Development frontiers in crime, livelihoods and urban poverty in Nigeria (FCLP)

Lead Research Organisation: University College London
Department Name: Geography

Abstract

This mixed-methods research aims to bring together key development concerns related to sustainable livelihoods, social vulnerability, and poverty to build an alternative account of 'insecurity and crime' in African cities where the lines between legality and illegality, formality and informality, licit and illicit work, are often blurred in practice. We argue that the study of insecurity and crime in African cities requires a more nuanced understanding of African urbanisation patterns and historical legacies of uneven development. Situated at the nexus of population modelling, criminology, African studies, and urban geography, this project aims to challenge prevailing Euro-centric narratives of crime and victimisation through an innovative mixed-methods study. Combining statistical modelling, geovisualisation and ethnographic insights, the research aims to develop location appropriate approaches to investigate perceptions and seasonal trends of crime and victimisations in a West African city, situating the research within the broader context of African urbanisation, environment-induced seasonal migration, youth un-employment and informal economies.

Planned Impact

The political environment in Nigeria is not always conducive to the straightforward uptake of recommendations from an academic study. The greatest impact can therefore be achieved by demonstrating the value of FCLP through a series of documentary shorts for public dissemination and a visualisation platform for a more specialist audience enabling Nigerian researchers to access the complex for their own research and policy purposes. This project therefore aims to contribute to local research capacity building in a context where our African colleagues are keen to access innovative data and analytical approaches, but often operating in under-resourced facilities. FCLP will facilitate training and capacity building in both the UK and Nigeria. It is therefore an important opportunity to resource an international team of outstanding social scientists keen to consolidate and learn from each other's respective research expertise and experience through innovative mixed methods research. FLCP will also deliver the following:
1. Workshops hosted both at UCL and also ABU Zaria.
2. Reciprocal researcher visits between UCL and ABU Zaria.
3. A research blog detailing the fieldwork approaches and outcomes.
4. A series of project reports, posted online, detailing key research findings.
We also seek to create a system of value to initiatives such as the recently opened Q-Step Centres (PI Cheshire is Deputy Director of the UCL Centre) where data and insights from FCLP would be adapted for student projects. The documentary shorts will draw on visual ethnographic methods of the research and are intended to personify and add granularity to the project deliverables. The final edited output will include ethnographic portraits and community-scapes to "bring the field home". It will also serve as an effective communication tool and archive for future related projects, events and contexts.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description The most significant achievements from this award are empirical, methodological, and institutional.

Empirically, this research has advanced the understanding of perceptions and experiences of crime in a set of low-income neighbourhoods in Northern Nigeria. It has documented the socio-economic and cultural complexities of these neighbourhoods, avoiding familiar discourses of urban crime that point to both 'youth delinquency' and the need for more law enforcement. Instead, our research has shed light on two key issues: Firstly, the risks associated with joblessness amongst youth whose pathways for making a living may include some form of crime as a livelihood diversification strategy. It is an economic rather than criminal motivation. Secondly, the under-recognised community-based security providers dealing with a range of neighbourhood-level crime. These groups are in part filling a gap given the absence of police, but they are also incorporating innovative tactics for dealing with (and preventing further) crime include restorative justice approaches, counselling and entrepreneurial mentorship.

Methodologically, the project's achievements have successfully incorporated a mixed-methods approach and assembling an interdisciplinary research team including training in geo-spatial science, development geography, criminology, and anthropology. The research design therefore combined an anthropological focus on everyday details, personal narratives, and lived experiences with geo-spatial analysis of crime patterns. Together this approach enabled the team to tackle one of its key aims, which was to challenge Euro-American centric theories of urban crime.

The data collection for this project builds on a large scale environmental survey of 13,687 properties and streets and a survey of 3,293 households. 113 in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted in these same field sites by a local research team based at ABU, with repeated interviews conducted with 30 key interlocutors include informal security providers and offenders. Interview data was triangulated with ethnographic notes from participant observation conducted in four of the study areas.

