It was a day of gratitude and appreciation, as happy slum dwellers filled the hall of the Nigeria Stored Product Research Institute (NSPRI) Lagos, on Monday April 3. From far and wide, ecstatic slum dwellers, in a hurry to pay their debt of gratitude with their presence at the event, took turns to acknowledge the positive impact of a recent study carried out in their neglected communities.
An aged woman, speaking on behalf of Ajegunle community, was effusive in her praises for the intervention that has brought about the clearing of the canal in her community in Kosofe Local Government Area. “We are happy because the drainage has been cleared. When it rains now, we no longer dread it because it is easy for the flood to find its way. We know what we have suffered when the drainage was blocked; we don’t pray for that tragedy visit us again,” she said. Speaking in a similar vein, Rasheed Shittu, the Executive Director of Shantytowns Empowerment Foundation and one Mrs Oshobe also commended the study group for helping the community members to develop self-confidence in their ability to raise awareness about their plight with a view to solving the challenges.
A digital platform for community self-reporting
Through the study, it is confirmed that Lagos slum dwellers face prejudice, including exclusion, distrust, discrimination, and derogatory remarks as well as hateful and extremist narratives. The researchers said these tensions make slum communities highly flammable, with stigmatisation forcing them to hide their medical history, health behaviours, or other conditions, which could exacerbate person-to-person or community spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
Besides, the researched unearthed further that there is no widely shared factual information about slum communities with respect to infectious diseases, which continues to create gaps between known information and misinformation. This, according to the study, may escalate the deplorable health situations in slum communities, as slum dwellers do not have platforms to tell their own stories, which in turn, drives slum communities to experience near-anonymity in critical situations such as the COVID-19.
The study and its objectives
The slum dwellers who are mostly the poorest groups and communities found in harsh and fragile urban environments and living on daily income of less than one dollar per day are the most impacted by the pandemic, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). COVID-19 came as a surprise to some people, and rather more shocking to vulnerable groups. Indeed, it threw a lot of people in slum communities off balance. A lot of people did not expect to stay at home or be restricted in any form for a long time. Meanwhile, some people were able to bounce back almost immediately with alternatives such as working remotely and starting a new job. It was a difficult time for others who solely depended on a single source of income and experienced loss of incomes during the periods.
According to the World health Organization, tens of millions of people risked falling into extreme poverty, and there is the possibility of undernourished people increasing up to 132 million towards the end of 2020 (WHO, 2020). In 2014, the United Nations estimated that 70 per cent of urban dwellers in sub-Saharan African, including Nigeria, live in slums and informal settlements. These communities are found on fragile and undesirable locations inhabited by the most destitute and economically vulnerable urban populations. In Lagos State, the number of slum and informal settlements has increased from 42 in 1985 to 360 in 2020 with urban population growth rate estimated at about 2.9 per cent, almost twice the national rate of 6-8 per cent. These slum dwellers lack opportunities to enjoy a good life and lack access to basic services including water, sanitation, electricity, and healthcare. This deprivation in social infrastructure and basic services has made slum dwellers in Lagos State extremely vulnerable amid largely poorly uncoordinated responses to the COVID-19.
Distressed by the plight of urban dwellers, the Lagos Urban Studies Group (LUSG), University of Lagos, in conjunction with the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation (NSISF), undertook a study titled: Giving Voice to Slums: Creating Digital Urban Platform for Community Self-Reporting Amid COVID-19. The research jointly conducted in Irede, Ajegunle and other neglected communities by the Lagos Urban Studies Group, University of Lagos, and the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation, was led the research team lead, Dr Peter Elias, Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator, Department of Geography, University of Lagos and Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, first female Professor of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, yielded the podium for the slum dwellers to speak for themselves.
Its specific objectives include: understand socio-economic conditions, health behaviours and risk factors which may adversely impact lives and livelihoods systems of slum dwellers amid COVID-19; map vulnerabilities and responses to COVID-19 pandemic in selected slum communities; develop local capacities and skills to change health behaviour and risk factors of slum dwellers amid COVID-19; identify community-led interventions and mechanisms for amplifying slum voices and promoting advocacy towards improved responses to COVID-19.
Key findings on vulnerabilities in slum communities
The study developed a disaggregated map of the socioeconomic conditions of slum dwellers, including spatial distribution of health facilities, level of access sanitation, water supply, and education. Several factors were identified to have contributed to the proliferation of slums in Lagos, which includes poor urban policies and regulation, with the result that people who live in the slums do not have access to decent and quality housing and generally cannot access basic services such as water and sanitation, which is critical to Covid-19 prevention.
