SDI Media Statement, SOLIDARITY WITH MAKOKO: Condemning Forced Evictions in Makoko, Lagos in Nigeria

SDI Media Statement

14 JANUARY 2025

For Immediate Release

We, the Slum Dwellers International (SDI) community, stand in solidarity with the people of Makoko and strongly condemn the ongoing forced evictions and demolitions in Makoko, Oko Agbon and Sogunro communities in Lagos, Nigeria, which continue to unfold as of 14 January 2026.

Forced evictions are never only about the destruction of structures. They tear families apart, erase livelihoods, disrupt education and expose entire communities, especially women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities, to extreme vulnerability. Makoko’s communities, estimated to be home to over 80,000 residents, have already seen thousands displaced, with tens of thousands more at risk. Reports indicate that demolitions have expanded beyond previously communicated boundaries, including beyond the legally prescribed setback, and have proceeded without adequate notice, compensation, resettlement or meaningful consultation. The reported use of excessive force, including tear gas, against residents who have sought to peacefully protest and defend their homes, is deeply alarming.

Makoko is a vibrant waterfront community with deep cultural roots and a significant economic contribution to Lagos, including livelihoods linked to fishing and waterfront trade. What is unfolding is displacement, not development, an unjust pattern that marginalises the urban poor and undermines their dignity, safety and rights.

SDI is a global movement built over decades by communities organising for secure land tenure, adequate housing and essential services. We unequivocally oppose without reservation forced evictions. Communities that engage with the state through self-enumeration and collective action must be protected, not punished. Development that ignores the rule of law, violates due process, and proceeds without genuine community participation is unacceptable and cannot be justified. We stand with communities asserting their rights, dignity and voice against injustice.

We call on the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria to:

• Immediately halt all forced evictions and demolitions in Makoko and surrounding communities.
• Respect the rule of law including existing court orders and constitutional protections.
• End the use of force against residents and guarantee the safety and dignity of all affected people.
• Provide urgent relief and protection for displaced households, including safe shelter and access to education and health services.
• Engage communities as equal partners in planning and development, ensuring participation is genuine and inclusive.
• Invest in in-situ upgrading, community-led regeneration and rights-based urban development that leaves no one behind.

Cities must be built with people, not against them. True development is inclusive, participatory and rooted in justice. The people of Makoko deserve security, dignity and the right to remain in their homes.

Joe Muturi
President, Slum Dwellers International (SDI)

[Ends]

For more information, contact:

Esley Philander: esley@sdinet.org

Click here to download the statement as a pdf

Voicing the urban poor: New report highlights experiences from an energy justice programme

A new report published in the Field Actions Science Reports aims at voicing the urban poor and their experiences from the Energy Justice Programme.

Authors David Sheridan the Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Energy Justice Programme (EJP) coordinator, Mwaura Njogu a Renewable Energy Engineering Consultant, Andrew Maki the Co-director of Justice and Empowerment Initiatives (JEI) and Frederick Agyemang the Project coordinator EJP Ghana all work within the SDI Network.

SDI is committed to project typologies that produce learning at scale around clean energy access as part of our informal settlement upgrading agenda and empower the urban poor. Since 2014, we have been actively involved in the field of access to energy in Africa, India and the Philippines with our SDI Energy Justice Programme leverages community-led collection of disaggregated energy access data, community empowerment programmes and pro-poor access models. With the growing need for access in slums, our model offers bottom-up, innovative and adaptable methodological options for catalysing pro-poor change at settle, city and global levels.

Read the full report here.

The EJP is a demonstrative case study of SDI’s actions to improve access to essential services in slums and thereby empower the urban poor. The programme uses all of SDI’s tools, including the Know Your City (KYC) data collection programme, to generate grassroots and tailor-made solutions to energy access in slums. 

Energy for the urban poor

Energy is a key condition for developing essential services in these neighbourhoods. SDI’s EJP has active projects in 12 countries, namely Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, India and the Philippines which has enabled affiliate federations to provide improved energy access. Approximately 25 000 distinct households with nearly 100 000 beneficiaries in total benefitting from the improvements. 

According to the report, lack of access to sustainable energy is a significant barrier to slum development. The EJP sets out to leverage SDI’s core rituals of community-led settlement profiling, women-led savings groups and peer-to-peer exchanges to develop innovative solutions to critical service delivery gaps and scalable energy access projects to integrate into wider settlement upgrading programmes.

Data products produced as outputs from the EJP, such as this report, are vital tools for influencing and negotiating with key stakeholders.

The longstanding work of SDI’s Kenyan affiliate with the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) resulted in the Mukuru informal settlements being designated as a Special Planning Area in 2017. This breakthrough subsequently demonstrated the application of community mobilisation methodologies and participatory approaches to slum re-development planning and implementation. In collaboration with NCCG, Kenya’s SDI affiliate coordinated the work of developing a comprehensive spatial plan for the redevelopment of Mukuru.

This model is a great example of utilising SDI’s work as evidence and negotiating with influential decision-makers. 

The report highlights, that SDI’s Energy Justice Programmes ratchet effect which reveals that the evidence can be used to influence decision-makers, and cooperate with them (public, private, local and international), which can result in the adoption of contextual legal frameworks, just like Mukuru SPA and may assist in guaranteeing the institutionalised co-creation process in the long-term. 