Institutionally, this project was designed, carried out, and disseminated as a genuine institutional collaboration and knowledge exchange between a UK academic institution and a Nigerian academic institution. The outputs generated from this research have been co-produced, as the project has benefited from the local knowledge and expertise, proximity, and social capital of the ABU team, and the interdisciplinary expertise, comparative perspective, mentorship and networks of the UCL team. Bi-weekly skype calls were put in place from the first stage, to discuss research plans, data collection, challenges in the field needing course correcting, and data analysis. 2 trips were set up so each team could come visit the other institution and hold seminars, workshops and present preliminary findings to wider institutional networks.
Exploitation Route Rather than a simple call for more formal policing, the research has shown how vital it is to support the positive practices of local security providers, but also set in conversation these local 'vigilante' groups, community households, and police officers who hold particular preconceptions about crime in areas they don't often patrol. At the same time, it is clear that law enforcement has a role to play, particularly when it comes to liaising with criminal justice. But the research has been instrumental in emphasizing the steps communities can take before the intervention of formal law enforcement and criminal justice is necessary. Indeed, the role of constructive community-based security provision that includes counselling and holding offenders to account and creating opportunities for dialogue with victims of crime is worthy of attention for African cities and beyond. In particular, we were impressed with the stories of young offenders who had been given advice and even start-up funds for their entrepreneurial activities to avoid having to resort to crime. Though these findings require further research given that our sample of interviewed offenders was small, it is clear that there is an opportunity for this research to speak to academics and practitioners engaging with youth entrepreneurship, restorative justice, community organizing, and crime prevention that involves creative and alternative solutions that don't always have to resort to incarceration or retribution. In addition to putting the recommendations of this project into practice, arrangements have also been made for two prospective PhD students to utilize part of the data that were gathered for the project to pursue the research further.
Sectors Education

Government

Democracy and Justice

Security and Diplomacy

URL http://development-frontiers.com/
 
Description We have provided a series of recommendations to local authorities (e.g. street lights) including recommendations for future approaches to policing. Through our workshop in Zaria in February 2019, we shared project findings with a diverse audience including the local security providers and local police officers. The discussion kick-started a productive dialogue between the neighbourhood security providers and the police officers who agreed that they had respective roles to play in enhancing security provision and crime prevention at neighbourhood scales. Also, we have started discussing with the Kaduna House of Assembly on how the findings of this study can inform policy issues and the review of regulations/laws regarding community-based security operations in Kaduna State.
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Security and Diplomacy
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

 
Description Innovative research approaches for understanding and tackling property crimes in city of Kaduna, Nigeria
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact This project has been path-breaking in its institutional collaboration and joint partnership between UCL and ABU. Our public engagement and open panel discourse in Nigeria (with lead academics, community leaders and members from the Kaduna State Police Department) had an immediate impact on their views for change. It sparked a progressive discussion whereby key stakeholders expressed massive interest for further research into the problem. Solutions were discussed among ABU-UCL researchers and key stakeholders about the potential for collaboration with local security providers and the police, as well as the implementation of innovative crime mapping and surveillance technologies and crime prevention strategies in Kaduna.
 
Description Global Engagement Funds 2018/19
Amount £3,973 (GBP)
Organisation University College London 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2018 
End 07/2019
 
Title An integrated approach for using network analysis and statistical modelling for predicting the burden of victimisation and property crime in Kaduna 
Description RA AM developed a research method for analysing the impacts of certain street characteristics on the burden of residential burglaries in Kaduna, Nigeria. This tool relies on the FCLP database: Household crime victimisation survey. We developed new models which integrates a range of street-level characteristics (for example, socioeconomic deprivation and business activities etc.). We created models which uses the study area's street layout and configuration to predict levels of accessibility and permeability for every single road and street segment that exists in the study area. The above information, in turn, were integrated in a statistical model to quantify their risks associated with property crime that occurred on streets. The integration of the above techniques enabled us to also generate risk maps that show which street segments has the lowest or greatest burden of property crime. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Most of the research on environmental criminology focusses on data collected from cities in the Global North and analysed from a Western intellectual perspective. This is the first study in Nigeria (and sub-Saharan Africa) to use this kind of methodology to provide novel risk estimates for property crimes in an African context. These research methods have been described in a full length research article titled 'Assessing the impacts of various street-level characteristics on the burden of urban in Kaduna, Nigeria' which was submitted and currently under-review in a high impact journal (Applied Geography Journal). The findings were disseminated in front of key stakeholders and policy makers in Nigeria at the international conference organised - these results were received warmly and sparked discussions on how such techniques can be used to aid in the mapping and surveillance of crime. 
 
