The intersections between global urban agendas and practice at local levels in housing and human settlements, a case of Lagos

Abstract

In the post-Second World Warera, global leaders realised the need to develop global consensus through associations and conferences to tackle global challenges beyond national borders to drive and promote development. Because of rapid urbanisation and the challenges that come with it, global urban agendas have been agreed upon at summits and conferences on housing and human settlements to achieve global, urban sustainability. Prominent among these urban agendas with global commitments as part of the wider Agenda 2030 and the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the (urban) SDG11 and the 2016 New Urban Agenda concluded at the 70/71st United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Habitat III respectively. However, studies show that despite significant efforts in crafting these agendas through extensive consultations, the outcomes of these global progressive agendas do not reflect the framing at local levels, especially in the global South cities fraught with peculiar challenges. In echoing matters of livelihoods and global conferences in housing and human settlements, whose reality really counts, and at what level? Hence, this study aims to understand the complexities surrounding how global urban agendas in housing and human settlements intersect with practice at local levels. This study engages concepts and theories of globalisation, planning, rational choice theory, global governance, and policy implementation in providing a lens to understand the convergence and divergence of global agendas at local levels. To investigate this disjuncture based on the theoretical framework, this study adopted an explorative qualitative approach, using a case study of Lagos, Nigeria, with semi-structured interviews. To further triangulate the empirical findings from the interviews cutting across the global, national, state (provincial) and local respondents, qualitative documentary analysis was carried out with focussed meetings attendance and audit of webinars. The study concludes that global urban agendas and discourses do not always align with the mediating forces of local context and practice in human settlements. The result shows that despite the national governments signing and ratifying these agendas, their attitude towards implementation suggests otherwise, and the political will to realise the agendas is lacking, among other impediments. Consequently, the inability to consider contextual peculiarities at local levels during global agenda framing with a greater focus on the national government precludes the successful implementation ofglobal urban agendas.