Exploring Nigeria’s Effort in Achieving Sustainable Cities and Communities: The Case of Lagos 2015 – 2022

Nigeria is the most populated nation in Africa and the sixth most populated in the world, with about half its population living in cities. The extent of rapid population growth and uncontrolled urbanization within the country has now taken a toll on the standard and quality of urban cities in Nigeria. The United Nations Human Settlement Program (UNHSP) states that 54% of the population lives in slums and informal settlement households, and according to the UN-Habitat, the figure for those living in inadequate housing households stands at 69%. In this regard, Nigeria is a signatory of the UN 2030 Agenda and is mandated to make measured progress on achieving sustainable cities and communities (SDG11) by 2030. These efforts, however, have been recorded as decreasing or stagnant since 2015, when the SDGs entered into force. Despite the government efforts in legislating some medium-term and long-term development plans over the years for the integration of the SDGs down to the grassroots, the study has yet to identify significant progress in policies regarding SDG11. The general objective of the study is to investigate the progress made by Nigeria since 2015 towards the implementation of SDG11 against the 2030 target using the city of Lagos as a case study. The research design adopted in this research is the case study design which included exploratory, descriptive and qualitative methods in its data analysis. The theories framing this study are the modernization and dependency theories. The study reviewed existing literature on sustainable development goal 11, statistics, reports and findings of research by the UN, the Nigerian government, and other related sources. Data analysis was aided by measuring the SDG 11 achievement through the target 11.1 and 11.3 indicators that track the progress based on data communicated to the UN from all levels. From the results of the study, some key findings were; i.) A decreasing level of achievement of SDG11 in Nigeria as per SDG index indicators; ii.) Vague government financing mechanisms; iii.) Inadequate slum renewal methods and; ) Negligence of the state and national governments in integrating SDG11 targets into domestic law against 2030. Therefore, the study suggests more public-private partnerships and joint ventures with the state government, budget credibility among concerned parties and localization of SDG11 targets. These recommendations are in response to the oversight of implementing SDG11 targets in the development plans for nearly a decade. These recommendations will enable the Nigerian government to catalyze SDG11's achievement.