Agenda 2030 and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) have made cities the center of global development aspirations and implementation labs. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 aims to make cities and communities safe, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable. The targets and indicators across these initiatives require data at the city – not national – level. Lagos is a model city to pilot an integrated deprived area mapping system (IDEAMAPS) because it is the commercial nerve center of Nigeria and one of the world’s fastest growing cities.
To understand processes and challenges in a given city, data are needed about adequate housing, basic services, safe transportation and mobility, inclusive open spaces, resilient healthcare and livelihood systems, with a focus on how these challenges affect poor and vulnerable populations. These data need to timely, reliable, accurate, comparable, accessible, and shareable. Agenda 2030 and the NUA emphasize a process of data localization. This means local adaptation of targets and indicators, as well as engagement of critical actors and institutions in cities to drive and influence local urban data governance.
Currently, data governance in Lagos is fragmented, and implementation tends to be approached from the top-down in silos by different ministries, departments, and agencies. Data are rarely shared between actors and institutions, undermining the ability of city decision-makers to deliver services and manage interventions. As a result, policies and actions are often not evidence based and instead fraught with dissatisfaction. These challenges have been further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IDEAMAPS Project helps to bridge urban data governance gaps, and reinforce existing data collaborations and capacities in Lagos. Not only will the maps created by this integrated system support leaders in the short term to respond to disasters and pandemic such as the COVID-19, the IDEAMAPS processes of coordination, inclusion and sustainablilty will accelerate the implementation of Master Plans/Model City Plans, Lagos State Development (2012-2025) and the Lagos Resilient Strategy (2020).
This is who the IDEAMAPS Project is engaging and why:
Local academia. The IDEAMAPS Project is collaborating with University of Lagos, which has multidisciplinary research capabilities and the advantage of a cosmopolitan location with a focus on local, national and global development aspirations. The University of Lagos has recently established unique networks across Africa and beyond through the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development (CHSD) and Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Centre (ESDC). The university is also a member of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and the Sustainable Procurement, Environment and Social Standards Enhancement Centre of Excellence (SPESSECE) funded by the World Bank in collaboration with the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC).
Local government. In collaborating with Lagos city/state government, the IDEAMAPS network shall leverage the multiagency nature of city administration to tackle urbanization challenges. We engage local government champions including the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development (LSMPPUD), whose overarching mandate is urban development, and the Lagos Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA), which focuses on slum revitalization.
Community organizations. In addition, the IDEAMAPS Project partners with civil society and community groups including the Justice and Empowerment Initiative (JEI) and the Nigeria Federation of Slums and Informal Shacks/Settlements (local SDI Federation) in Lagos. JEI and SDI are essential partners in the Lagos IDEAMAPS initiative because they leverage grassroots systems and mechanisms for data collection and engagement, securing a role for community members as citizen scientists – co-producing and using urban data for local decision-making – alongside city decision-makers and academics.
As the IDEAMAPS initiative in Lagos grows, international organizations, businesses, and others are welcome to join as co-producers and uses of deprived urban area data.
By Peter Elias — Lagos Urban Studies Group (LUSG), Department of Geography, University of Lagos, Nigeria
