Key information
Main city: Lagos, Nigeria.
Scope: Sub-city level
Lead organisations: Center for Housing and Sustainable Development (CHSD), University of Lagos
Timeframe: 2020 – 2021. The action plan was published in 2021; its implementation is ongoing.
Themes: Informal settlements; Environment; Health; Informality; Planning and design; Resilience and risk reduction
Funding sources: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (main funder; preparation of action plan, post-plan advocacy). Budget: USD 30-50,000 (covered preparation, post-plan advocacy and stakeholder engagement to aid plan implementation).
Approaches used in initiative design and implementation:
- Community resilience action planning adapting UN Habitat’s CityRAP tool.
- Data collection using citizen science methodologies.
- Identifying and leveraging resources and technical expertise from relevant government agencies.
- Informal settlement profiling under Covid lockdown conditions.
- Integrated co-production using local knowledge and experiences.
Local Area: Ajegunle-Ikorodu
Area type: Informal settlement
Level 1 administrative unit: Lagos State
Level 2 administrative unit: Kosofe Local Government Area
Level 3 administrative unit: Community Development Association
Initiative description
Background and context
In Nigeria, both regional and national government institutions have made commitments to integrate principles of community resilience planning into development. Efforts focus on urban upgrading, building livelihood security, improving the provision of education and training services, and providing safety and security to citizens (Lawanson et al, 2024).
Lagos joined the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Network in 2016, and in 2020 the city formalised its path towards urban resilience by introducing the Lagos Resilience Strategy. These events both took place within the scope of the 2012-2025 Lagos State Development Plan, which provides a reference point for the public and private sector, as well as civil society groups and organisations, in framing the city’s development objectives. Nevertheless, progress towards impact at the community level remains slow, with many informal settlements held back by weak national and local-level governance in relation to the planning, administration and implementation of development initiatives (Lawanson et al., 2021).
Ajegunle-Ikorodu is an informal settlement in Lagos that is accessible both by road and water. It is home to approximately 18,000 people. During the action-planning process described below, communities identified an array of issues they face related to limited service provision, including access to potable water, education and health facilities, as well as concerns related to safety and security, poor drainage and infrastructure provision (Lawanson et al., 2021; Oni et al., 2021). The mapping exercise (see below) also highlighted that, in the absence of the state, many services and facilities accessible to the community were maintained, managed and delivered by residents – including boreholes, schools and worship centres. Data collection took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the findings also highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the communities’ use of facilities and on their livelihoods.
The UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Action Planning Tool (CityRAP) was used as a point of reference when drafting the Ajegunle-Ikorodu community resilience action plan. This tool, designed as a step-by-step participatory resilience planning methodology, includes training activities targeted at various types of stakeholders, including municipal authorities and community members (UN-Habitat, 2020).
Community resilience planning can be framed in relation to activities that improve access to services during a time of need as well as actions that reduce the negative impacts of adverse events, and it flourishes through multisectoral engagement and support from state and non-state actors (Lawanson et al., 2024). Resilience planning in this sense strengthens both city systems and residents’ capacities to protect themselves and their assets from various shocks and stresses they might experience.
Summary of initiative
This case study describes an innovative project to co-produce a community resilience action plan for an informal settlement in Lagos, as well as subsequent steps to secure implementation of the plan. The project was originally initiated in order to assess levels of community resilience, in particular how the community was coping with the Covid-19 lockdown and seasonal flooding. It was initiated by the Centre for Housing Sustainable Development at the University of Lagos (CHSD-UNILAG), supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Nigeria (HBSN) and carried out in partnership with members of the Ajegunle-Ikorodu community, as well as with the involvement of various government stakeholders, notably the Lagos Resilience Office. It addresses the following issues identified by the community: access to water, insufficient infrastructure including roads and drainage, limited health facilities, lack of educational and training facilities, and an absence of safety and security measures.
