accessibility and impact in cities like Lagos, that are experiencing rapid urbanisation, crime and extreme poverty.

Highlighting successful initiatives to build streetlight infrastructure in Lagos and drive improvements at the community level, the research findings underline the potential for action research to pilot new models for catalysing urban reform in low-income areas.

Key findings

1. Multiple stakeholders are involved in the provision of streetlighting, operating across varying levels and including governments, the private sector, community groups and civil society organisations.

2. Streetlighting takes various forms, from conventional, grid-based lights, powered by fossil fuels, to more sustainable solar streetlights that use LEDs.

3. Decisive state action is needed to power streetlighting interventions in informal settlements, which have been largely left behind so far, but stand to benefit from improved streetlighting.

4. Financial barriers and politically driven procurement are key challenges, along with limited resources and technical capacity, which must be addressed to improve streetlighting provision.

5. Low-income communities across the city have come together to drive progress, enabling residents to achieve some level of streetlight infrastructure in their neighbourhoods by co-producing solutions with the state and NGOs.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

As highlighted by the report, existing streetlighting infrastructure in Lagos is insufficient to meet the scale of the challenge. Solutions will only be found through inclusive engagements that push against established approaches to infrastructure development. Building on this, the authors recommend:

> Local communities need to be involved in planning and delivering urban infrastructures, to ensure the equitable distribution of benefits, with neighbourhoods shaped by the people and for the people.

> A proactive, transparent and collaborative management strategy is needed to address conflicting priorities among multiple stakeholders, while working towards shared goals of energy efficiency and improved public services.

> The state should create an enabling environment for investment in sustainable urban infrastructure, through reliable investment funding and a more robust regulatory framework for domestic energy production and solar markets.

> The state should move from broad, untargeted energy subsidies to targeted support for vulnerable households and informal communities, while actively promoting private-sector-led renewable energy solutions, especially for streetlighting and off-grid communities.

Read the full report

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Equity and digitisation in the property tax system in Lagos: A win-win for all?

Hannah — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 07:00:00 +0000

By Esther Thontteh, Damilola Agbalajobi, Olumuyiwa Adegun and Taibat Lawanson

Taxation is crucial for financing development. Attaining an equitable tax system depends on prudent policy formulation and effective administrative practices, aimed at generating revenue that benefits all of society.

Equitable taxation is about building fairer systems which align with a much-needed path to inclusive urban development. The Lagos property tax system can be improved to facilitate a win-win for all urban residents.

Operationalisation of the Lagos Land Use Charge

Land Use Charge (LUC) is one of the taxes in Lagos, derived from the Land Use Charge Act of 2018. This law consolidated all property and land-based rates and charges in Lagos State. Accordingly, the previously enacted tenement rates law, ground rents law and other similar property rates or charges ceased to apply to properties in Lagos State from 2018.

Over the last seven years, in operationalising the law, there has been an expansion of chargeable properties and liabilities to include vacant land and occupiers holding leases of over ten years, and even persons unlawfully in occupation.

Abrupt increases in property tax bills to residents because of the LUC provoked widespread public discontent, including protests. Disparities between governmental revenue goals and public perceptions of fairness and affordability also became evident. This underscores the fact that even well-framed legislation must account for socioeconomic contexts and harness public support to ensure effective implementation in cities. The LUC law provides for the revision of property values every five years, hence the need to revisit the assessment processes, including reliefs and technology for equitable taxation.

Inequitable assessment processes

The principle of an equitable tax system revolves around the notions of progressiveness, neutrality, transparency and accountability. A system with shortcomings in these areas, such as the one in Lagos, therefore requires re-evaluation.

For instance, LUC assessment in the state is currently based on the capital value (assessed market worth) of the property. However, land professionals at different forums, such as the 2018 University of Lagos Land Tax Conference, claimed that assessment should be based on annual rental value, not market capital value. As such, assessing the annual LUC rate based on the market value is inequitable, as the property owner may not receive the market value annually.

This contradicts Adam Smith’s seminal position that taxation principles should prioritise equity (fairness in burden distribution), efficiency (minimising economic distortion), sufficiency (raising adequate revenue) and simplicity (ease of understanding and administration) for a just and effective system.

Re-evaluating relief mechanisms

Occupiers exempted from paying an annual LUC on the Property that they occupy or reside include the following:

Religious bodies;
Libraries;
Public cemeteries and burial grounds;
Palaces of recognised traditional authorities; and
Properties owned by aged people (70 years and above), retirees, and physically challenged people (subject to application and approval).

The question is: do these reliefs capture the vulnerable citizens who may have lost their source of livelihoods? Do they reach informal communities, which are often inundated through flooding or razed by fire, and live precariously in areas without road infrastructure and basic social amenities? How many urban citizens exempted from tax are aware that they need to apply for such relief when necessary?

As of 2024, Lagos generated over 14 billion Nigerian Naira (approximately USD 9.5 million) annually from LUC revenues.

However, the current property tax system tends to exclude informal communities where social amenities are regarded as privileges rather than rights. ACRC’s theory of change identifies committed political elites, formal–informal reform coalitions, enhanced state capacity and mobilised citizens as essential preconditions for transformative urban reform. In line with these pillars, the property tax system should avoid excluding informal communities, prioritising revenue extraction over service delivery, and disincentivising marginalised residents from civic mobilisation.