Learnings

The report emphasises some key learnings in terms of project design and impacts, which were identified between the inception of the EJP and now. According to the reports, there is no “one size fits all” approach to a project. The authors do not propose a unique solution to each context, but rather a strong methodology to legitimise each energy solution emerging from and required in a specific context. 

Savings groups can fund solar energy systems. Within the SDI network, savings groups have been particularly adapted to the improvement of energy access in African slums. These groups can be a practical financing solution, especially for the EJP, with the model itself being easily replicable and adaptable. 

Training community members on the technical aspects of solar systems is integral to the implementation plan. 

Solar energy systems have great spillover effects. The transition to low-carbon energy systems is increasingly considered an important point in delivering energy for urban-poor communities. This recognises that communities must play an instrumental role in the implementation and management of these energy transitions. Thus far transitions have been slow, but by including communities to drive and co-create the opportunities for energy transitions, the adoption of innovative technologies may be accelerated, and more inclusive in terms of policy development and it enables capacity and skills building to support new and current economic activities. 

Download the full report.

Impact of Covid-19 on Nigeria’s Informal Settlements

An update from the Nigeria SDI Alliance, comprised of Justice & Empowerment Initiatives – Nigeria (JEI), the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation (the Federation), and the Physically Challenged Empowerment Initiative (PCEI).

***

On 1 April 2020, Justice & Empowerment Initiatives – Nigeria (JEI), the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation (the Federation), and the Physically Challenged Empowerment Initiative (PCEI) launched a quantitative survey and a qualitative storytelling campaign both designed to understand the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on informal settlements and vulnerable urban poor populations i n Lagos. With over half of Lagos’s 23 million residents living in informal settlements and slum communities, i t i s essential that policies and interventions aimed at curtailing the spread of the COVID-19 and mitigating its effect on livelihoods be informed by data that reflects the real l ived experiences of the urban poor. This dual-pronged effort aims to support more effective policy-making and public health interventions in real time. This report captures findings from research to date and real voices from across Lagos.

Community Awareness and Prevention Measures 

Accurate information and awareness about COVID-19 is key to preventing its spread. In March 2020, the Federation and PCEI launched a community awareness campaign through peer-to-peer, door-to-door education and distribution of fliers and facemasks, as well as demonstration hand-washing stations and hand sanitizer production. The survey aims to assess the reach of this and other awareness campaigns as well as the prevalence of prevention measures.

Across the 144 slums and informal settlements surveyed, the Federation was the primary source of information about COVID19, followed by the government, and then other community groups and NGOs. Many communities reported no awareness campaigns had reached them. Physical infrastructure like public hand-washing stations remain very limited in communities.

Lockdown, Stay at Home & Testing 

Two of the most effective government policies to control and curb the spread of COVID-19, across countries, have been lockdown and proactive, widespread testing. The Federal and Lagos State Governments have both taken steps to replicate these approaches during the first months of the outbreak in Nigeria. The survey aims to assess the effectiveness and reach of these policies in informal settlements and for the urban poor in Lagos.

Encouragingly, a relatively high percentage of communities reported that all or most people were staying at home during the strict lockdown that was in place from 1 April – 4 May 2020. These numbers have steadily dropped as lockdown measures have been eased and general attitudes towards compliance have relaxed — a fact that is in stark contrast with the exponential growth in cases over the same period based on public data from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

A strict lockdown followed by gradual easing is a strategy that has been used in some countries to increase preparedness of isolation centers, health facilities, and testing capacity. Unfortunately, access to testing remains extremely limited for the urban poor populations surveyed. Across communities, 83% of respondents reported that no one in the community had tried to get tested for COVID-19; 11% reported people had attempted but encountered challenges; only 6% reported someone in the community had been tested successfully. Anecdotal evidence suggests several reasons for these extremely low rates of testing: (1) Inability or unwillingness to identify COVID-19 symptoms; (2) fear of going for testing or helping an unwell person to go for testing; and (3) unavailability of localized testing in LGAs where the testing facilities are not yet active/accessible. The solution of proactive government door-to-door screening or testing campaigns had been announced in Lagos on 10 April 2020; however, as of date, only 7% of respondents report that the Lagos State Government door-to-door screening has reached their community.

Impact of the Pandemic on Lives & Livelihoods 

As the government imposed stay-at-home measures, shuttered non-essential businesses, and limited public transportation options, residents of informal settlements – already locked in a daily struggle to put food on the table – faced price hikes and widespread loss of income. Across communities, 78% reported people are unable to meet basic needs. Meanwhile, the vast majority of urban poor communities (85%) reported government-provided “palliatives” intended for the vulnerable had not reached them.

“Something wey we dey buy 11,000, dem dey call am 22,000… they go try to kill us with hunger before sickness go come kill us…”

Corona Diaries of the Urban Poor; Stories from the Front Lines

Alongside the survey, JEI, the Federation, and PCEI have undertaken a community-driven storytelling campaign that has brought together a diverse array of perspectives from across informal settlements in Lagos – comprising over 50 stories thus far from over 30 communities – creating a body of narrative evidence to further-inform the picture painted in the data. Stories of hunger. Stories of insecurity and nighttime vigilante duty. Stories of a suspected COVID-19 case unable to access testing or get evacuated despite the efforts of neighbors and community health workers and an old man dying quietly in his beds.