Title FCLP instrument for conducting semi-structured interviews at a household-level to assess the offender-victim dynamics in Kaduna, Nigeria 
Description Co-Is TT, FU, AA, and RAs BA, KNY and MA designed a questionnaire for undertaking qualitative semi-structured interviews to gather information about the local concerns and priorities for residents living and working in the neighbourhoods in Kaduna, as well as measuring employment, income and security status. It included determining how one perceives crime. The interviews targeted 3 cohorts of people: local residents, informal security providers and ex-offenders. The research instrument was designed as a 2-part questionnaire that measured baseline and follow-up status. It contained over 70 responses to questions about an individual's household status (e.g. spatial location of household, number of family members, employment and more), living conditions (e.g. socioeconomic deprivation, hardship and more), community concerns and priorities (e.g. cost of water, rent, food, health care and environmental sanitation and more) and crime and safety. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This instrument enabled us to generate a new database in a way which can be augmented to, or incorporated with another existing crime victimisation survey (of 13,687 mapped households) that was carried out recently in the same study area. This qualitative database is one of the first to exist for Nigeria - not only does it contain new information for over 70 different responses from 113 respondents but it also includes text data (>300,000 words from responses in two different languages) for text mining and 30 hours' worth of audio visual data. This database can be used for criminological qualitative research to extract key themes. In fact, one of the biggest themes we explored was how local residents and informal security providers had to deal with the endemic nature of gang-related crimes in their neighbourhoods. This work in-particular had huge impact as we held a panel discussion face-to-face with the Police, local residents and community leaders in Nigeria to discuss solutions. 
URL http://development-frontiers.com/training/2-day-international-workshop-on-development-frontiers-on-c...
 
Title FCLP Database: Household crime victimisation survey 
Description This project relies on a quantitative database comprises of over 13,000 mapped households in Kaduna with physical environmental information, as well as criminological, socioeconomic and demographic data from selected 3,300 households in Kaduna, Nigeria. It contains spatially referenced information about crime victimisation including vandalism, property theft, breaking and entry. It includes spatial data about street layout and configuration as well as 40 neighbourhoods for which households and communities fall under. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This novel database enabled us to conduct research to explore which street-level factors were associated with risk of residential burglaries. For the first time, it enabled us to produce for results for Nigeria showing which streets in Kaduna has the greatest burden of victimisation. The results and crime maps where shared with researchers and key stakeholders in Nigeria at a conference our research team hosted. 
 
Title FCLP Database: Household crime-perception survey 
Description This project relies on a qualitative database which has responses to over 70 questions related to a respondent's housing conditions, community concerns & priorities and crime and safety. It contains information received from 113 study participants (from three categories from the community: local residents, vigilantes/informal security providers and ex-offenders) which includes text data with over 300,000 words in Hausa language transcribed to English for text mining. It also includes 30 hours' worth of audio-visual footage from interviews. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This novel database which enabled us to qualitatively conduct a crime-perception survey in Nigeria for the first time and to establish new findings for which they were shared with local study participants and key stakeholders in Northern Nigeria. 
 
Description ABU-UCL FCLP collaborations 
Organisation Ahmadu Bello University
Country Nigeria 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution PI JC and Co-I TT (with Co-Is FU and AA at Nigeria) devised the aims and objectives, the conceptual ideas and proof of outline of the FCLP project - their key contributions includes overseeing the progress of the research project, and provision of advice and support to ABUs field workers (BA, KNY & MA) in terms the execution of research design, as well as methodology for carrying out the interviews and analyses of data. AM key contributions includes the provision of statistical support and analysis of property crime data. Creating and managing the project website hosted on (http://development-frontiers.com/). Disseminating five online tutorials on mapping of crime and social data via our project website. AM secured £3,973 from an external funding scheme to organise a workshop in Nigeria.
Collaborator Contribution ABU team led by Co-Is FU and AA were the lead coordinators of the qualitative crime survey conducted in Northern Nigeria - their key contribution was the design of the questionnaire used as an instrument to interview and follow groups of respondents. The key contributions RAs KNY, MA and BA - they were actively engage with field work. They supervised the entire operations of collating data in different languages and transforming it from text to digital format, as well as transcribing it to English. ABU team created a series of short video documentaries showcasing the feedback from local respondents. They organised a capacity building and participatory workshop inviting key stakeholders, researchers and study participants to communicate findings to them.
Impact Achieved outcomes and key deliverable(s) that have arisen as a result from this institutional collaboration - 1. A team meeting in the UK was held to discuss further plans post-completion of fieldwork; 2. Co-I FU attended the ESRC led impact initiative meeting in India to present findings; 3. The team delivered a qualitative participatory workshop in Nigeria with field participants (local residents, informal security providers) and stakeholders to receive feedback and to validate findings; 4. The team led a panel discussion in Nigeria to engage with researchers, the Kaduna state Police Department and key stakeholders (Civilian Joint Task Force and community leaders) to speak more about their research findings and to come with solutions to reduce crime burden; 5. A video series and documentaries were actualised; 6. Further engagement through a series of research blogs posted on our website titled: 'Family structures & crime', 'Deferred promise', 'The rainy season is burglary season', 'Mitigating crime through alternative sources of income and side hustle' and 'Rise of informal security providers in Kaduna'; 7. Our work (in-press) has been accepted and will feature in March 2019's latest edition of Impact Initiative's Urban Community Resilience.
Start Year 2018
 
