UNILAG’s 25-Year Strategic Plan to Promote Self-reliance, Entrepreneurship, Says Ogundipe
By Bennett Oghifo
The Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Professor Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe has said their resolve is to build human capacity beyond academic qualifications by applying a 25-Year Strategic Plan that deliberately seeks to promote self-reliance, entrepreneurship and exemplary leadership skills and capacity in students.
Ogundipe stated this recently at the 3rd Annual Urbanisation and Habitable Cities conference hosted by the ARUA Centre of Excellence for Urbanisation and Habitable Cities of the University of Lagos.
Welcoming distinguished participants, Ogundipe said, “UNILAG is delighted to host the gathering of erudite scholars and researchers from across Africa to interact, deliberate, engage, collaborate and infer sustainable pathways towards actualising an African agenda.
“The strength of any system, society, organisation or nation is best evaluated by its ability to withstand shocks and stresses and get back on track.
“The central theme Resilience (of the conference) is coming at no better time than now in our national life and academic history, when resilience in all its ramification is required, to identify innate/inherent strengths and capabilities, engender preparedness, survival instincts and coping strategies.
He said, “At the University of Lagos, resilience is embedded in the administrative structure, as well as in our rigorous and carefully crafted programmes towards providing critical workforce to fill a manpower gap in the nation’s labour space.”
He said, “As the Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos, the University of 1st Choice and the Nation’s Pride, the culture and tradition of excellence in research has continued to anchor our engagements, collaboration, consultation and deliberations.
“The P3P agenda in UNILAG, under my humble self, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe led management, is built upon the principle of Public-Private Partnership model to attract support for academics, research and infrastructural needs of the University.
“The P3P Strategy which stands for ‘Pick a Project, Pick a Programme, Pick a Person’ has encouraged well-meaning individuals to support the university’s quest for continued growth and global competitiveness. This has enabled us to weather the great storms of the COVID-19 pandemic and still come out stronger than ever. As a bastion of research in the University, Nigeria and Africa at large, the African Research Network for Urbanisation and Habitable Cities (AR-NUHC) under the ARUA Centre of Excellence for Urbanisation and Habitable Cities, University of Lagos has consistently been trailblaser and provided unique platforms to engage, collaborate, research, curate and co-produce local knowledge and workable solutions to Africa’s challenges.”
He said earlier editions of the ARUA CoE conference on Urbanisation and Habitable Cities had focused on the state of infrastructure in urban Africa (2019/2020), and the state of informality and inequality in urban Africa (2020/2021). “This third edition is set to build and strengthen the resilience of urban centers in Africa. Urban Resilience in Africa is in line with the objectives of the ARUA CoE to address seemingly intractable problems impeding the functionality of African Cities. As predicted by the United Nations, within the three and half decades between 2015 and 2050, about three quarters of a billion people will be added to urban Africa. Simply put; 750 million people within 35 years will find their way to African urban centres. This portends a serious burden on already stretched basic infrastructure, housing and other social services, resulting in a relatively high percentage of African urban dwellers living in slum conditions. Without any intervention to these prevalent scenarios, more than 50% of Africa’s population are likely to live in slums by 2025, which is just less than three years away.”
Ogundipe said the pleasant aspect was that “where the African strength lies requires confronting the challenges headlong to optimally maximise the vast opportunities that will propel and consolidate Africa’s growth and development. Indeed, Africans are resilient.
“Africa is Resilient but the ubiquity of its resilience need be documented, curated and theorized to change the narrative and tell Africa’s story from African’s point of view.”
The Director, Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development (CHSD), at the University of Lagos, Prof. Timothy Nubi said the Centre emerged from a three-year phased grant from the African Development Bank in collaboration with the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FCT, Abuja facilitated by the Nigerian-UK Housing Society (NUHS).