These stories have spanned a diverse array of topics – often interweaving more than one person’s experience – that together situate the unfolding pandemic within the context of urban poverty in Lagos, and help to tell the “human side” of the charts and data points referenced in this report

You can explore the full collection of stories from across Lagos at: www.justempower.org/coronadiaries

Key Lessons Drawn from Survey Data & Narrative Accounts to Date 

• As the Lagos active-caseload of coronavirus has steadily increased, adherence to social-distancing directives has decreased among informal settlement residents – peaking in the second week of April 2020 with 94% of communities reporting all or most of their residents are staying at home, and since declining to 11%. The fact that this trend began even before the official easing of lockdown measures suggests that desperation for food and basic necessities began to force urban poor populations to venture out even when there was a risk of arrest or prosecution as well as a risk of exposure to the virus With the easing of lockdown measures starting on 4 May 2020, this trend has worsened. Anecdotally, across the city we have witnessed reduced rates of compliance with mask wearing requirements, avoidance of larger social gatherings, etc. These trends should be cause for great alarm from a public health standpoint, combined with the limited access to testing and case reporting.  

LESSON: Absent government mandated and supported lockdown measures, stay at home will not be a reality for urban poor.

• The limited rates of access to testing speaks to the extent to which official numbers of cases reported by the NCDC likely underrepresent reality on the With only 6% of communities reporting that anyone in the community has been tested for the virus, there is no basis for isolation and treatment of persons affected or other precautions to be put in place. The low number of reported cases from across communities surveyed – with only 6 reported cases and 1 suspected COVID19-linked death – reflects more on testing than on actual prevalence of the virus. Anecdotally, we have identified several deaths in informal settlements where COVID-19 symptoms were present prior to death but no testing was done to ascertain the cause. Starting from June 2020, we are adapting our survey approach to better understand the barriers to testing and also launching a pilot door-to-door screening in urban poor communities to try to link suspected cases with available testing facilities.

LESSON: Absent major outreach (such as door-to-door screening), rates of testing in urban poor communities will remain low.

• Should the government consider reimposition of lockdown measures as the upwards trend in infections continues, lessons must be learned from the April 2020 Our data points to key problems that require careful planning to avoid:
  1. Limitations imposed on business and movement lead to price-hikes on foodstuffs in informal While some price-increases may be opportunistic, supply constraints caused by movement restrictions appears a secondary cause.
  2. Dissemination of food aid and other assistance must leverage existing social networks – e.g. grassroots networks such as the Federation and PCEI – in order to reach the necessary scale and reach the most vulnerable residents of
  3. Insecurity threatens to undermine future “lockdown” directives if unaccompanied by effective government support and increased community-government partnership to increase security on ground. The government must also declare legal and paralegal services providers “essential workers” to enable access to justice for the urban poor during

LESSON: Future lockdown measures should be carefully tailored and co-designed by government, private sector, civil society, and communities to prevent insecurity, avoid disruption of food supplies, and ensure assistance reaches the most vulnerable.

***

ABOUT US: Justice & Empowerment Initiatives – Nigeria (JEI) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization working to empower poor and marginalized communities to innovate their own justice and development solutions. The Nigerian Slum / Informal Settlement Federation is a movement of the urban poor for dignity and development with membership from hundreds of communities in Lagos and Rivers States and expanding to other cities across the country. The Physically Challenged Empowerment Initiative is a grassroots movement of urban poor people living with disabilities.

Since before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos, we have together led the charge on community health education, distribution of fliers in five languages and facemasks, as well as distribution of food assistance to nearly 30,000 urban poor households affected by lockdown with generous support from the Indian Community of Lagos, in addition to the efforts reported here.

The survey and storytelling efforts discussed in this report are simultaneously being replicated in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and Cotonou, Republic of Benin. Reports on the findings of those reports will be published separately and available at www.justempower.org.

Nigerian Federation & JEI: Responses to COVID-19

On behalf of the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation and Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI) – SDI presents the work to fight COVID-19 across Nigeria.

Over a month ago, the Nigerian Federation with support of JEI, began rapidly preparing to address the impending spread of COVID-19. Through cancelling all meetings, creating handwashing stations, distributing flyers in multiple languages, Federation tailors sewing 2,500 face masks and producing hand sanitiser – a multi-scale approach was taken to address the critical needs of the most vulnerable while warning communities of the imminent crisis. Over 16,000 informational flyers were printed and distributed in communities across Lagos in English, Hausa, Igbo, Egun and Yoruba, with 7,000 across Port Harcourt.

Assisting those most at risk – older, immune-compromised, homeless, indigent, immigrant/migrant Federation members to clinics to get tested when symptoms appear, while ensuring that there are no barriers to access due to language, cost, nor demographic – remains of utmost priority to the Federation.

At this time, Lagos is three weeks into lockdown, food is still scarce and government programmes remain to be seen for 2/3 of the population living in informal settlements. Mohammed (Vagabond) Zanna reflects on the precarious position of Federations, and more broadly, the urban poor with the lack of plans and proper response.

“We are doing our best as the Federation, in Nigeria, as an affiliate of SDI. We are creating awareness, making face masks, sourcing food donations, but it is not enough. From our side, it is not enough, the government needs to do more. What they give, is not enough for that person, and their family to eat. It is not enough. We are caught between Coronavirus and hunger, if we stay home, we starve, if we go outside, we stand the risk of catching COVID-19, and spreading it to our families, and also our communities. This is the situation, and there is serious tension. Something needs to be done.”

