Green Infrastructure for Health Promotion within Informal Neighbourhoods in Lagos and Akure, Nigeria

This project, which was funded by SHLC’s Capacity Development Acceleration Fund, explores health-related impacts of green infrastructure and how it can be collaboratively improved to reduce disease burdens within informal neighborhoods in Lagos and Akure, Nigeria.

The research team adopts an integrated approach, which utilizes traditional and creative research methods, for knowledge co-production and to foster change.

Background

Sustainable urban development supports the integration of green infrastructure to enhance well-being and improve quality of life. But the realities deviate from this in many African cities, especially within informal neighborhoods where disease burdens and public health challenges are much.

This project adopted an integrated approach to collect primary data through participatory mapping, surveys and ethnographic tools and stakeholder engagements such as community meetings, workshops, policy dialogues to show the potential of green infrastructure for improvements in health among poor households in informal areas.

The overall aim of the project was to reduce health burdens in informal urban neighbourhoods through improvements in human-nature interactions.

The specific project objectives were:

• to understand the links between green infrastructure and the health of poor residents in informal neighbourhoods.
• to show ‘how’ neighbourhoods can move from status quo to the desirable state – through co-production of what will improve health outcomes in relation to green spaces and natural ecosystems.

The project was led by Dr Olumuyiwa Adegun from Federal University of Technology and Dr Peter Elias from University and Lagos.

This research project ‘Green Infrastructure for Health Promotion within Informal Neighbourhoods in Lagos and Akure, Nigeria’ was funded by the Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC)’s Capacity Development Acceleration Fund. SHLC is funded via UK Research and Innovation as part of the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund.