[Nigeria] UNDP - Niger-Delta, Steeped in Poverty Amidst Plenty

from All Africa

This Day (Lagos)

ANALYSIS

Abimbola Akosile
Lagos

The 2006 Niger-Delta Human Development Report compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed that a region which produces oil, accounting for more than 95 per-cent of Nigeria's foreign earnings, is paradoxically embedded in poverty. Abimbola Akosile here outlines the report which encourages local participation in development process

Vast resources from an international industry have barely touched pervasive local poverty, according to a report which spans all nine oil-producing States in Nigeria, including Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

The Niger Delta Human Development Report, is the first sub-regional human development report in Nigeria to be commissioned by UNDP, indicating the region's strategic significance. It is an offshoot of a UNDP/Shell partnership aimed at strengthening human development in the region.

Adopting the human development framework for its research and analysis, the report was written by a consortium of experts who did extensive fieldwork in the region and held series of consultations with various stakeholders to ensure that the report reflects both the situation on the ground and the aspirations of the people.

"This report captures the challenges of this important region and presents ways out of these challenges as articulated by the people of the region", said Mr. Alfred Fawundu, the Officer-in-Charge for UNDP Nigeria.

"The report is significant not just because it is focusing on the human dimension of the situation of the Niger Delta, but also because it is, a priori, embedding the people of the region in the development process. For development to be meaningful and sustainable, it has to be participatory. This is one of the key recommendations of this report".

It has both qualitative and quantitative data on the level of poverty in all the nine states and the 185 local government areas of the region. The states and local government areas are scored and ranked on how they measure up on the Human Development Index, a composite index of the three indicators of human welfare: income, health and education.

The report also x-rays how low infrastructure, environmental degradation, high cost of living, high incidence of HIV/AIDS, limited sources of livelihoods, bad governance and incessant conflicts negatively impact on state of human well-being in the region.

Beyond capturing the paradox of wealth and poverty in the region, the report also proffers a human development agenda for the region, based on the views of the people of the region and best practices drawn from other oil producing countries.

The President is expected to present the report at the meeting of the Council on the Social and Economic Development of the Coastal States of the Niger Delta. Set up three months ago by the president, the Council comprises state governors, federal ministers, captains of the oil industry, donors, and community leaders. The report will be presented at the State House in Abuja.

The Niger Delta produces the oil wealth that accounts for the bulk of Nigeria's foreign earnings. Paradoxically, however, these vast revenues from an international industry have barely touched the Niger Delta's own pervasive local poverty. This has spurred formidable challenges to sustainable human development in the region, particularly as conflicts over resources tighten their often vicious grip.

Development experts and policy makers have engaged in many debates about the delta's human development dilemma, questioning why abundant human and natural resources have had so little impact on poverty.

Why do conflict and youth restiveness simmer despite years of development interventions? What should be done to calm the situation? How can environmental sustainability and poverty reduction be achieved given continued extraction of oil and gas resources? What path leads towards sustainable human development?

These questions, among others, constitute the driving force for preparing this Human Development Report, the first for the Niger Delta. It analyses the various dimensions of the human development challenges in the region, with a particular focus on women and youth, and proposes a people-centred development agenda grounded in the region's natural and human capital. The imperative for a new development agenda for the Niger Delta arises from the failure of past development planning to meet the needs of the people, the report revealed.

The imperative for a new development agenda arises from the fact that past development planning efforts have failed to adequately address the region's needs. The result has been disillusionment and frustration among the people about their increasing deprivation. They have seen one government-sponsored development agency after another, without any significant changes. Instead, their physical environment has been deteriorating at an alarming rate, which hinders economic prospects and harms human well-being.

Local people in the delta are acutely aware of how much wealth oil can produce. Oil and gas alone have generated 40 per cent of Nigeria's national GDP over recent decades. Between 2000 and 2004, oil accounted for about 79.5 per cent of total government revenues and about 97 per cent of foreign exchange revenues. Within the delta, a few oil companies and individuals appear to be flush with cash. Local people often cannot tap directly into oil industry benefits, including employment, because they lack skills or capital resources.