The ongoing work of information dissemination is crucial and focuses on social distancing that is tailored to the realities of living in informal settlements, recognizing symptoms, contacting government hotlines, and pushing back on false & dangerous information that has been simultaneously spreading. The communications includes regular WHO updates & recommendations, health education talks, and WhatsApp information campaign. These information campaigns are crucial to ensure updated and reliable information is reaching those most at risk, and to guarantee Federation experiences are being accurately shared.

Corona Diaries of the Urban Poor (#C19DiariesOfTheUrbanPoor) is a citizen journalism series that details COVID-19 pandemic at the intersection of urban poverty detailing the lived realities of slum communities told by current residents across Nigeria & Benin. With a mix of audio and visual mediums, and data conducted by the Federation in Nigeria & Benin, real-time stories are being developed. To continue following their work please check out the following social handles, Facebook, and Twitter: @vagabonkingdom @NaijaFederation @justempower – all above media can also be found on the JEI website with continued updated on the Corona Diaries page.

Please keep following SDI as we highlight the initiatives of SDI affiliates across Africa, Asia & Latin America in the fight against COVID-19 to support the most vulnerable throughout this pandemic.

Follow the 2019 Community-Led Habitat Awardees

Last year SDI and the CoHabitat Network launched the inaugural Community-Led Habitat Awards for Africa. The awards recognise inspiring community-driven habitat solutions from across the continent with the aim to advocate for the expansion of community-led urban development and housing.

Five awards were given in 2019 to the following categories:

• Best Project Award (3 winning projects)
• Best Partnership Award (1 winning partnership)
• Best Short Film (1 winning film)

Click here to read more about each of the winning community-led habitat projects.

Each of the winning teams were awarded $1,000 for continued learning to leverage visibility of the project within their country. Below find an update from each of the awardees on continued local recognition facilitates by the CoHabitat Award.

Best Project Awardees 

Walukuba Material Building Training Center (Uganda).

The Uganda Alliance used their prize money to capitalize on the training center, by igniting activities and projects that can further benefit from the center within Jinja. These included:

• The signing of a charter for Walukuba Building Material Training Center and Community Hall. The training center had been lacking clear roles and responsibilities on the day-to-day management of the center. In August 2019, a stakeholder meeting was convened and a charter was developed and signed to ensure proper and sustainable management of the center.
• Near the training center is the Kawama Housing Project. This project had been stalled for some year, however the Uganda Alliance was able to assess how much land is still available for the housing project to ensure proper planning.
• The Uganda Alliance undertook a structural assessment of the existing Kawana housing structure that is intended to accommodate 30 families who have been living in transit houses. A structural engineer visited the housing site to assess the structural strength to build more than one floor for the housing project.

Dzivarasekwa Slum Upgrading Project (Zimbabwe).

The Zimbabwe Alliance planned to capitalize on their award by establishing and consolidating the position of the project as a key slum upgrading learning ground for communities, government, universities and other stakeholders across the country. By inviting targeted local authority officials and government, a celebration event was scheduled to demonstrate and influence policy regarding informal settlement responses in Zimbabwe. The event was scheduled for August but has been postponed due to unavailability of key government and council officials.

Home Improvement/Upgrading Project in Flood-prone areas // Appui á la reconstruction de l’Habitat en zone sinistrée (Senegal).

The Senegalese Federation (FSH) and urbaSEN took the award as an opportunity to present their most recent program to key government officials, ministries, and non-governmental organizations in Dakar. The PING-GIRI project seeks to mitigate flood risks in six municipalities of the suburbs of Dakar, in which the Federation is active, and to finance small-scale urban upgrading projects through the Federation’s revolving fund, which to date has allowed 350 families to rehabilitate their homes. The extension of the revolving fund mechanism to semi-collective sanitation and urban upgrading projects in the public space, designed and implemented by savings groups, is an ambitious step for the Senegalese Federation. The award allowed for gaining greater visibility and recognition of the achievements of the Federation, which are essential for leveraging public support and collaboration for upcoming activities.

Best Partnership Awardee 

A Multiple Partnership Approach for Community-led Housing and Services in Namibia.

The Namibia SDI Alliance used their award money to host a ceremony with local officials and leverage the recognition of a partnership approach to housing during the opening of houses in Okongo-north. During the ceremony, Standard Bank handed over the Buy-A-Brick contribution of 13 million rand to the Namibian federation!

Best Short Film Awardee

Undevelopment: Forced Evictions in Nigeria

The Nigerian federation has screened “Undevelopment” almost a dozen times in a variety of different forums. There have been community screenings in Lagos (Orisunmibare, Ago Egun Bariga, Arobadade, Tarkwa Bay), and in Port Harcourt (Deinma Polo). It has also been screened at the Federation General Meeting in Lagos and Port Harcourt, the West Africa Storytelling for Change KYC TV Summit, and also at a Media For Advocacy Training the team led in August for other CSOs in Lagos.

Additionally, “Undevelopment” was screened the week of September 16, 2019 in Abuja for a collection of civil society organizations and UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing at the Norwegian Ambassador’s residence as part of an advocacy push for legislation prohibiting forced evictions and displacement.