The Ajegunle-Ikorodu community resilience action plan (or “action plan”) is the first of its kind in Nigeria. The project capitalised on identified links with Lagos State policy (see context section above) and leveraged local knowledge and experience as well as technical expertise and resources from relevant stakeholder agencies and development partners. It also made use of digital technologies, such as Whatsapp, Zoom and Kobo Toolbox, to successfully conduct a participatory process of informal settlement profiling and community prioritisation during Lagos’ strict Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
The initial aims of the action plan project were to identify quick-win community priorities for resilience-building and introduce targeted initiatives to address these priorities and build the local community’s preparedness for resilience stressors in the future (Lawanson et al., 2021). After this, and to ensure the plan was acted upon, project partners then went further to identify possible funding sources. These are included in the report and reflect funders’ priorities at the time the report was published. In addition, the community’s capacity needs to be significantly supported with a formal coalition to access some of the identified funding.
The action plan itself was developed with Ajegunle-Ikorodu residents and designed around priority areas identified by community members themselves. Through the involvement of women residents trained as “citizen scientists”, the initiative also highlighted the important role played by women leaders in building a sustainable, resilient community.
The co-produced citizen science project which developed the Resilience Action Plan took place over three months in 2020. The approach to developing the action plan consisted of a four-stage process: (1) focus group discussions with community members to identify key issues that the neighbourhood was dealing with; (2) using citizen science methodology to map community assets and identify risk-prone areas; (3) participatory data collection and analysis; and (4) developing the action plan, including designing initiatives with community members.
The Ajegunle Ikorodu Community Resilience Action Plan was finalised and published in 2021. It contains five priority action areas: water, education, roads and drainage, safety and security, and health. It identified 15 initiatives representing co-developed solutions aimed at making Ajegunle-Ikorodu a more resilient settlement, including: rebuilding a secondary school; installing purification systems in boreholes throughout the settlement; vocational training for youth; building a community gate and installing solar-powered street lighting throughout the community; and constructing a health centre.
Finance was one of the major issues that required particular attention, in order to strengthen the implementation of the five priority areas; another being the issue of urban planning. After the plan was developed, Heinrich Böll Stiftung further supported the project to engage a consultant, who worked to identify relevant federal and state resources (human and material) that could be drawn on to implement the community’s priority projects. Community representatives were further supported by a local NGO, LOTS Charity Foundation, so that they could continue to be centrally involved in engagement and advocacy; LOTS’ activities for three years, 2021-2024, were also funded by Heinrich Böll Stiftung. The Lagos State Resilience Office also played a critical support role, opening doors to different stakeholders by facilitating meetings with government agencies with responsibility for implementing the proposed initiatives, and enabling access to state government funds to achieve these projects.
Implementation of the community-identified priority initiatives is ongoing. The project team considers the ongoing implementation of the action plan to be the real sign of its success: in the 18 months since the plan was developed, nine of the 15 priority initiatives it recommends had begun to be substantively addressed. This includes rebuilding a secondary school in the settlement that had been closed for many years, owing to flood damage. The challenges faced following its closure – problems linked to large numbers of out-of-school youth – were one initial trigger for the action planning initiative and served as an important social instigator for change.
While these nine projects have been initiated or implemented through different approaches, in general state and local government budgets have been the key sources of funding so far. Implementation of the action plan priority projects has been anchored by the Lagos State Resilience Office, with actual initiatives variously implemented by the Lagos State Ministry of Education, the Lagos State Ministry of Health, the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, the Lagos Urban Renewal Authority and the Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme.
Target population, communities, constituents or "beneficiaries"
The approximately 18,000 residents of the Ajegunle-Ikorodu informal settlement, primarily low-income informal-sector workers and their families, stand to benefit most from the ongoing implementation of the action plan. Immediate benefits include over 100 households that have been onboarded to the State Health Insurance scheme, and the inclusion of Ajegunle Ikorodu in state poverty alleviation/welfare distribution schemes.
Future benefits will include the improvement and rebuilding of infrastructure, the reopening of the community secondary school and the provision of water, amongst other initiatives introduced within the scope of the priority areas, as highlighted above.
The development of the resilience plan also meant that community members were equipped with the skills to engage with municipal stakeholders and carry out their own advocacy work.