According to the report, instability in the Niger Delta does not bode well for the future of Nigeria or an oil-hungry world. But for most people, progress and hope, much less prosperity, remain out of reach. Instead, misdirected resources, inappropriate policy frameworks and a poor 'visioning' of what development should look like have destabilised their societies, and stoked deep and proliferating concerns. If unaddressed, these do not bode well for the future of Nigeria or an oil-hungry world.

The Human Development Situation

The Niger Delta region, as covered in the 2006 report, includes all nine oil-producing states in Nigeria (Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers states) with a total land area of about 75,000 square kilometres and 185 local government areas. The region contains the world's third largest wetland, with the most extensive freshwater swamp forest and rich biological diversity. Over half of the area is criss-crossed with creeks and dotted with small islands, while the remainder is a lowland rain-forest zone.

Analyses of poverty and human development paint a dismal picture, particularly when the delta is compared with other oil-producing regions of the world.

While many development agencies and private sector organisations, including oil companies, have sought to transform the region socially and economically, analyses of poverty and human development paint a dismal picture.

The region's human development index (HDI) score, a measure of well-being encompassing the longevity of life, knowledge and a decent standard of living, remains at a low value of 0.564 (with 1 being the highest score). While these ratings put the Niger Delta at a slightly higher level than Nigeria's overall HDI of 0.453, the area rates far below countries or regions with similar oil and gas resources. The HDI for Saudi Arabia in 2000 stood at 0.800, while in 2003 the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Libya, Venezuela and Indonesia achieved scores of 0.849, 0.844, 0.799, 0.772 and 0.697, respectively.

A further disaggregation of the HDI score at the local government level in the Niger Delta clearly shows that regional and state scores mask inequalities in human development among oil-producing communities. In spite of the efforts of oil companies to enhance the well-being of the communities where they operate through several development initiatives, particularly in social infrastructure, there is still wide disparity in the performances of local government areas.

The report discovers that most of the best performing local government areas on the HDI are the urban ones, while the majority of the poorly performing ones are those based in rural areas. The local government areas without oil facilities appear to fare better on the poverty index than those with oil facilities; an indication of unequal distribution of oil revenues. The poor outcomes of development interventions of oil companies are, to some extent, due to lack of a systematic link to government development plans.

The delta's appalling human development situation cannot be completely captured by the HDI, as some essential issues in the region are not reflected in the computation of the index, such as the dire state of infrastructure. The lack of data also distorts the calculation of the index to some extent. Nevertheless, available data point to the fact that the region is not faring well. The poor marks suggest the delta may struggle to achieve the MDGs. It is only close in one area - school enrollments - and is not likely to meet the other goals by the target date of 2015 or anytime soon after.

Social instability, poor local governance, competition for economic resources and environmental degradation have taken a toll. Behind the delta's poor performance on human development is a complex brew of economic, social, political and environmental factors. Social instability, poor local governance, competition for economic resources and environmental degradation have taken a toll.

The general neglect of infrastructure, often rationalised by the difficulty of the delta's terrain, has worsened people's access to fundamental services such as electricity, safe drinking water, roads and health facilities that are taken for granted in many other parts of Nigeria. Other elements include the negative impacts of the oil industry, a constricted land area, a delicately balanced environment and extreme economic deprivation.

The delta today is a place of frustrated expectations and deep-rooted mistrust. The delta today is a place of frustrated expectations and deep-rooted mistrust. Unprecedented restiveness at times erupts in violence. Long years of neglect and conflict have fostered a siege mentality, especially among youths who feel they are condemned to a future without hope, and see conflict as a strategy to escape deprivation.

Persistent conflict, while in part a response to poor human development, has also entrenched it, serving as a consistent drag on the region's economic performance and expectations for advancement.