Nigerian Navy Forcibly Evicts Thousands from Okun Ayo & Tarkwa Bay Communities in Lagos

22 January 2020
Lagos, Nigeria

JOINT PRESS STATEMENT: NIGERIAN NAVY ACTING ON ORDERS “FROM ABOVE” FORCIBLY EVICTS THOUSANDS FROM OKUN AYO & TARKWA BAY COMMUNITIES IN BRAZEN DISREGARD FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES & DUE PROCESS OF LAW

The Nigerian Slum / Informal Settlement Federation (Federation) and Justice & Empowerment Initiatives – Nigeria (JEI) condemn the demolition and forced eviction of Okun Ayo and Tarkwa Bay communities beginning on 21 January 2020 by the Nigerian Navy, acting on “orders from above”, carried out in brazen disregard for due process of law and other fundamental rights guaranteed to residents by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other human rights laws.

Around 9am on Tuesday, 21 January 2020, residents of Okun Ayo and Tarkwa Bay communities – two peaceful beachside communities that are home to an estimated at least 4,500 fishermen, artisans, artists, and business people engaged in local tourism, among others – were shocked when the military personnel from the Nigerian Navy rushed through the community, shooting guns and ordering everyone to pack out within one hour. Several persons reported violence and that at least one resident was shot in the leg. Meanwhile, excavators reportedly began working in Okun Ayo community bringing down buildings, with military stationed to stop any entrance to that area.

Over the following hours and up through nightfall, thousands of residents packed what belongings they could salvage and struggled to find boats to leave the community, which is accessible only by water. All along the beaches and alongside Tarkwa Bay jetty, residents were seen with their belongings stacked high. Hundreds of boats filled with men, women and children waited in the harbor to know where they could move to take refuge. At CMS jetty on Lagos Island, hundreds of families sat with piles of their belongings, no idea where to go next. Many families ended up sleeping under bridges and in open spaces nearby as night fell and they still had no solution.

The demolition of Okun Ayo and the forced evacuation of Tarkwa Bay bring the number of communities forcibly evicted by the Nigerian Government through the Nigerian Navy since Christmas Eve 2019 – less than a month ago – to at least two dozen. The other peaceful island communities include Abagbo, Abule Elepa, Abule Glass, Ajakoji, Akaraba, Bobukoji, Ebute Oko, Fashola, Idi Mango, Ilaje, Inangbe / Ilado, Kopiamy, Ogunfemi, Oko-Kate, Okun Alfa, Okun Babakati, Okun Gbogba, Okun Ilase, Okun Kobena, Sankin, Sapo Okun, and Tokunbo, among others. Still other member communities of the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation on the islands nearby are living under fear of imminent eviction should these actions continue.

We are dismayed by the purported justification given for these forced evictions based on security operations, knowing that no law in Nigeria allows for the demolition of peoples’ homes nor other forms of collective punishment without any due process of law. Rather, the Nigerian Constitution guarantees the presumption of innocence. Anyone suspected of a crime must be arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced before appropriate punishment can be imposed on that individual. Collective punishment and punishment of third parties is unconstitutional and illegal.

Meanwhile, forced evictions – the removal of people from the land or homes they occupy without sufficient legal or other protections – is a gross violation of international human rights law binding on Nigeria. The Nigerian Constitution and human rights law domesticated in Nigeria guarantee the rights to adequate shelter/housing, livelihood, due process of law, and dignity, among others. Indeed, a 2017 Lagos High Court judgment found that forced evictions without adequate notice and resettlement violate the right to dignity enshrined in Section 34 of the Constitution.

Forced evictions are not only illegal and unconstitutional, they are counter-productive to security and to the development objectives Lagos and Nigeria as a whole. Forced evictions cause mass homelessness, loss of livelihood, separation of families, interruption of education, physical and mental health consequences and death. Displaced communities and families are pushed into worsened poverty, which can only undermine security, as well as urban and national development.

For years, the Federation and JEI have worked closely with urban poor communities like Tarkwa Bay, Okun Ayo, and other communities living under the current threat of eviction to implement community-led development and advocate for partnership with government to follow international best practices around community policing and community-led in situ upgrading that can produce win-win outcomes to improve quality of life, collective security and societal development.

We call on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Nigerian Navy to immediately halt the ongoing eviction campaign of island communities across Lagos, to dialogue with communities to find alternatives to eviction, while compensating and resettling evictees for their losses.

SIGNED:

Megan S. Chapman, Mohammed Zanna, Akinrolabu Samuel, Bimbo Oshobe
Justice & Empowerment Initiatives, Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation
www.justempower.org, www.facebook.com/NigerianFederation.net
+234 (0) 818 719 6021, +234 (0) 704 639 6371, +234 (0) 803 921 4391
megan@justempower.org

For pictures and videos of the 21 January 2020 forced eviction of Tarkwa Bay and Okun Ayo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/justempower/sets/72157712780902478/

Winners of the 2019 Community Led Habitat Award for Africa

SDI is excited to announce the winners of the 2019 Community-Led Habitat Awards: Project Call for Africa, an initiative of the CoHabitat Network implemented in partnership with urbaMonde and World Habitat. The aim of the call was to highlight innovations produced in relation to community-led habitat and the built environment. The winning teams will be awarded USD 1000 for continued learning to leverage visibility of the project and will present their project or partnership at the inaugural Habitat Assembly in Nairobi later this month.

