Olatawura Ladipo-Ajayi, Lagos Community Manager
Lagos is the most populous city state in Nigeria, home to over five percent of the nation’s 166 million residents, and ever growing. To manage this large group of people and to create an environment that is not only safe and accommodating but also filled with opportunities for improved living and continuous growth, the state government and various civil society organisations have spent 2013 working on a number of ingenious projects to achieve these goals.
Makoko’s slum clearance, part of the city’s effort to make the city safer and more modernized, illustrates the importance of considering the social impact of urban planning and growth projects. The economic and social effects of this slum clearance on the communities are grave: residents become displaced, lose their shelter, sense of safety, and livelihood. Other initiatives in Makoko have been more successful: the innovative floating school project plans to make education more accessible to slum residents.
While some projects face strategic planning and implementation flaws, many of them are not only well-intentioned but also successful. Some of these projects include the Youth Empowerment and ICT Center, the Vocational Training Skills Acquisition Center, and the Real Women’s Foundation empowerment program. These programs focus on providing marginalized populations with skills and opportunities to alleviate poverty and to contribute productively to society. While the city and the ICT center’s programs such as the Urban Youth Empowerment Program focus on youth, the Real Women’s Foundation “peace villa” rehabilitates women and also provides life-skills training. Both programs encourage entrepreneurship and employment, an efficient way of alleviating poverty, and have recorded great success.
Lagos has a magnitude of opportunity to improve the lot of its marginalized urban residents. While progress is being made in various aspects, such as transportation, health care awareness, and employment creation, it is important that urban planners and officials consider the impact of rapid progress on every class of its citizens, so as to avoid situations like those that arose with the slum clearance in Makoko. The urban future is very bright for Lagos; we have learned that, with adequate planning and proper social impact assessment, it is possible to create development solutions that do not leave certain groups of the society in the dark. With this in mind, Lagos can continue to make strides towards being a just and inclusive city in 2014.
Photo credit: Roy Luck