Lacing Up for Cleaner Cities: How the Lagos Cityzens Hub Uses Running to Drive a Clean Air Movement

Every month, a group of dedicated runners from Lagos, Nigeria, lace up their shoes and run the same city marathon route they always have. At first glance, it may look like they’re chasing personal records, but there’s a bigger motivation driving their stride. Before setting out, they make sure they’re equipped with more than just running gear: each runner carries a wearable air quality monitor and the UrbanBetter Cityzens app.

It might seem unusual, but these tools turn an ordinary run into a powerful act of science and advocacy. Step by step, they’re tracking the air they breathe, mapping the city’s health, and proving that everyday people can influence urban futures.

This is the work of the Lagos Cityzens Hub, part of a growing network of hubs across the world. A Cityzens Hub is essentially a community-based platform that blends physical activity with citizen science, giving young people the tools they need to gather data, push for healthier cities, and take part in shaping urban decisions.

The Lagos Cityzens Hub warming up for a run

Today, there are four Cityzens hubs around the world – apart from Lagos, there are also hubs in Accra, Nairobi, and Bogotá. Together, they form a growing network coordinated by UrbanBetter, an African-led advocacy movement that envisions cities where people take ownership of their environment and safeguard planetary health. Waziri Mainasara is currently coordinating the Lagos Cityzens hub.

Last month, I had the opportunity to interview him about how the Lagos hub came to be and learn more about the events it runs today. Along with Waziri, I also spoke with Rukayat Salau, a Run Leader who first got involved through the hub.

How the Lagos Cityzens Hub Took Shape

The Lagos Cityzens Hub grew out of a frustration shared by UrbanBetter’s founder, Professor Tolullah Oni, with how research often stops at publication instead of leading to real action. To address this gap, she decided to test a new creative approach. In 2022, a pilot project was launched in Lagos where ten young people – including Waziri – were selected as Run Leaders. They ran mapped routes across the city, simultaneously measuring air quality with portable monitors and logging observations of their surroundings into an app.

Waziri Mainasara (right), Coordinator of the Lagos Cityzens Hub

“We did a pilot project and mobilised people to join us. Leading up to COP27 back in 2022, we had a big physical and social media campaign. It reached a lot of people and attracted a lot of attention – we even got a feature on BBC Africa and the Guardian UK.” – Waziri Mainasara

The success of that pilot showed there was potential for this initiative to grow. In July 2023, UrbanBetter was formally established as an organisation, and later that year, the Lagos hub was created. Instead of building new offices, UrbanBetter’s model is to “plug in” Cityzens hubs into existing civil society groups whose values align with theirs. In Lagos, that partner is the Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI), whose grounding in urban advocacy made them a natural fit.

For LUDI, hosting a Cityzens Hub has meant amplifying their advocacy with real-time data, connecting with global networks, and engaging hundreds of young people in shaping their city. After an open application process, Waziri was appointed as coordinator in November 2023, bringing his experience as a former run leader into a leadership role.

Finding a Place in the Movement

With the Cityzens hub in Lagos set in place, it started gaining more momentum and drawing in new members. Rukayat, one of Lagos Cityzens’ Run Leaders, shared how she first got involved. Rukayat first came across UrbanBetter at a climate event, where she met Waziri and learned how the hub combines physical activity with evidence-based advocacy.

At the time, she was coming from a background in geophysics, but couldn’t picture herself pursuing the traditional career paths the field had to offer. She knew she wanted to be involved in something different.

“I have a background in geophysics, and I just knew that I was not interested in oil and gas and every other thing. When I started hearing about climate change and taking climate action, I just figured that I could apply my background to solve some climate change challenges. That really piqued my interest because for me, it’s about creating an impact.”

Rukayat Salau

Run Leader

When she realised that UrbanBetter offered a way to put that interest into practice, she applied, enrolled in the training, and soon after, joined the Lagos Cityzens Hub.

Science on the Move

Rukayat’s journey is just one example of how the Cityzens hub draws people in for a range of reasons – some join out of passion for the cause, while others initially get hooked by the unique citizen science approach. To keep that interest and engagement going, the hub organises regular activities, which can be classified as activations or campaigns.