“The Centre was established to provide learning and research support for evidence based policy and practice for the housing sector in Africa. Since its inception in December 2013, the Centre has made several achievements in its core areas of research, capacity building in the housing sector, advocacy, regeneration, advocacy and consultancy. It also creates opportunities for forging deeper linkages between stakeholders in the housing and real estate industry for the advancement of sustainable principles in housing finance, affordability, delivery and management. CHSD engages in active collaborations – research and practice – with Federal and State Government Agencies, NonGovernmental Organisations, the Real Estate Developers’ Association and the Nigerian Federation of Slum dwellers and informal communities, and the Federation of Informal Workers of Nigeria. The Centre’s activities include Housing Research, Professional Post Graduate Studies, Capacity Building Programmes, Expert Group Meetings, Urban Regeneration and Advocacy. Aim of the Centre To be the hub for world-class, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, applied research on urbanization and habitable cities, connecting researchers to initiate, develop, disseminate and affect change in Africa’s cities.”
The Centre’s specific objectives, Nubi said is to develop a collaborative, interdisciplinary network of African researchers highly capable of producing knowledge and interventions to address intractable issues in Africa’s urban areas; to advance impactful education and capacity-building for postgraduate researchers through targeted mentorships by way of doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships and research interactions with leading researchers in Africa and elsewhere; and to promote rigorous networking through co-hosting of, and participation in conferences, webinars, seminars, masterclasses, exhibitions, panels and workshops, amongst others.
He said it is also to generate a support network for nurturing the development of research skills across the hub universities; improve the competitiveness of African researchers by linking them to researchers in other global networks; provide capacity and opportunities for African researchers to work on advocacy and intervention projects in to address intractable problems affecting communities in Africa; provide outlets for African research activities to enhance knowledge and understanding of African problems and to promote the adoption of locally-led solutions. (viii) To foster collaborations with research end-users in industry, civil society and policy sectors to develop capacity for impactful research; provide a platform for knowledge and information brokerage and sharing on urbanization issues in Africa.
He said as an ARUA CoE in Urbanization and Habitable Cities, The Centre is the hub of the African Research Network for Urbanization and Habitable Cities, a network of 10 African universities with support from researchers in UK Universities. The 10 African Universities are the University of Cape Town, South Africa, the University of Zambia, the University of Nairobi, and Uganda Matyrs University. The other Universities are The Federal University of Technology Minna, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, American International University of West Africa, The Gambia, University of Ghana, and the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre at the Ngala University, Sierra Leone. I am proud to say most of these Universities are present at our conference today. In the last three years as an ARUA Centre of Excellence, we have carried out capacity-building works on several topics from system Approaches for Urban Resilience, to writing workshops, to multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. Scoping Studies: Over the last three years, we have also embarked on research into the state of urban transportation in Africa with a focus on transit-oriented development, informality and inequality in Urban Africa, and Resilience in Urban Africa. These have been carried out for cities around the 10 African partner Universities and are being prepared for publication and wider circulation.
This third conference, he said, had particular reference to building resilience in Africa, “a topic of great importance if we are to adapt and cope with the issues around stability and post-covid 19 economic and social development. Our previous conferences have been focused on transportation in Africa and the informality and inequality in Urban Africa. Our focus is to proffer solutions to these endemic challenges across our partner Universities. Collaborations: Our partners have worked seriously in the last three years to establish and maintain contact with the public sector and private organizations and civic societies. This has resulted in public lectures at the University of Cape Town titled inclusive change in affordable housing and development in African Cities and another pathway for Healthy and Resilient Slums in Lusaka after Covid-19: Rethinking the rationalities and geographies of Urban services in the era of Pandemics which was hosted by the University of Zambia. We have also had masterclasses hosted by the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on research methods, and The Federal University of Technology Minna on Technological Advancement in grant-winning proposals.
“I am pleased to inform you that given the impacts we have made, the UK Research and Innovation has extended our activities till May 2023, and we are looking to use the opportunity to focus on supporting PhD students and early career researchers across Africa. Notable Achievements Some notable achievements within the network include the following: The network has presented a platform for transdisciplinary works that stretch beyond academics. Which is also part of the process of long-term policy plans and impacts directly on the environment. It has also consolidated network partners to step out and think outside the box, learning creative ways of solving emerging problems and knowledge transformation. Several clusters think differently and now interface with different stakeholders.
