Urban Transformation and Development-induced Displacement in the Informal Economy

Abstract

This study examines the disconnection between effective communication and policy implementation in the lives of development-induced displaced persons in the informal economy in metropolitan Lagos. Development induced displacement has been seen as one of the largest categories of internal displacement affecting the urban poor. It occurs where coercion is employed and choices constrained. Evidence suggests that a large number of the people in the informal economy are affected and their experience has been extremely negative in cultural, economic, and health terms. The outcomes usually included lost of properties, displacement, unemployment, debt-bondage, hunger and cultural disintegration. The study was anchored on the cultural estrangement theory. The study was based on 10 sessions of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) conducted with the affected people in Ijora-Badia, Mile 2 and Orile and 20 in-depth interview sessions with some of the displaced persons and officials of relevant agencies in the metropolis. The finding reveals lack of effective communication between the government officials and the displaced people, high-handedness on the part of government officials, lack of social support for the displaced people, high incidence of crime rate, high unemployment rate, dislocation of the informal economy, physical death, insecurity of life and property and psychological torture. The study therefore, recommends that the government should devise means for adequate compensation to avert a possible threat to ameliorate the suffering of informal economy operators. There is the need for government to enlighten and disseminate information about government policies to people operating in the informal sector in Lagos State.