Dr Temilade Sesan is the Lagos City Manager for the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC). She spoke to CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM on the ongoing implementation phase and how they plan to institutionalise processes for the provision of public infrastructure, as well as ensure transformative action in low-income communities.

As Lagos City Manager for the ACRC, how do you see your role in shaping research-driven urban transformation?
In my role as city manager, I lead a team of researchers, practitioners and community representatives who are passionate about building a Lagos that works for everyone, and not just a few people. The team is diverse, with experts cutting across the fields of urban planning, political science, community development, media and communications. It is my job to leverage the strengths of each member of this diverse team for transformative outcomes. We work from the understanding that the urban development outcomes we see today are shaped by the interplay between political actors in different centres of power in government, business and across society.

The team is committed to demonstrating workable models for improving infrastructure and services for people across Lagos, especially those in low-income communities who have historically been disadvantaged by business-as-usual development plans and strategies. The term we use to describe this ambition is urban reform. We aim to achieve this through a combination of action research (research that generates and applies insights from real-world projects) and stakeholder engagement. Our mission is to build on what we and others working in the urban development and governance space have accomplished to date and, in doing so, advance the frontiers of reform a little bit farther.

The African Cities Research Consortium has entered its second phase. What are the key goals of this phase, and what role is Lagos expected to play?
ACRC started in 2022, in the wake of COVID-19, with what we call the foundation phase. This first phase cut across twelve African cities, including Lagos. The Lagos team spent two years researching the status quo in a range of urban development sectors. We emerged with an understanding of some of the most pressing issues for residents that, if addressed in inclusive ways, would simultaneously catalyse improvements in several aspects of city life.

We entered the second phase – the implementation phase – in mid-2024, along with four other cities (Harare, Kampala, Nairobi and Accra) from the foundation phase. In the ongoing implementation phase, we intend to bring learnings from the first phase to bear in planning and piloting action research projects to address identified problems in specific communities, with extensive stakeholder collaboration.

For example, two of the most pressing issues unearthed during the foundation-phase research in Lagos were insecurity and flooding. Now, in the implementation phase, we are poised to begin action research projects specifically targeting those problems in some Lagos communities. This is in addition to a community-led project targeting the perennial problem of inadequate access to safe water and sanitation in the city. These projects and others in the pipeline are meant to serve as exemplars of inclusive infrastructure and service delivery models, especially to political and business actors who have the responsibility and/or resources to scale up such solutions across the city.

Lagos is one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities, facing immense housing and infrastructure pressures. What do you consider the most urgent urban challenges requiring immediate research and policy attention?
Our foundation-phase research identified several multifaceted and complex challenges faced by Lagos residents. Housing, as implied in your question, is a major one: our research established the critical role it plays in ensuring stable livelihoods, dignity and sustainable development. The informal settlements that get so much negative press are a direct consequence of a staggering deficit of affordable housing in the city.

The consequences of the housing deficit extend to the whole of society. Even middle-class residents are unable to access accommodation that meets their needs at different stages of their lives, owing to a lack of affordable mortgage plans, prohibitive rental terms imposed by landlords and a failure to implement long overdue reforms to the property tax regime in the state. The housing problem is going to get worse as the prices of building materials soar in the face of stagnant worker incomes and population increases unless the government proactively invests in affordable and social housing while exploring catalytic approaches such as those envisaged through the ACRC network.

Our research also documented huge deficits in transportation, waste management, electricity, and economic opportunity. Equally consequential are deficits in less tangible domains such as access to justice and security. Indeed, the latter was identified as a cross-cutting challenge that inhibits social cohesion and economic growth for everyone, but especially among the plethora of young people seeking to lay hold of the urban advantage. All these areas present opportunities for the government to act in the interests of the most marginalised groups.

How does the ACRC approach differ from conventional urban development models, particularly in engaging with informal settlements and marginalised groups?
At ACRC, we see Lagos as a city of interconnected systems (energy, waste management, water, housing, and transport), in which developments in one system, for better or worse; have a ripple effect on others. All the research we embark upon must therefore deliver co-benefits across sectors. We also understand that the positions that are negotiated between various political actors over time influence resource allocation and circumscribe the extent of development that occurs in the urban space.

As such, we are sensitive to the political implications of the projects that we engage in/with, seeking to work with stakeholders to ensure that interests across the board are considered. Further, we acknowledge the agency reflected in community knowledge and local practices, and so we advocate for the centering of community voices in urban governance to enable the shaping of policies and projects that work for people.

