The Lagos State Government has said it will continue to implement the state’s resilience initiatives to combat issues of flooding, waste, traffic congestions, overcrowding and others.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Year 2024 Lagos Resilience Forum, titled ‘Leveraging Resilience For Lagos Development Trajectory,’ the Chief Resilience Officer, Dr Folayinka Dania, said the forum was aimed at identifying emerging issues to be integrated into the resilience-building agenda of the state.

She explained that the state had developed a climate change adaptation and resilience plan towards protecting coastal communities, improving waste management and water supply, and enhancing infrastructure to prevent flooding in the environment.

She said, “The resilience strategy, however, acknowledges that there are three critical success factors that the state must be committed to, to ensure full implementation of the strategy and realisation of resilience dividends: mainstreaming resilience thinking and strengthening our institutional structures; collaborative engagements to connect people and resources; and monitoring and evaluation to track strategy progress. This forum embodies these critical success factors and the presence of a large number of stakeholders.”

The Commissioner For Economic Planning and Budget, Ope George, explained that the forum focused on the most sustainable ways to achieve growth and development for the state despite challenges.

He said, “In line with these, the Year 2024 Lagos Resilience Forum is set to achieve the following objectives: identification of new opportunities to be integrated into the state’s resilience agenda; identification of the new conversations on emerging shocks, stresses, and other challenges impacting the state; promotion of the application of a resilience lens to statewide activity; dissemination of resilience learning at a state-wide level.

“The state is extremely committed to achieving the resilience dividends associated with the full implementation of the state’s resilience strategy, harnessing the contributions and shared responsibility of various actors, and ensuring that resilience strategy does not remain a static document but continues to address pertinent issues of the state’s various challenges for sustainable growth and development.”

In his keynote address, a former Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Dr. Adedoyin Salami, advised the government to utilise the power of data and information.

He said, “The cities that use data and technology to create operational efficiencies and share information with citizens were found to be better at dealing with shocks.

“The imperative of translating data into easily access and useable information is foundational. Furthermore, the absence of data disables or at least impairs the institution of an effective  Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning framework.”