Cities across Africa are facing unprecedented challenges. A failure of governance and a massive urbanisation of poverty are putting infrastructure, economies and the environment under intolerable strain.In Nigeria, cities face crisis: four in five of the nation's city-dwellers live in slum conditions; despite billions of dollars in oil receipts, nearly nine out of ten Nigerians live on less than $2 a day.Existing approaches to urban development in Nigeria are designed to benefit a narrow elite, perpetuating the inequalities of colonial rule.Nearly half a million people live in waterfront settlements along the creeks that fringe Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil capital. Their communities are not recognised on official maps. The Rivers State Government has declared its intention to demolish them all, and turn Port Harcourt into a 'Garden City'.In August 2009, the homes and businesses of 19,000 people were reduced to rubble in a single weekend. Thousands more have been forcibly evicted since. Peaceful demonstrators were shot when they protested the planned demolition of their homes.Today, there remains no plan to compensate or resettle most residents. In the 'Garden City', former communities have become dumpsites and residents have been pushed further into poverty.Meanwhile, the threat of large-scale demolition and displacement hangs over thousands, increasing the potential for militancy and conflict. The problems of rapid, unplanned urbanisation grow ever more urgent.We are working for a city whose future is determined by its citizens, by their needs, hopes and visions, and where development is predicated on principles of social justice and equity. A human city.We are sharing skills and technologies that allow people in informal settlements to organise more effectively, plan more appropriately and to reach the city with their voice and vision.Our aim is to help waterfront slum communities claim a meaningful role in creating their city.
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Keywords: non-profit organizations