Our considered approach on ACRC is underpinned by our theory of change, which posits that a set of interrelated conditions need to be in place for inclusive urban transformation to happen in African cities: commitment from political and business elites; capacity within state institutions to follow through on that commitment; community organising on the part of residents to engage with state institutions for change; and coalition building between communities and reform-oriented actors.

One key difference that this perspective makes to our work is that we rigorously scrutinise our interventions to mitigate against the risk of them ending up as isolated projects that nobody follows up on because the political will and community agency required to keep them going are lacking. Think of the abandoned, broken-down boreholes that well-meaning donors and governments have installed in low-income communities around the world, for instance, and you get the picture.

What recent research or findings from your team have the potential to shift how we understand or manage urban governance in Lagos?
One of our action research teams has done extensive work to answer the question of what it would take to prioritise and maintain streetlights in Lagos. In other words, how do we institutionalise processes for the provision of public streetlights that do not break or disappear a few weeks after installation – not just in a handful of affluent communities or corridors – but across the city?

Streetlights have been shown to be an important part of road furniture and community infrastructure that, if done properly, can extend productive hours and protect against the loss of life and property after dark. The question is how to do them properly. Our research indicates that public investment in street lighting can yield higher returns when interventions leverage existing community-level structures (such as community development associations) in decision-making regarding which technologies to deploy, what maintenance models to adopt and what price point is feasible for residents.

Indeed, the value of harnessing community knowledge through engagement is evident in all our action research projects. On our water and sanitation project, for example, women-led water committees will work with established CDA structures to enhance water provision and management within the community. Success at this level is, in turn, expected to unlock resources for expansion and replication by responsible local and state government departments.

Partnership and collaboration are central to sustainable development. How is the centre/ACRC working with government agencies, civil society, and communities to turn research into action?
The lead implementing agency for ACRC in Lagos is the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development (CHSD) at the University of Lagos. CHSD has a long track record of working with communities and other stakeholders to identify common urban development challenges, jointly develop evidence-informed solutions and engage with policymakers for pro-poor reform. CHSD’s work on the ACRC project is a continuation of this legacy.

The first step we take in engaging with the policy space is to ensure that the action research projects we propose align with the state’s developmental priorities as expressed in guiding documents such as the Lagos State Development Plan, the Lagos Resilience Strategy and the Lagos State Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan. This way, we can establish the policy relevance of our work from the beginning. There is no use re-inventing the wheel; we see our work as providing technical and community knowledge to operationalise urban policy and sustainable development.

Beyond research, we must ensure that knowledge, power and interest align closely enough to trigger transformative action in low-income communities. We do this by mainstreaming “uptake” elements such as public, policy and community-facing activities and outputs across all our research streams to facilitate open communication and learning with stakeholders.

In what ways is the centre contributing to capacity building—both within the university and across city institutions—to foster long-term urban resilience?
The atmosphere within and beyond the ACRC team is very much one of knowledge exchange and co-learning. All of us, coming as we do from different disciplinary, professional and social backgrounds, have something to learn from each other. We have concrete metrics for capturing and measuring the learning that goes on. This includes, but is not limited to, journal publications for academic audiences, policy briefs for government officials, and blog posts/op-eds for a general audience. Importantly, we have ensured the integration of early-career researchers into the team, thereby contributing to the pipeline of future urban development professors and professionals.

We also work with grassroots movements – in particular, the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation and the Community Development Advisory Council – to strengthen the capacity of local communities to mobilise resources and support to defend their right to the city and keep contributing to the city’s economy. Central to the ACRC theory of change mentioned above is the imperative to facilitate the building of coalitions between community-level actors and city/national-level stakeholders to push for reform in different sectors beyond the project life.

Looking ahead, what excites you most about the work being done in Lagos under the ACRC, and how can more stakeholders get involved in supporting the mission?
Many things about our work at ACRC excite me. At the moment, I’m really looking forward to the launch of our flood resilience and water and sanitation action projects in Ajegunle-Ikorodu and Okerube communities in June of this year. Both projects will involve the testing of community-led models for infrastructure provision and service delivery.

We will then be looking to make connections between these project communities and others within the CDA and Federation networks citywide, to facilitate cross-community learning and action. Crucially, these exchanges will extend to communities in the other four project cities, creating opportunities to co-produce policy-relevant knowledge with African countries navigating similar urban development challenges.

Our overarching objective on ACRC is to facilitate the emergence of enduring coalitions of reform-minded stakeholders who will support communities with the resources and representation they need to realise their development goals. We are open to collaborating with stakeholders who are aligned with this vision of an inclusive Lagos on new or existing initiatives.