Description ABU-UCL FCLP collaborations 
Organisation University College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution PI JC and Co-I TT (with Co-Is FU and AA at Nigeria) devised the aims and objectives, the conceptual ideas and proof of outline of the FCLP project - their key contributions includes overseeing the progress of the research project, and provision of advice and support to ABUs field workers (BA, KNY & MA) in terms the execution of research design, as well as methodology for carrying out the interviews and analyses of data. AM key contributions includes the provision of statistical support and analysis of property crime data. Creating and managing the project website hosted on (http://development-frontiers.com/). Disseminating five online tutorials on mapping of crime and social data via our project website. AM secured £3,973 from an external funding scheme to organise a workshop in Nigeria.
Collaborator Contribution ABU team led by Co-Is FU and AA were the lead coordinators of the qualitative crime survey conducted in Northern Nigeria - their key contribution was the design of the questionnaire used as an instrument to interview and follow groups of respondents. The key contributions RAs KNY, MA and BA - they were actively engage with field work. They supervised the entire operations of collating data in different languages and transforming it from text to digital format, as well as transcribing it to English. ABU team created a series of short video documentaries showcasing the feedback from local respondents. They organised a capacity building and participatory workshop inviting key stakeholders, researchers and study participants to communicate findings to them.
Impact Achieved outcomes and key deliverable(s) that have arisen as a result from this institutional collaboration - 1. A team meeting in the UK was held to discuss further plans post-completion of fieldwork; 2. Co-I FU attended the ESRC led impact initiative meeting in India to present findings; 3. The team delivered a qualitative participatory workshop in Nigeria with field participants (local residents, informal security providers) and stakeholders to receive feedback and to validate findings; 4. The team led a panel discussion in Nigeria to engage with researchers, the Kaduna state Police Department and key stakeholders (Civilian Joint Task Force and community leaders) to speak more about their research findings and to come with solutions to reduce crime burden; 5. A video series and documentaries were actualised; 6. Further engagement through a series of research blogs posted on our website titled: 'Family structures & crime', 'Deferred promise', 'The rainy season is burglary season', 'Mitigating crime through alternative sources of income and side hustle' and 'Rise of informal security providers in Kaduna'; 7. Our work (in-press) has been accepted and will feature in March 2019's latest edition of Impact Initiative's Urban Community Resilience.
Start Year 2018
 
Description 2-Day International Workshop: Development Frontiers in Crime, Livelihoods and Urban Poverty in Nigeria 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact In February 2019, RA AM (alongside PI JC, Co-I TT), travelled to Northern Nigeria to meet our research partners from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria. As part of our impact initiatives, ABU-UCL delivered an international workshop and a conference. The first session was a participatory workshop with key research participants from the Kaduna field sites. This workshop was conducted with the purpose to get direct feedback from the participants involved and to debate on the key findings, as well as providing an inclusive space for the ABU-UCL team to engage in a discussion about the data. This activity provided the platform for various participants to validate and thicken the findings, but also raise new questions for further research. Subsequently, I (alongside the ABU-UCL team) presented our research findings and shared key insights with a wider audience of academics from ABU, as well as distinguished guests who are policy makers and key stakeholders including 4 Divisional Police Officers (DPO) representing the commissioner, Kaduna State Police command, and the Chairman of Kaduna State Civilian Joint Task Force (and some senior members of this organisation). The both events were unique and impactful experience, and key stakeholders each had a chance to share their ideas and to express differences in opinions. The panel discussion led to an open and meaningful debate discussing next steps for the research project itself, both with regards to policy implications about crime mapping, surveillance and prevention strategies. There was much enthusiasm amongst ABU colleagues for finding ways to include this kind of mixed-methods research design into the teaching curriculum at ABU, and there was a mutual commitment to building on this ABU-UCL research partnership for further UK/African research collaboration and joint outputs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL http://development-frontiers.com/training/2-day-international-workshop-on-development-frontiers-on-c...
 