The call was open to all resident-led or grassroots organizations, with three award categories available:

• Best Project Award (2-3 winning projects)
• Best Partnership Award (1 winning partnership)
• Best Short Film (1 winning film)

The following have been selected as winners in the Best Project category:

Walukuba Material Building Training Center (Uganda). The Jinja Material Training Center is a social enterprise and a resource center for Incremental Upgrading in Jinja. The project was established by National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda (NSDFU), ACTogether and SDI. It is comprised of a materials workshop used for the production of innovative low cost building materials and training, a community hall for the Walukuba Community, a hostel for trainees and Federation visitors, and a selection of demonstration projects such as sanitation units and a demo house. The three-story hostel and community hall were constructed entirely from products produced on site. Project impact includes: Skills-training on production and improvement of low-cost housing materials; income-generation through the hostel; and community-building, both through project planning and implementation and thanks to the provision of a community hall as part of the project itself.

Dzivarasekwa Slum Upgrading Project (Zimbabwe). The Dzivarasekwa Slum Upgrading Project is a housing project based in the community of Dzivarasekwa extension. This projects forms part of the greater Harare Slum Upgrading Project which is being implemented by the alliance of the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation and Dialogue on Shelter for the Homeless Trust, in partnership with the City of Harare and the Zimbabwe central government. Construction began in 2011 and is still ongoing with 480 families as primary beneficiaries of land for housing development, leading to secure tenure and provision of adequate water and sanitation facilities among other essential services.

Home Improvement/Upgrading Project in Flood-prone areas // Appui á la reconstruction de l’Habitat en zone sinistrée (Senegal). A home improvement and reconstruction programme stewarded through the federation’s revolving fund,  benefitting to date more than 300 households affected by floods. The programme provides an opportunity for low-income communities in the suburbs of Dakar to improve and rebuild their homes through an affordable financing mechanism and with technical support. The programme is currently being expanded to include community-wide infrastructure and sanitation projects. To date, 313 home improvements have been completed, in addition to 80 micro-projects. Another 300+ home improvements are in the planning phase. 5000 savings group members have been mobilised, and 100 local craftsmen trained in construction skills.

The winner in the Best Partnership category is Namibia for “A Multiple Partnership Approach for Community-led Housing and Services in Namibia.” Partners include: Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia, Namibia Housing Action Group, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Local, Regional and National Government of Namibia, and private sector.

The Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) has, over a number of years, formed an active partnership with the Namibian government in order to work together towards pro-poor, participatory housing and urban upgrading policies – including financing, land tenure and participatory planning and upgrading aspects. Today, SDFN is negotiating conditions and the framing of the policies. It manages the urban poor fund and negotiates partnerships with third actors. In addition, SDFN is working to forge new partnerships with the private sector Standard Bank who started the a Buy-a-Brick public fundraising campaign, as well as a partnership with Ohorongo Cement Factory, First National Bank and Pupkewitz Foundation with donations of N$3 million a year. They have contributed N$ 10 million since 2016.

The impact of this partnership has been far-reaching, and has included the development of a pro-poor housing development program resulting in the construction of houses throughout all the regions of Namibia and an Informal Settlement Upgrading in Gobabis for more than 1,000 households. In addition,  a Memorandum of Understanding exists between SDFN and Namibian government for the collection of settlement data to be undertaken by the federation, and the peoples’ housing process is included in the National Housing Policy as updated in 2009. Building on the experiences of community, the Flexible Land Tenure Act of 2012 was approved to cater to the community to register their blocks of land. The Namibia government has, since the year 2000, assisted 2,284 households to obtain housing through donations of N$ 59.6 million which forms 35% of the N$ 165.3 million channeled through Twahangana Fund – the Namibian urban poor fund – to more than 10,000 households to build houses, install services and improve incomes. The community contributed 37% to the fund through repayment (N$58.9 million) and their own contributions (N$2,2 million).

There was a very close call in the Best Short Film category, where the Nigeria and Kenya KYC.TV teams tied as winners of the Audience Award, with each team mobilising over a thousand votes. The award for overall Best Film was given to Nigeria, for their film “Undevelopment: Forced Evictions in Nigeria,” with a special mention to Uganda for their submission.

“Undevelopment” focuses on the impact of forced eviction, defined by the United Nations as “the permanent or temporary removal against their will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.” The Nigeria federation has compiled data on 114 forced evictions in Nigeria since 1973. This video seeks to bring the scourge of forced evictions to the forefront of the Nigerian social and political conscience. It weaves together the stories of eight evictees as they describe life before, during, and after eviction, and makes an appeal for more inclusive urban development. The video draws on footage collected over several years and countless contributions of many individuals from Justice Empowerment Initiatives and the Nigerian federation. Elijah Atinkpo, who lost his home in the forced eviction Otodo Gbame eviction of 2017, led the visioning and post-production processes.

We are inspired and encouraged by the response to this year’s Community Led Habitat Awards and look forward to watching as winners continue to spread the learning from their projects to still more communities. Stay tuned for news of the 2020 CLH Awards. We are excited to continue on with this initiative.

