How to cite: Ola, A.B. 2022. Climate change effects and livelihood-adaptation strategies by the urban poor in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Against the background of the phenomenal influx of labour into the informal waste management subsector of many cities in Nigeria in recent times, despite the persistent official harassment of the participants and the seemingly low economic reward offered by the job, this paper examines the influence of social and economic attributes of participants on the emergence and development of the sector. Using a cross-sectional survey research design, data were collected via a structured questionnaire interview involving 103 identified informal waste collectors in the Ibadan North East Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. Both descriptive (frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics (Pearson’s correlation analysis and multinomial logistic regression) were used in analysing the data generated from the questionnaire survey. The study found that informal waste collectors’ socio-economic attributes (gender, age, education, income, marital status, ethnicity, religion, nationalities and state of origin) influenced their participation in waste management. The results of the multinomial logistic regression confirmed the hypothesis that participation in informal waste collection is a function of socio-economic attributes. The study concluded that adequate knowledge of informal waste collectors’ socio-economic attributes will lead to positive policy response from the government towards the subsector, thereby ensuring its sustainability in the waste management sector.