Residents of six other nearby settlements will also benefit from the implementation of various initiatives under the community resilience action plan; and 16 communities within the catchment area of the secondary school will benefit from its reestablishment. This has extended the benefits received from the action plan initiative beyond the administrative boundaries of Ajegunle-Ikorodu settlement. Furthermore, two other communities, Ilaje Bariga and Oworonshoki, have gone ahead to develop their own community resilience plans, in order to access similar institutional development support.
ACRC themes
The following ACRC domains are relevant (links to ACRC domain pages):
- Informal settlements (primary domain)
- Health, wellbeing and nutrition
- Housing
- Land and connectivity
- Youth and capability development
The informal settlements domain is most relevant to this initiative because the Ajegunle Ikorodu Community Resilience Action Plan is being implemented in an informal settlement and was developed in collaboration with residents. Priority initiatives developed during the community planning process include those designed to improve access to water services. Examples include installing purification systems in existing boreholes, conducting baseline studies to establish locations where potable water can be provided, and engaging with the regional water provider to ensure potable water from existing water systems is provided to community members.
Other relevant ACRC domains relate to the specificities of the priority areas outlined by the multipronged resilience action plan:
- The focus on health, wellbeing and nutrition concerns improving existing health centre capacities, expanding existing maternity and paediatric services, and constructing health centre extensions.
- The focus on land and connectivity concerns clearing and widening existing drainage systems, upgrading existing transport infrastructure, designing embankments to accommodate stormwater and improving access to water throughout the community (as above).
- The focus on safety and security concerns establishing a security and protection system for the community, constructing a community gate, providing solar-powered lighting along streets and establishing a transport station with provision of free transport for students.
- The focus on youth and capability development concerns building a new secondary school in the settlement to replace a school that had been closed following the flood damage, establishing a community vocational training centre to foster entrepreneurship, and securing online learning equipment for students.
The ACRC’s housing domain is looking at neighbourhood approaches to housing problems in Lagos and has adopted Ajegunle Ikorodu as a case study in the implementation of priority complex problems. This will leverage the success of the approach used in the action planning process. It will provide an opportunity for key community actors and civil society groups to build a coalition focus on further urban reforms that can strengthen climate resilience, local economies and better neighbourhood facilities in informal communities.
The following ACRC crosscutting themes are also relevant (links to ACRC domain pages):
Gender
An important part of the Ajegunle Ikorodu Community Resilience Action Plan initiative was its focus on women as pillars of resilience in the community (Lawanson et al., 2021). In addition, the initiative was centred around data collection led by women, a decision which was based on previous research experience that had highlighted ways in which female and male enumerators can relate to different types of concerns and capture differing data during its collection. In total, six women were identified as “citizen scientists” as part of the initiative and received virtual training (due to Covid-lockdown movement restrictions) focused on providing mapping skills using the KoboToolbox. This emphasises not only the importance of a gender-focused lens in the collection of data during participatory research, but also the ways in which blended approaches enrich projects with different perspectives.
Climate change
In Ajegunle-Ikorodu, where residents have adapted their modus operandi to the frequent risk of flooding (Oni et al., 2021), drainage as well as other infrastructure has proven to be seriously impacted by environmental factors, exacerbating existing challenges faced by communities in the settlement. The 2010 flooding that caused the closure of the high school attended by youth from 16 neighbourhood communities underscores the impact of climate change on the everyday lives of informal settlement dwellers.
In the action plan, each of the 15 initiatives introduced to strengthen the resilience of communities in the five priority focus areas includes a resilience-based factor that considers the topography of the settlement and the need to strengthen responses to flooding in the future. Community members have articulated a clear vision for addressing the impact of flooding in their community, which includes: provision of embankments to prevent flooding on major streets and installation of drains on major streets, with drainage to the surrounding river bodies. From their lived experiences, they present these as lasting solutions to the flooding issues they experience.
Because of annual flooding, with attendant health risks, and the external evidence of high flood vulnerability in Ajegunle-Ikorodu, the initial objectives at the inception of the resilience action plan project had been to develop early warning systems, flood mitigation measures and community participation in flood adaptation. However, Oni et al. (2021) note that while acknowledging the perennial issue and that some additional measures were needed, residents did not consider flooding to be an immediate priority. Instead, they focused on interventions for addressing water poverty, expanding community health services, and access to secondary education.
