Launched on November 15, 2006, the Lagos Marginalized Community Forum (LAMCOFOR) is an umbrella association of over forty two evicted and marginalized groups and slum communities across Lagos state working together to tackle social exclusion and enhance collective citizenship. A body of this nature became particularly imperative in Lagos on account of its exploding urban population, now over 15 million people, with two-thirds of the population living in the slums.  On February 8, 2008, the body was formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) under the acronym LAMCOFOR ASSOCIATES. Membership to this body has been extended to communities outside Lagos affected by acute housing shortage, deterioration and outright violation of the right to adequate housing.

One important finding that cuts across many of the studies on city development and urban renewal is that the poor - especially local communities hosting urban development projects,  who live with, and understand problems of urban deprivation and degradation - are hardly consulted nor their views critically studied or analyzed. Their experiences, economic conditions, local knowledge and perspectives are almost never sought, recognized or taken seriously in the conception, planning, and implementation of developmental programs and initiatives that bear directly on their welfare. As a result of this imbalance, local populations perceive government’s development interventions as a means of using the state apparatus, intimidation and violence to tear down the hovels of the poor which, by the hitherto unbreakable force of custom, they had regarded as their own.

LAMCOFOR’s emergence was principally, propelled by the necessity to bridge the widening gulf between local communities, and urban planning agencies in order to inspire the integration of local knowledge, ideas and perspectives of those whom development programs are meant for, into the conceptual, administrative, management and bureaucratic structures of development processes.  

Since LAMCOFOR’s formation, its heightening profile as an institutionalized voice of the poor has enabled it to continually explore, identify and expand opportunities for community empowerment and engagement. Notably, state institutions are now increasingly appreciating that such a group should be imperatively approached by government and development agencies when making certain decisions and conclusions on key issues that affect them. If eliminating poverty is indeed, government’s priority, and also for its development interventions to have a significant, lasting and sustainable positive effect, then, it is vital that urban channels of communication involve poor and excluded people.

LAMCOFOR holds bi-monthly its meetings at their secretariat in 9 Ondo Street Ebutte Metta West, Lagos, where representatives of members communities gather to discuss housing and environmental challenges and other unique circumstances that affect their responses to pressures of urban-growth. No doubt, the body will continue to serve as a springboard to engender community activism and precipitate positive responses to collective concerns. Wouldn’t you rather get on board?