Thirdly, it has assisted in looking at prevalent and overarching issues. Many of the funders of research in Africa, especially the United Kingdom are confronted with settling their dynamic issues, especially since the BREXIT. So, funds have dwindled and any help for Africa will be an afterthought.
The network has helped Africans to look at climate change for example from an African perspective. The implication is that it enables African researchers to proffer solutions to problems from their lived reality. The solutions that can transform our African cities and communities although require expertise but are often simple.
“Several webinars have been organised virtually and in person with each receiving tremendous turnouts and feedback that helped in consolidating ideas among the networks. 6. Also, through the networks, data has been used to change the lives of people in certain communities. Using a two-month data acquisition, the community was able to get proper electricity tariff commensurate to use.
“Key buy-ins from key stakeholders include the private sector organisations, communities, civic society, pressure groups, academia, international development organisations, and other non-governmental organizations. 8. The network is transforming the data into usable information for the government by ensuring that research does not sit on shelves to gather dust 9. Some of the research has been turned into working papers and several ongoing projects based on the results of the research conducted. Beyond the network and within the Centre of Housing and Sustainable development itself, we have key notable achievements programmes. Currently, the Centre has enhanced its activities through masterclasses, masters, PhD, and postgraduate programmes. In the last few years, we have developed capacities of various agencies through our renowned masterclasses, Secured SDG bilateral scholarships for masters and PhD programs under the Wits-TUB-UNILAG Urban Lab program. CHSD runs a Master’s Programme in Housing Development and Management through the Department of Estate Management. Another Master’s programme in Urban Management under the URP department. A Mphil/PhD programme in Sustainable Urbanisation has just recently commenced.
He said in line with our mandate to foster education and professionalisation of the housing sector, in 2015, we embarked on a Master of Housing Development and Management. The programme is specifically designed for practitioners in the housing sector. We have graduated close to 46 students since inception who are in various strategic positions in banking, policy, and practice. Under the SDGs- Urban Lab partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand and the Technical University of Berlin (Witts-TUB-Unilag Urban Lab), we have just commenced the Mphil in Sustainable Urbanization and PhD in Sustainable Urbanization, with three students fully funded on the PhD from Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
On Post-Doctoral Research Fellows, he said, “We have hosted 5 post-doctoral research fellows from the London School of Economics, the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design School of Spatial Planning, Germany, Harvard University, the Brandenburg University of Technology Germany and the University of Development Studies, Ghana.”
He said, “Partnerships are also being formed with various institutions at the local and international levels. Advocacy And Engagement with Stakeholders/Industries And International Organisations/Institutions. CHSD has ongoing research collaborations with the University of Sheffield, the University of Stirling, French Institute for Research in Africa. ARUA UKRI GCRF Research Excellence Grant on Migration, Urbanization and Conflict in Africa: Towards Peaceful Urban Futures (MUCA): The research is currently ongoing in collaboration with Addis Ababa University, Makerere University and the University of Sheffield, the De-Montfort University and Manchester Metropolitan University.”
The Centre commenced a volunteering Programme which provides access to young people and professionals for hands-on capacity building in the African built environment sector. Volunteers are engaged in CHSD’s activities, helping to develop their leadership, Research, and networking skills.
He listed publications of the Centre as: Housing and the SDGs in Africa • A Toolkit for Conducting Neighbourhood Level Research • Land and Development in Lagos • African Journal of Housing and Sustainable Development • Ajegunle-Ikorodu Community Resilience Action Plan • Other publications: In addition to these flagship publications, researchers from the Centre contributed to a total of fifteen journal articles, ten book chapters and 4 short articles.
The Centre “participated in various seminars, and workshops locally and internationally. Going forward, we are working towards being intentional and politically strategic in partnering with policymakers. We understand that progress is highly politicized. So it’s time to get our hands down to working with our colleagues in governance.
It engaged in further capacity building/training on grant applications, effective, wider and better dissemination of activities within the Centre.