Highlights from the Nigeria Federation: A year of hard work shows great results

^{Port Harcourt Federation volunteers launch a new savings group in Diobu waterfront}

Despite being one of the younger affiliates in the SDI network, the Nigerian SDI Alliance – comprised of the Nigeria Slum / Informal Settlement Federation and support NGO Justice & Empowerment Initiatives – is doing impressive work building a solid foundation of networked savings schemes, using community-collected data to negotiate eviction alternatives and improved living conditions for their communities, forming active partnerships with government and other urban decision makers, and building capacity and momentum in local youth to catalyse greater change. Below are  some highlights from the affiliate on their activities over the last year. 

Federation Strengthening

During the period the Federation’s savings groups and membership continued to grow through outreach to new communities and strengthening savings groups in existing Federation communities. In Lagos this was primarily supported by the LGA Coordinator system set up by the Federation in 2017 where 2 strong Federation mobilizers have volunteered to take the lead in supporting other savings groups in their LGA. The LGA Coordinators convene meetings with representatives of the savings groups within their LGA, and also provide support to new groups or reenergize ‘inactive’ groups within their LGA.

The LGA Coordinators also generally serve as point persons for all Federation activities within their LGA (e.g. profiling or enumeration efforts). LGA coordinators effectively serve as ‘second tier’ leadership within the Federation even though there is no formal overall leadership structure.

Additionally, in order to emphasize the importance of savings as a core ritual, the Federation instituted a policy that all Federation volunteers would be required to submit copies of their savings passbooks on a monthly basis to show that they are active savers – this cuts across all aspects of Federation work, including that of the media and the profiling/data teams. This has helped to ensure that all Federation work continues to be anchored by community level savings groups as the fundamental building block of the Federation.

^{General Manager of Lagos Urban Renewal Agency and his staff in Orisunmibare community for a planning meeting with the Orisunmibare Upgrading Committee}

Know Your City

To support community planning and partnerships outlined below, we have developed a number of maps, charts, and graphs that present the Federation’s profiling and enumeration data towards specific purposes. When a community completes profiling – a simple map of the community is produced and given back to the community for their own records and use. In Port Harcourt, towards building a collaboration with the Ministry of Works around improving community drainages, we have also developed drainage maps.

In both Lagos and Port Harcourt the Federation has been working to put their data to work – primarily in the context of engaging with government. In Lagos, our engagement with Lagos Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA) towards upgrading Orisunmibare community (and potentially 2 others) is largely informed by the enumeration process carried out in the community together with several LASURA staff. In Port Harcourt, the Federation is working with both the Water Corporation and the Ministry of Works towards community upgrading efforts – improving access to water on one hand, and improving drainages on the other hand. The interest of the Water Corporation and the Ministry of Works to work with the Federation was, in both cases, piqued by the data that the Federation had already collected.

The Federation has collaborated with the Department of Geography at University of Lagos and LASURA towards localizing and measuring indicators for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 – particularly around access to services and climate change resilience and adaptation. The Federation and JEI developed a household survey module that can be added on to our standard enumeration form to capture data about SDG 11.

Another collaboration that the Federation developed was with the Landlord and Tenant Association of Apapa LGA, tackling access to electricity (overbilling and estimated billing). This partnership evolved from a single paralegal case assisting Federation members wrongfully arrested and detained at the instigation of the electricity distribution company to try to silence their advocacy for better access to services, to an LGA-wide house numbering effort facilitated by the Federation towards negotiating better terms of service with the electricity distribution company. Because of the federation’s efforts, the member of the Lagos State House of Representatives for Apapa LGA and the Police Area Commander have participated in meetings to try to resolve the simmering dispute – and have largely supported the Federation’s position against extortionate billing. This negotiation process is still ongoing, however, it has afforded the Federation a lot of productive learning about mass mobilizing and using data to push for improved access to services, while drawing (political) allies to the cause.

^{Samuel Akinrolabu with the head of the Landlords and Tenants Association planning for mass house numbering across all of Apapa LGA to generate data to use in negotiations with the electricity distribution company}

Partnerships 

In Lagos, our partnership with Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency has continued to develop primarily through the process of working towards an inclusive in-situ upgrading process in Orisunmibare community. This process – the first of its kind in Lagos – has included community-level data collection through a participatory enumeration together with LASURA, establishment of a community upgrading committee, and dozens of planning meetings to date. As a result of these efforts, LASURA was able to obtain a budget from the State Government for 2018 to specifically support their engagement in the planning process in Orisunmibare.

Separately, the Lagos Federation has been engaged in an Affordable Housing Working Group set up in 2017 to think through mechanisms and designs for affordable housing in Lagos. The working group includes members from the Lagos State Ministry of Housing as well as a group of urban planning, architecture, and housing professionals. During the period numerous meetings were convened and a proposal for a government-backed housing trust fund that is truly accessible to the urban poor is being developed.

Engaging the Youth 

^{KYC.TV media team in Port Harcourt on a shoot focused on access to health services in Federation communities}

During the reporting period the youth Federation’s Know Your City TV team grew and matured by leaps and bounds – transforming from a group of young Federation members interested in making media, to a much more organized, focused, and talented team taking their own initiative to launch new projects. This transition was anchored by a regular series of trainings, exchanges, and other engagements that served to hone skills, build excitement, deepen engagement of the KYC.TV team with the larger Federation, and sharpen our collective focus on making media for change.