In the absence of government action, and drawing on indigenous knowledge systems, the community had learnt to live with the floods by preparing for the annual season and deploying coping mechanisms, such as moving assets to less flood-prone places, seasonal migration or family relocation, use of cement/sandbags, and constructing walkways and drainage paths. These strategies were cooperatively implemented through pooling resources. This points to social capital and the agency of community-led interventions as key ingredients for success. It also reinforces the importance of grassroots resilience and effective capacities that are often ignored in large-scale urban planning and climate adaptation plans (ibid, 2021).
However, more transformative actions are required to alleviate these issues. ACRC research interactions with the Ajegunle-Ikorodu community in 2023 have concluded that the current situation places the burden of resilience actions on the people. Recently, the intensity of flooding due its general location on a swampy mangrove and closeness to the Ogun River, heavy rainfall and lack of drainage have increased the community’s vulnerability to flooding and their communal efforts are being rapidly depleted. In addition, seasonal migration has livelihood implications for the mostly informally employed residents.
What has been learnt?
Effectiveness/success
The Ajegunle-Ikorodu community resilience action plan document set out the following five objectives for the project:
- Assess relevant linkages between the various initiatives in the Lagos Resilience Strategy that can enhance community resilience and identify those that align with community-based interventions in Ajegunle-Ikorodu.
- Map the informal settlement and community to establish its socioeconomic profile, the state of its infrastructure, and experiences and responses to flood incidents and the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Community engagement in preparing a “community resilience needs assessment”, using secondary data and oral histories.
- Develop an action plan in response to identified resilience gaps in the community.
- Prepare a funding plan and administrative framework to implement the action plan.
The effectiveness of the Ajegunle-Ikorodu community resilience action plan as an intervention is aligned with the preconditions that ACRC identifies in its theory of change as catalysts for urban reform. These are: organised citizens; reform coalition; politically informed and co-produced project design; and enhanced state capacity.
- Organised citizens: the action planning process was built around the mapping of priority areas and related initiatives by the community, for the community – a participatory design and approach highlighting the value of citizen-centred urban reform initiatives that build on community needs.
- Politically informed and co-produced project design: the action planning process was implemented through the blended support of academic, research and municipal state actors. Based on a shared understanding of the project’s objectives, these actors continue to support the gains secured by the Ajegunle-Ikorodu community, by involving state agencies and leveraging state budgets to implement the identified priorities. This includes through the appointment of a consultant, following the development of the resilience plan, who was tasked with identifying new potential sources of funding at the state and federal level. Developing a methodology that has now been adopted by other communities also serves as evidence of success in coproduction.
- Informal reform coalition: the initiative involved the engagement of stakeholders from community, civil society and academia to develop the plan and then work closely with municipal institutions to ensure its implementation (see Participating agencies section). There is as yet no formal coalition for climate action in Lagos, although there is close collaboration between the government, NGO and academic groups in this space.
- Enhanced state capacity: successful leveraging of state budgets and political support to successfully implement the action plan’s priority initiatives indicates that linkages were well identified. Engaging state duty bearers was an important part of the process in addressing community-identified priorities and solutions.
- Elite involvement: following the publication of the action plan, the initiative identified and brought together government agencies and bureaucratic elites to support its implementation. The Lagos State Resilience Office was particularly key in facilitating these meetings. It convened meetings between the community and various government offices, which enabled the inclusion of many of the community’s priority interventions into the state’s budget. Lagos State Resilience Office has also flagged Ajegunle Ikorodu as a possible site for implementation of green infrastructure projects, resulting in visits to the community by the World Bank, UNDP and other multilateral organisations; however, nothing concrete has yet resulted from this awareness raising. The Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency also showcases Ajegunle Ikorodu as an archetype of a mobilised community that is willing to take the first step towards regeneration.
Community members have assessed the project to be successful, in the sense that nine out of 15 recommended projects have been implemented or have made significant progress, and these address many of the community’s immediate needs. In particular, the ongoing redevelopment of the secondary school is seen as of significant benefit to the community, as well as to the 16 other neighbouring communities that it serves.
