From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos
The Lagos Civil Society Participation for Development, LACSOP, has said its Citizens-Led Accountability Mechanism, CLAIM, for Mitigating Climate Change Impact is designed to empower citizens to turn climate awareness into opportunities for resilience and sustainable livelihoods.
This was disclosed on Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at a Town Hall Meeting held in Apapa Local Government Area of Lagos State as part of CLAIM’s community engagement strategy.
Speaking on behalf of the Project Director, Mrs. Dede Kadiri, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of LACSOP, Barrister Ayo Adebusoye, explained that CLAIM is an initiative of LACSOP supported by Bread for the World, Brot für die Welt.
Adebusoye said the project recognizes that climate change is not just an environmental issue but one that cuts across health, livelihoods, infrastructure, sanitation, flooding, and economic opportunity. “Climate change affects the quality of life of ordinary citizens. Our goal is to bring climate action down from international conferences and policy documents into the communities where people actually experience its consequences,” he stated.
He noted that the principal communities of intervention are Apapa and Lagos Island, with a strong emphasis on empowering young people aged 18–35 as climate-change agents. “We have engaged the leadership of Apapa Local Government to strengthen collaboration around environmental sustainability because local action is where real change happens,” he added.
The LACSOP BOT Chairman highlighted the waste and flooding crisis in Lagos as key challenges CLAIM is addressing. “We generate enormous quantities of waste. Much of it still fails to enter effective recovery and recycling systems. Improperly disposed plastics and other solid waste find their way into streets, drains, canals and waterways.
“When heavy rains come, blocked drainage aggravates flooding. Flooding then affects homes, businesses, movement, sanitation and public health,” he said.
He explained that CLAIM asks communities to see the connection between consumption, waste disposal, drainage, rainfall, and community well-being. “And that brings us to the project’s combination of climate resilience, citizen accountability and waste-to-wealth,” he said.
Adebusoye outlined the project’s deliberate participatory approach: Stakeholder Engagement and Mapping, adding that LACSOP has engaged government institutions, local government authorities, youth organizations, community and traditional leaders, and market associations. This includes strengthening ties with Apapa LGA for environmental sustainability.
Young people from Apapa and Lagos Island have undergone capacity-building and Training-of-Trainers. “The approach is important because one trained young person can reach many more citizens,” he noted.
The project is taking climate information directly into communities, linking climate change to everyday behavior such as waste disposal, plastics, drainage blockage, and environmental sanitation.
CLAIM is introducing young people to the idea that environmental protection can create livelihoods.
“Materials we routinely call waste can be collected, separated, reused, recycled or transformed into economically useful products. Climate action therefore need not mean sacrificing livelihoods. Properly designed, it can create livelihoods and green jobs,” he said.
To break technical barriers, CLAIM developed multilingual animated climate-change awareness videos in English, Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin. “We are using storytelling and accessible communication to reach young people, communities and digital audiences,” Adebusoye explained.
According to him, what distinguishes CLAIM from conventional environmental campaigns is its accountability framework. “The project is not simply telling citizens what government says they should do. We are also creating opportunities for communities to identify environmental problems, communicate their concerns, engage public institutions and seek responses.
“Accountability must therefore work in both directions: Government accountable to citizens, and citizens accountable for their own environmental behavior,” he said.
Adebusoye said the project is already seeing a shift from awareness to ownership. “Young people who entered the programme as participants are increasingly becoming community advocates and trainers. Community actors are beginning to see waste not only as an environmental nuisance but as a potential economic resource,” he said.
He added that climate-change messages are moving beyond workshops into communities and digital spaces, while government-community relationships are being strengthened. “Community groups are beginning to organize themselves around sustainable waste-management practices. That is why today’s programme includes the presentation of certificates to Community Waste Management Groups and awards to community groups. These recognize citizens who are taking responsibility for the environment,” he stated.
The Town Hall, he said, represents a convergence of CLAIM’s key strands: Awareness, Training, Community Action, Citizen Engagement and Accountability. “Our objective should therefore be to move beyond describing problems. We should identify solutions, responsibilities and commitments,” he told participants comprising government representatives, community members, young people, environmental actors, and civil society.
He emphasized that the long-term ambition is to establish a model of citizen-led environmental governance that can be sustained and replicated beyond Apapa and Lagos Island. “Imagine communities across Lagos where young people organize recycling initiatives, households separate waste, community groups monitor environmental problems, citizens have functioning channels for reporting them, local governments respond, civil society tracks commitments, and businesses turn recoverable materials into jobs and economic value.
“This fits squarely into the broader transition Lagos itself is making towards a circular economy — moving away from simply collecting and dumping waste towards reducing, recovering, reusing and recycling resources,” he stated.
Summarizing the project, he said: “CLAIM empowers citizens, particularly young people, to turn climate awareness into community action, community action into accountability, and environmental challenges into opportunities for resilience and sustainable livelihoods.”
On behalf of LACSOP, Adebusoye thanked Bread for the World for supporting the vision, the Lagos State Government and Apapa Local Government for their collaboration, and community and youth partners for taking ownership.
He concluded: “The success of CLAIM will not be measured simply by the number of workshops we conduct, videos we produce or certificates we present. It will be measured by changed behavior, cleaner communities, stronger citizen-government accountability, economic opportunities created from waste, and communities that are better able to withstand the impacts of climate change.”