Description 2018 Workshop: Development Frontiers in Crime, Livelihoods and Urban Poverty in Nigeria 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact In September 2018, RA AM (alongside with PI JC and Co-I TT) organised a 5-day project workshop for the research team in the UK. The purpose was to discuss future plans for the ongoing qualitative crime fieldwork survey, data collection, impact activities and potential publications. We invited five of our research partners from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Nigeria which is jointly-led by Co-I AA and Co-I FU, and researchers KNY, MA and BA. We discussed about the current status of the crime fieldwork survey that was conducted by team ABU. They provided insights to team UCL based on the interviews they conducted with local residents and ex-offenders in Kaduna. They provided insights about the relationship that exists between offenders and victims in Kaduna. Many questions were raised by the ABU-UCL team that sparked a discussion on ways of capturing more qualitative information. In addition, each person delivered a presentation to showcase their research findings - RAs AM, KNY, MA and BA presented the methodological aspects surrounding the fieldwork and street study. PI JC and Co-Is TT, AA and FU submitted an abstract and registered to attend an ESRC-DfID led impact conference on Power of Partnership Research to Alleviate Poverty conference in India. FU was interviewed at the Broadcasting House for the BBC Hausa channel and spoke in Hausa language to communicate our research activities to a wider audience globally.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://development-frontiers.com/research/our-first-meeting-2018-fclp-workshop/
 
Description BBC Interview: Dr Faisal Umar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In September 2018, ABU-UCL team member Co-I FU was interviewed at the Broadcasting House for the BBC Hausa channel and spoke in Hausa language to communicate our research activities to a wider audience globally
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://twitter.com/FaisalKaita/status/1041455722352001024
 
Description ESRC-DFID Power of Partnership: Research to Alleviate Poverty 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact ABU-UCL research team member Co-I FU attended an ESRC-DFID led Impact initiative meeting in India, titled 'ESRC-DFID Power of Partnership: Research to Alleviate Poverty' to deliver a presentation about the project on crime, livelihoods and urban poverty in Nigeria. Also he presented research findings from household crime survey that was carried out in Northern Nigeria and its pathways to impact, which sparked a progressive debate especially among researchers who are from other African countries.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://twitter.com/FaisalKaita/status/1069482614879178752
 
Description Online Tutorials: Introduction to mapping and visualisation in QGIS 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact RA AM posted free introductory QGIS tutorials on the project website for teaching mapping and visualisation of crime and social data to GIS users across Africa and beyond. Within a few months after launching the tutorials on our website - our teaching materials reached new heights with over +200 downloads by users worldwide.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://development-frontiers.com/tutorials/
 
Description Project website: Development Frontiers in Crime, Livelihood & Urban Poverty 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact The project website is a platform for which ABU-UCL research team provide regular updates about our research activities. We post open source teaching resources for users in Africa and beyond. We have posted over 10 interesting blog pieces about the status of our field work, as well as reflections and insights of the current situation of the research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://development-frontiers.com/
 
Description The risk assessment of various street-level characteristics on the burden of urban crime in a developing country 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact RA AM has delivered a presentation at a local conference meeting in UCL Department of Geography in UK titled 'GEO DATA London' to showcase how statistical modelling and network analysis can be integrated to determine street-level risk of residential burglaries in a developing country.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.cdrc.ac.uk/geodatalondon/
 
Description Urban Transformations 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Our research is among 80 ESRC projects that is showcased on the Urban Transformations website. The Urban Transformations focuses on large funded ESRC projects that conduct research on challenges that are commonly known in second-tier cities in the Global South - a context which our research situates itself in. It is a platform that promotes engagement with a wider audience and other academics with similar research. All blog posts on our project website are redirected to the Urban Transformations' blog feed for greater exposure to the research community.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/project/development-frontiers-in-crime-livelihoods-and-urb...
 
Description Voice of Africa (VOA) interview in United States 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact On the 6th of April 2019, ABU-UCL team member Co-I FU was interviewed at the Voice of Africa Broadcasting station in the US and spoke in Hausa language to communicate the research activities and findings from the FCLP research to a wider audience globally
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://twitter.com/FaisalKaita/status/1114617093545254912?s=20