The age composition of the respondents who participated in the study comprised individuals of 18 years and above. Most of the respondents are in the age groups of 29-39 and 40-50 years are 35 and 37 per cent, respectively, which represent key actors in the informal economy. As for sources of water, findings indicate that 36.1 per cent rely on trucks and water carriers and 25.4 per cent patronise water vendors, among others. So, when messages on handwashing as a means of prevention were shared during COVID-19 crisis, slum dwellers said adoption was difficult because of lack of access to constant water supply in their communities.
Findings also showed that the majority of respondents (60.1 percent) rely on pharmacy/drug stores when ill, 29.4 per cent primary health centers, 24.5 per cent private hospitals, 22.3 per cent roadside drug sellers, 21.6 per cent uses traditional medicine, and only 9.1 per cent patronise government health facilities. This suggests that relevant government ministries, departments and agencies/private operators should integrate health services for improved access to quality care and enhance quick referral, the study recommended. Slum communities also indicated that different types of toilets are used, including toilets connected to a well/septic tank, improved latrine, toilet connected to a sewage system, unimproved latrine and hanging toilets. Meanwhile, some respondents reported that they make use of open field as toilet.
The study also mapped level of education of the respondents, revealing that only 20.6 and 40.5 percentages of the slum dwellers have primary and secondary education, respectively. According to the respondents, during the lockdown, education of children and youths were put on hold; major businesses such as sales and distribution services were affected; patronage was reduced; and private sector employees could not go to work. The finding about the occupation of the respondents also showed that majority were self-employed (48.8%), traders (26.3%), work in private companies (9.4%) or were fishermen (5.8%) which were the most affected occupations during the lockdown. This meant that majority of the respondents mostly relied on daily income for their sustenance. A male respondent explained his situation on how COVID-19 impacted him during the lockdown with drastic reduction from a daily income of N10,000, it was difficult to make a living.
With regards to access to news/information about COVID-19, the report also showed that the slum dwellers depended on the radio, television, and newspapers with the radio being the highest source of information. The slum dwellers also indicated that residents were cautious about the information they heard, saw, or read. Slum dwellers sources of news revealed that radio and television were their preferred with (39.10%) and (32.60%), respectively, stating that they consume news on those two platforms; while 21.90% of the respondents consumed news on Internet and only 6.10% consumed news by reading newspapers.
Policy recommendations from the study
The findings of the study indicate that radio, television, Facebook and WhatsApp platforms are slum dwellers’ preferred communication media. Also, in terms of knowledge, findings indicate poor knowledge of COVID-19 and the availability and pick up times/points for emergency support packages among slum dwellers (citizens/residents/ CSOs/local authorities) occasioned by the communication strategy/channels of information used by government. People who live in the slums do not have access to decent and quality housing and generally cannot access basic services such as water and sanitation, which is critical to Covid-19 prevention.
Majority of the respondents were self-employed which means that they mostly relied on daily income for their sustenance; and were struggling to eke out a living during the lockdown, an indication of absence of palliatives and supports from the state or non-state actors, which could have encouraged strict compliance to the lockdown guidelines. The respondents were forced to violate lockdown regulations to secure means of livelihood due to non-availability of support system, especially for workers in the informal sector of the economy. “Given that research findings provide feedback to the government on policy options in situations of national/global emergencies; and provide direction for future interventions, especially when decisions related to the government’s response to pandemics are involved; we recommend that government should: Not only adopt strategic communication approach but work with risk communication experts to design a risk communication strategy for prevention and response/share information accordingly.
“Also, message design should be evidence-based and done by experts for synergy in messaging across media platforms aimed at effective communication. In addition, government should invest in knowledge sharing activities and build the capacities of CSOs/Local authorities/citizens to sensitize slum dwellers during emergencies and disasters. These hopefully will give voice to slum dwellers and enhance community self-reporting among slum dwellers during disasters and emergencies aimed at helping duty bearers to understand the socio-economic conditions, health behaviours and risk factors which may adversely impact lives and livelihoods systems of slum dwellers during emergencies and intervene to prevent and contain diseases.
“Invest in the provision of basic services such as water and sanitation, a strategic intervention to Covid-19 prevention, not discounting other diseases so that when messages on handwashing as a means of disease prevention is shared, adoption will not be hampered In preparation for future emergencies, map slum/hard to reach areas and design a strategy for the disbursement of funds or resources to slum dwellers to ensure fair and equal distribution of relief materials regardless of dwelling place.”