Activations are solely focused on data collection, mobilising only a small team composed of leaders like Waziri and Run Leaders like Rukayat. An example of this is the monthly runs they do along the Lagos City marathon route. The data for each month is collected and compared to determine which month of the year has the best air quality.

Campaigns, on the other hand, are centred around advocacy, visibility, and awareness. They gather the community to participate in official marathons, car-free days, and other events targeted to specific demographics, such as International Youth Day.

Nearly 400 young people joined the Lagos Cityzens Hub for International Youth Day – running and walking with signage to raise awareness on clean air, while turning the streets into a space for community and advocacy.

Activation or campaign, they still encourage people to collect data through the UrbanBetter Cityzens app and a portable air quality monitor. But how exactly do they do this? When the Lagos Cityzens team goes for a run, they use AirBeam3 monitors to measure the air quality along pre-mapped routes while also using the Cityzens app to record observations.

“Before we go, it’s like a scientific process,” Waziri said. “There are things that inform why we go to where we go to collect air quality data. Either people’s lived experiences, policy priorities, or existing data.”

All of the data collected through the monitors feed into UrbanBetter’s visualisation platform. Air quality readings appear as colour-coded routes (green for good, yellow for moderate, and up to purple for hazardous). As for on-the-ground observations, these are shown as white markers on the UrbanBetter Cityzens app, so anyone can click and see what was happening in that spot.

Together, these two streams of information create a fuller picture of urban health. Evidence from both platforms is analysed by the UrbanBetter team, where key insights and findings are drawn out and shared with the public and policymakers in the form of blogs, civic meetings, and public forums.

In combination with this, UrbanBetter has also built a training pipeline that keeps the hub growing. Back in 2022, run leaders were recruited through open calls and in-person workshops. As Waziri put it, “They wanted young people who are passionate to do these things. You mustn’t necessarily have all the knowledge about what you are coming into, but they are going to teach you. So they put out a call, we applied, and then in a three-day workshop, we were taught all these things over time.”

Today, that same training can be found on the UrbanBetter website, open to anyone who wants to take part. People can start as casual runners, build up their skills as trackers, and eventually step up as run leaders who even borrow monitors for their own self-organised studies. This structure ensures there’s always a pool of Cityzens ready to act.

Spotting What’s Right, Not Just What’s Wrong

Up to this point, we’ve looked at the bigger picture: the monitors track air quality data, which gets uploaded to UrbanBetter’s visualisation platform, while the app captures on-the-ground observations. But what exactly are people logging in the Cityzens app?

When it comes to apps that allow us to map our surroundings, most of us instinctively look for what’s wrong – pollution hotspots, traffic, or open burning. But the Cityzens app works differently, as it encourages people to log assets, such as trees, shade, sea breezes, or safe walkways too.

“We keep reminding people that we don’t just collect negative features. Because intuitively, we just want to collect what’s negative. If I see that there’s a dedicated working lane in this particular area of a neighbourhood I’m going to, I’ll just take the photo and upload it as an observation on the UrbanBetter Cityzens app.”

Waziri Mainasara

This approach shifts the narrative from complaint-driven data to something more balanced. By encouraging people to log both, the app reminds users that change isn’t just about addressing problems, but also about protecting what’s already working well.

Growing the Cityzens Network

The Lagos hub is one piece of a network that’s starting to stretch across continents, with new Cityzens Hubs already in the works. UrbanBetter’s vision is clear: 30 hubs in the next three years, and eventually, a solid network of 100,000 Cityzens.

If you’re interested in contributing your own on-the-ground observations, you don’t need a hub in your city to be a part of this movement. Anyone can download the UrbanBetter Cityzens app and begin logging observations anytime, anywhere.

And in case you feel inspired to take things a step further, UrbanBetter shares this invitation:

“UrbanBetter partners with organisations that are deeply rooted in their communities, which means youth groups, civil society organisations, universities, or local NGOs can become part of the global network by serving as a Cityzen’s hub host. If your organisation works at the intersection of youth, health, climate, cities, or mobility, you could become a host for a Cityzens Hub. By hosting, your organisation gains access to specialised training, cutting-edge data tools, and a global platform that amplifies your work. It also opens the door to greater visibility through high-profile campaigns and activations, while connecting you to a cross-continental network that is shaping the future of urban health. You can learn more about how to host a hub here.”