An aerial view of Bariga, one of several marginalised communities in Lagos. Photo credit: Bola Oguntade – Urban Lab Summer School, 2025

Technology, taxation and inclusive urban development

Digital tools and technology hold promise for property taxation, though caution is required in this regard. In June 2025, Lagos unveiled the digital house numbering system to enhance property identification and more efficiently capture more properties within the tax net.

The digitisation of houses aligns with so-called “smart city” ideals in the world-class city vision of the Lagos State government. While this initiative has a lot of potential in terms of service delivery within the city, it is concerning that it might impose additional financial burdens on urban residents. Genuine urban transformation is usually enabled by the willingness of residents to pay for value-added public services and infrastructure.

We argue that leveraging modern technologies (such as artificial intelligence and geographic information systems) for property tax reform can help catalyse inclusive urban development if it adopts the following principles:

> Valuation with local nuance: While market value is standard for property taxation globally, its application in Lagos must be nuanced in the context of slums and informal settlements, incorporating local realities. For example, women and vulnerable groups should be supported with policies that guarantee tenure security and fair treatment.

> Simplified assessment process: For smaller properties, especially in informal or low-income areas, the state should consider simplified, area-based assessments initially – with clear pathways to move towards full market value as development progresses and data improves, reducing complexities for both assessors and property owners.

> Unlocking dead capital: By utilising an inclusive approach that does not increase burdens on vulnerable residents within informal communities, “dead capital” can be incrementally unlocked. This is also crucial to the economic empowerment of low-income residents.

> Linking taxes to services: Demonstrating tangible benefits for taxpayers, especially in cities, fosters compliance and strengthens trust.

Pointing the way to property tax reform in Africa

At the recent African Real Estate Society Conference (AfRES), held in Lagos in September 2025, professionals in the sector examined how taxation can be reformed to better serve citizens and governments. The discussion highlighted several persistent challenges and identified some key steps forward for African cities:

1. Reliable cadastral and geo-informatic systems are still lacking in many places. Without accurate records of who owns what, governments cannot tax land fairly or efficiently. Digital platforms have improved matters, but political will and enforcement remain critical.

2. Protecting vulnerable groups is important. Rural communities, women, retirees, informal settlement residents and other marginalised groups must not be burdened with unpredictable charges, while wealthier landowners exploit loopholes to avoid paying their fair share. Flexible payment systems, such as spreading taxes across the year can also ease the burden on disadvantaged groups.

3. Stronger vacant land taxation and mechanisms to capture rising land values generated by public investments are recommended to tackle speculative landholding. All these need institutional reforms, including improved coordination across relevant government agencies and consistent enforcement.

The way forward

In conclusion, property taxation is one of the most promising yet underused tools for development in African cities. It is not only a technical exercise, but also a political and social endeavour. Done right, it can generate sustainable revenue, promote efficient land use and advance equity and inclusion. Done poorly, it risks deepening socioeconomic inequalities and eroding public trust.

The way forward lies in combining data-driven systems, inclusive policies and strong institutions to create tax systems that serve both people and cities. Reforming property tax system is not simply a fiscal necessity; it is a pathway to more inclusive, resilient and prosperous urban futures in Lagos and across Africa.

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Lagos - ACRC

Is knowledge power? Reflections on water, sanitation and survival in informal settlements

Using data as a tool for community advocacy

Building public trust, one sewer line at a time

What this means for Lagos

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From Mukuru to Okerube: Reflections from the Nairobi–Lagos WASH exchange

Meeting local council members and visiting Okerube

Institutional learning and knowledge sharing

Designing an integrated plan for Okerube

Building capacity around data collection

Reflecting and mapping a way forward

Continued learning and collaboration

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Podcast: Building community-driven WASH solutions in Lagos

Transcript

Read now

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Nairobi to Naija: Inclusive service delivery in African cities is not a pipe dream

Lessons for governance

Cities of systems

Moving forward

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Journalism and urban challenges in Lagos

Presentation of ACRC’s Lagos city report

WASH interventions and community-led governance

Waste management and community health

Telling compelling stories on urban challenges

Communicating research for public impact

Experience from the field

Strengthening urban development reporting

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Melting metropolis? Why Lagos urgently needs an inclusive heat action plan

A sweltering city

Heat stress disproportionately affects informal settlement residents

Heat action plan – a comprehensive strategy

Learning from other cities

Acting, now!

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Streetlights in Lagos can boost safety and grow the economy – why not everyone benefits

Multiple paybacks of streetlighting

Hurdles of streetlight provisions

Overcoming the obstacles

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Crime-fighting in Lagos: Community watch groups are the preferred choice for residents, but they carry risks

A successful urban security strategy

Successes

Some ongoing issues

Moving forward

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Left in the dark: Understanding streetlighting provision challenges in Lagos and its informal settlements

Key findings

Light at the end of the tunnel?

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Equity and digitisation in the property tax system in Lagos: A win-win for all?

Operationalisation of the Lagos Land Use Charge

Inequitable assessment processes

Re-evaluating relief mechanisms

Technology, taxation and inclusive urban development

Pointing the way to property tax reform in Africa

The way forward

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