Upgrade a Lagos Informal Settlement Without Displacing Its Residents

Lagos's informal settlements — Makoko, Iwaya, Otodo Gbame, and hundreds of others — house millions of people in conditions of overcrowding, poor sanitation, and inadequate infrastructure. Government upgrading projects have historically ended in demolition rather than improvement. International models of participatory slum upgrading (like those in India's Dharavi) show that communities can lead their own improvement when given technical support and security of tenure. Your challenge is to design a participatory upgrading model for one specific informal settlement type in Lagos (waterfront, hillside, or low-lying inland). Your model must not require residents to relocate during construction, produce measurable improvements in sanitation and water access within 18 months, give residents security of tenure, and be replicable across similar settlement types. Submit a design document (max 15 pages including maps and sketches) including: community engagement model, physical improvement priorities chosen with community input, incremental construction approach that maintains occupation, tenure security mechanism, cost per household, implementation timeline, and how the model is replicated. Judging criteria: 35% quality of participatory design process, 30% physical design quality and feasibility, 20% tenure security model, 15% replication plan.