The other major area of youth engagement was in further training and growing the KYC profiling and data teams in Lagos and Port Harcourt – which led a number of intensive efforts to enumerate several settlements towards planning upgrading, house number communities towards engagement with electricity distribution companies, and refine data capture processes — both for KYC and for the Nigerian Federation Savings Database.

Follow the Nigeria federation and their support NGO Justice Empowerment Initiatives on Facebook & Twitter for regular updates on their work.

Developing Alternatives to Waterfront Evictions in Lagos

Organize

As of 2017, the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation has organized 162 groups in 2 cities. As with most federations in the SDI network, combating evictions is the federation’s key mobilizing force. In the past 5 years, waterfront evictions have escalated owing to land grabs associated with an inflow of finance for luxury coastal development projects. The federation has used a combination of organizing strategies to try to stop the brutal evictions – evictions characterized by the overnight bulldozing of settlements housing tens of thousands, police setting fire to peoples’ homes and belongings, and the firing of live and rubber bullets to drive communities off the land. Federation profiling data on 40 waterfront communities with an estimated combined population of over 300,000 has been essential to informing the #SaveTheWaterfronts campaign to end forced evictions and ensure eviction alternatives are prioritized.

Collaborate

Despite a highly hostile environment, the federation has continued to work to build relationships with government. In the past year, progress has been made with the Lagos State Ministry of Health and the Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA) with whom the federation has signed MOUs and is undertaking pilot projects to demonstrate eviction alternatives and city development that is in line with New Urban Agenda commitments. Peer-to-peer exchanges with other SDI federations and their government partners have been an important contributors to shifting perceptions in some government circles. Collaboration with other civil society actors has also been critical for raising awareness among the Nigerian public that – aside from contravening national and international law – the demolitions of peoples’ homes and livelihoods is neither a strategy for eliminating slums nor a strategy for building secure and prosperous cities.

Thrive

Much is at stake in these efforts to demonstrate eviction alternatives and show there is another way. Since the absence of services in informal settlements is often used to justify removals, an effective first step in navigating the land tenure continuum can be the extension of these services to informal communities and the setting in motion of processes to upgrade in situ. It is an uphill struggle to say the least. In a city such as Lagos, with some of the most expensive land and housing markets on the continent, the forces against the federation are fierce. Poverty and deepening inequality are acute threats to the resilience of Lagos.

The Nigeria slum dweller federation efforts contribute to improved city resilience by reducing acute human vulnerability resulting from forced eviction, mobilizing cohesive communities, and organizing them to act as engaged citizens. These efforts are geared toward driving proactive multi-stakeholder engagements and building mechanisms for community engagement with government in pursuit of inclusive safety, security, and wellbeing in the megacity.

This post is part of a series of case studies from our 2017 Annual Report titled ‘The Road to Resilience.’ Emerging from the field of ecology,  ‘resilience’  describes the capacity of a system to maintain or recover from disruption or disturbance. Cities are also complex systems and a resilience framework addresses the inter- connectedness of formal and informal city futures. Moreover, it enables a nuanced reflection on the nature of shocks and chronic stressors – recognising that the latter are particularly acute in slum dweller communities and that this critically undermines the entire city’s economic, social, political, and environmental resilience.As with personal resilience, city resilience demands awareness, acknowledgment of reality, and a capacity to move beyond reactivity to responses that are proactive, thoughtful, and beneficial to the whole. The most enlightened individuals and cities will be those that understand their responsibility to the most vulnerable and to the planet. Our 2017 Annual Report showcases some of SDI’s achievements over the past year on the road to resilience. Click here for the full report. 

Remembering Daniel Aya | #OtodoGbame #SaveOurWaterfronts

By Megan S. Chapman, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Justice & Empowerment Initiatives – Nigeria

The footage you see at the beginning of the promo clip for “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos” showing thousands of people in wooden fishing boats on the Lagos Lagoon watching their homes being burned by the government was taken almost a year ago to the day by my husband. He was with the evictees while tear gas and live bullets were being shot in their general direction to keep them from returning to land.

The man in the second clip whose head was lolling back was Daniel Aya, a young man and Federation member who was hit by one of those bullets in the neck and whose community members were trying to pole him to another boat that could try to take him to get urgent treatment across the Lagoon. I met that boat when it landed 45 minutes later carrying his dead body. A few minutes later, another boat arrived with a young man shot in the chest whose life we were able to save.

The Otodo Gbame community including 30,000 people was violently and forcibly evicted so their land could be turned into a luxury real estate development. It was destroyed violently and ruthlessly despite peaceful protests by thousands of Federation members from the Lagos waterfronts. Despite a court injunction restraining the government from carrying out the eviction of Otodo Gbame and 39 other communities who remain at risk of eviction up to today despite a court judgement in their favour.

This project is born out of the need for alternative ways to get the message out and change these lived realities of the urban poor in Lagos, in Nigeria, and around the globe. There is urgency in the struggle. It is personal to me and to hundreds of thousands of Lagos urban poor who are leading the struggle for dramatic change.

We believe deeply in co-creative processes. These are the key to alternatives we are pushing for the government to take to pursue win-win solutions with the poor instead of violent land grab. But co-creation is messy, is labour intensive and takes time to be done well and be truly co-creative and pluralistic. I both recognize the “essentialness” of this approach and struggle to be patient for the end-product (or mid-stream) tools that will advance the struggle — and hopefully transform it into something that will change the conversation and lived realities of the people with whom my daily life is intertwined.