The project partners have assessed the citizen science methods of data collection applied during the action planning process as a success. In 2023, they carried out similar training for around 30 community members in five other low- to middle-income communities, to enable them to carry out their own community asset mapping exercise. This training was modelled closely on the processes used in the Ajegunle-Ikorodu community resilience action plan. In terms of ownership of the data, this is placed in the public domain, based on the funders’ principles, and the community uses the data to engage with other potential partners outside of the original project.
The anchoring agency, the Lagos Resilience Office, has endorsed this project as a model for transforming the Lagos Resilience Strategy into an actionable one, whereby communities are supported to develop local resilience plans. They have presented the Ajegunle Ikorodu Action Plan as a model in government circles, locally and internationally.
The Ajegunle-Ikorodu Community Resilient Action Plan was selected by UN Habitat as one of 27 case studies presented at the April 2022 UNHABITAT Global Stakeholder Forum as evidence of implementation of the agency’s New Urban Agenda.
Understanding limitations
In the implementation of the community-identified priority projects, the action plan project partners have found some government agencies to be inflexible and unwilling to engage directly with communities. While, initially, the local government system was not very active in engaging communities for resilience planning, this has since picked up slightly, with the Local Government Chairman supporting the renovation of the community’s primary
healthcare centre. Full implementation has stalled on some projects because of government priorities or funding constraints, with project partners told in some instances that other communities within the LGA had already benefited, so Ajegunle Ikorodu would not be eligible until the future.
The key issue is the need for government to prioritise infrastructure upgrading in local communities through institutional reforms and co-production, rather than tokenism. Some endemic problems, such as flooding and the resultant loss of livelihoods, are still very much evident. Ajegunle Ikorodu remains vulnerable to flooding from heavy rainfall, release of volumes of water from the nearby Oyan Dam, lack of storm water drainage and very low access to security, especially at night. There are also issues around poor housing and neighbourhood quality which needs to be resolved alongside the flooding problem. The integrated nature of the Plan’s five priority actions areas and the 15 individual initiatives derived from these means that housing and neighbourhood infrastructure upgrading are linked to the successful implementation and long-term development objectives set out by the Plan. Given the scale of these needs, however, targeted investments and elite commitment beyond the scope proposed here are necessary.
Potential for scaling and replicating
In 2023, four other low- to middle-income communities in Lagos were supported to carry out a community asset mapping exercise, using the methodology adopted for the Ajegunle Ikorodu action plan. As this case study was being written in early 2024, communities were about to start training in effectively engaging with local governments for implementation and with the state government for completion of some abandoned projects.
Across Lagos, community development associations (CDAs) already carry out often ad hoc infrastructure upgrading using community mobilised funds, though at a much lower quality than what will ensue with government or donor funds. By first carrying out asset mapping, communities are better able to allocate funds and/or seek external assistance. There are also household-level interventions that can be taken on by residents, even if these require some specialised support (such as fixing leaking roofs, providing water, proper toilets) for which an approach that connects them to equitable financing from the microfinance banking sector could be appropriate.
Participating agencies
Further information
Further resources
References
Lawanson, T, Oyalowo, B, Odekunle, D and Unuigboje, R (2024). “Co-production of a resilience action plan for Ajegunle-Ikorodu community: Approaches and lessons from Lagos, Nigeria. Strengthening Resilience in Africa". Lagos: University of Lagos Press (in press).
Cite this case study as:
Lawanson, T, Oyalowo, B and Dessie, E (2024). “Ajegunle-Ikorodu community resilience action plan”. ACRC Urban Reform Database Case Study. Manchester: African Cities Research Consortium, The University of Manchester. Available online.
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Abdulfatai Anofi, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
10 May 2024 at 8.30pm
Well done to the research team, the funder and all other active participants, who aided the actualisation of the study. I hope for replication studies with follow up implementation (the unique feature of this study) across the state's hundreds of informal settlements and selected communities, with similar peculiar traits, across the country within the next decade.