YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND YOU: A program sponsored by sustainable design consult dedicated to enlightening listeners on environment and town planning related issues happening in their neighborhood and also an avenue for groups of lower socio-economic status voices to be heard.
On a new episode of the program, the host Comfort Omolafe will be asking some questions on Sustainable development goals but focusing more on goal eleven of sustainable development from the sponsor of the program TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele Joseph.
      What is sustainable development goal and when was it established?
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele said sustainable development goals are the looping to achieve a better and future environment that is sustainable for everyone. World leaders came together in New York in the year 2015 to have developmental policy that will make the whole world be on the same level when talking about development. The world leaders came up with 17 goals of which goal 11 which is particularly related to environment will be discussed.
As a country, are we on the right track?
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele said Nigeria is struggling in this aspect. The report released on the 10th of July 2023 of which the document highlighted some critical areas which implies that there is existing gap between the rich and the poor and is urging the whole world to re-double their effort, it also emphasize on the potential that people have to be successful in the goals but the problem is that do not really tap-in into those potentials. The report also talked about the technologies, there is need for people to make use of the available technologies and resources and the knowledge of the experts, The number of slumps in urban centers keep on increasing on a daily basis. Government do open places, they have estates but nowadays government does not bother to have estates and this gives people the chance to build on their land without adequate planning.
 What is development goal eleven and what is it all about?
The guest said sustainable development goal 11 is making cities and settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Goal eleven targets is that in the year 2030 there should be adequate safe and affordable housing, basic service, upgrading slumps, to have an inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory integrated and sustainable home and settlement planning which simply means people have to be included in decision making i.e if one wants to formulate a policy, it should be bottom-top and not top-bottom approach. It is also to protect and safeguard natural heritage, Human activities on a daily basis destroys the natural heritage available. The human impact on the environment must be at minimal level i.e one shouldn’t destroy all the natural resources on the land when constructing.
Goal eleven also provides universal assess to safe inclusive and accessible being a public space particularly for women, children and other people most especially physically challenged people, Whatever the developer does, he or she must put women, children, elders, physically challenged people into consideration.
How can we make our cities or settlement inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable?
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele said more focus should be shifted to the poor people, elderly people, children, physically challenged people in order to make the cities or settlement inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. He said when planning or doing some infrastructure, one has to put these group of people into consideration. It will be difficult for a person on a wheelchair to cross the road himself or herself.
The guest also said innovation must be allowed to set in, innovation in the way we construct, infrastructure, innovation in policy of the economy, other environmental issues. He also said it must also be a gender inclusive , it must have smart infrastructures. He said people and stakeholders must be put first in any new government policy. i.e stakeholders must be notified or be aware of any policy the government is bringing up that may affect the people. He said for the settlement to be secured, native intelligent and community policing must be used i.e bringing security architecture down to the people, knowing who and who stays in the neighborhood. It will be easier to know the problems, solutions and how to tackle the problem if we are part of the people that makes policies for security. For resilient, it is when the environment is able to absorb the shock if there is a natural disaster or a problem and the community still stands. He said there must be a proper plan, a master plan and there must be working tools as in the development plan that should be worked on. He said for sustainability, there must be solutions to the waste problems, finding solutions to public transportation, solution to the renewable energy. These are the ways to make the cities more sustainable by reducing environmental impact of human activities in the cities.
To achieve goal eleven of sustainable development cost a lot of money, For institute to grow organically, how do we sort this issue?
The guest said to have a well organized environment or to achieve the targets of goal eleven of sustainable development is expensive but it is preferable to have a well planned and organized environment than to have an environment full of slumps. It is better to be in an environment that you can park your car comfortably in your compound than staying in an area whereby you have to park elsewhere and not your compound, It is better to stay in an environment where your children will be safe than staying in a place where drinkers and smokers dwell, He said it is preferable to have a community that has a well organized waste management than a community filled with dumps and wastes.
Is Ondo state moving in the right direction as par goal eleven of sustainable development is concerned?
The guest said Ondo state is moving in the right path if we are to look at the government ministries, the departments, the agencies, the parastatals in one way or the other are handling the goals set or are working towards achieving the goals but if we were to judge based on what goal eleven of sustainable development meant ( having a city conclusive,safe,resilient and sustainable), we will start asking ourselves if the cities are safe and sustainable. If there is no master plan, no working tools, we cannot say Ondo state is on the right path. He said, though the government is sorting some road constructions in some part of the state of which the speed of the construction is high while the speed in some part of the state is slow. He equally said Ondo state government for the past six years have done nothing in the aspect of provision of safe and good quality housing, there is no industrial areas for people to work and people are even allowed to build churches, schools, event halls on the available ones.
He said part of the goal of sustainable development is carrying people and stakeholders along. Ondo state government do not carry people and stakeholders along in policy aspect and assessment rate for development permit increases by almost 500% last year of which the stakeholder know nothing of,Thereafter, some other documents were added to it, documents like tax plan, C of O one need to have before one can seek for development permit approval which isn’t fair to a common man, so the government should always carry people along in whatever they want to do.
What is your advise to people out there?
TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele said the slumps are increasing and the air is being polluted on a daily basis which is also spoiling the environment. The United nation says the urban centers population will be around 3.1 billion in the next thirty years and as at today the world population is 8.1 billion, so in the next 30 years more than half will stay in urban areas. What are our plans towards the period? He said if we continue to go and grow like this then we are creating a society that will be very difficult to control and it will only accommodate rich people and leave poor people out. He said it is not to late to act, it is time to act and start working on solving all the problems