The sabotage of oil production hurts the economy through the loss of sorely needed foreign exchange to finance national development. Blown pipelines interrupt the supply of crude to refineries and produce shortages that cause sudden spikes in oil prices. Hostage-taking is not only a stress on foreign captives, their families and the companies they work for, but also presents a challenge to international diplomacy and foreign direct investment.

But the disruption also has adverse effects on the local people, as ensuing violence threatens individuals and communities. Lives are lost, and investments drop along with the availability of jobs. The response to violence has at times meant further violence is unleashed randomly on unsuspecting communities or oil workers.

Whole villages have been destroyed and their populace displaced because of disputes that could have been amicably resolved. The human development implications extend to the harm done to the life chances of children unable to go to school and the further constraints on human and social capital, the report stated.

There is a general concern that some people, particularly unscrupulous politicians and political organisations, benefit from violence, and that they sponsor some of the youth gangs in the region. Arms merchants along with police and military personnel have supplied weapons to various gangs, and the increased incidence of oil theft has been linked to the need for foreign exchange to purchase arms.

In spite of the substantial flow of oil money to state and local governments, service delivery and development projects have been disappointing, especially at the local government level. While turmoil in the delta has many sources and motivations, the preeminent underlying cause is the historical failure of governance at all levels.

Declining economic performance leading to rising unemployment or underemployment; the lack of access to basic necessities of life like water, shelter, food and clothing; discriminatory policies that deny access to positions of authority and prevent people from participating in shaping the rules that govern their lives; these all indicate that governance over time has fallen short.

Corruption aggravates feelings of being cheated, especially when the rulers live like kings amid extreme want. In spite of the substantial flow of oil money to state and local governments, many communities see no sign of government presence in terms of development projects. This intensifies a sense of hopelessness and mistrust that for the most aggrieved people leads to a call to arms.

Among the delta's many problems, some of the most serious relate to environmental sustainability, which is fundamental to people's well-being and development. Wide-ranging and usually destructive environmental changes have stemmed from oil and gas extraction, industrialisation and urbanisation. Oil spills and gas flares in particular have destroyed natural resources central to local livelihoods. The alienation of people from their land and resources has led to the inefficient use of remaining resources and poor or inequitable land-use practices.

Local people have ended up frustrated both with the oil and multinational companies doing business in the region, and the government agencies that fail to rigorously regulate them. For years, local people have expected protection from successive federal and state governments that never arrived. Attempts to fight back have compounded the environmental challenges in some cases, such as when the sabotage of oil pipelines results in more oil pollution, in addition to the frequent loss of lives and property.

Economically, the Niger Delta region is heavily invested in the oil and gas industry, but despite the fact that this is a non-renewable resource, economic diversification has been limited. Local people often cannot tap directly into oil industry benefits, including employment, because they lack skills or capital resources or both.

The once rich agricultural enterprises developed in the mid-20th century, which generated substantial foreign exchange earnings in the 1960s and 1970s, have mostly been abandoned. For 85 per cent of the population, informal enterprises are the primary source of a livelihood, but these are characterised by low productivity and wages. Not surprisingly, women, who face a double marginalisation due to gender, are particularly active in this sector.

Also according to the UNDP report, a majority of the people lacks information and technical abilities, and unemployment and underemployment rates are high. The tension in the region has prompted some local people, especially youths, to prefer quick and profitable gains from conflict over longer term and 'frequently unavailable' investments in education and training. Available data show that limited employment correlates with the highest incidence of youth restiveness.

The delta's unstable social, economic and political situation has helped to open the door to HIV&AIDS, a devastating force reversing decades of human development and perhaps the biggest obstacle to reaching the MDGs in the Niger Delta. The prevalence rate in the delta is among the highest in Nigeria.

Social instability and decaying social values have encouraged the spread of risky behaviours, while incorrect information about HIV&AIDS, traditional practices and poor economic conditions compound the chance of exposure to HIV. As people die in large numbers, society loses much needed human capital, productivity declines and dependency rates skyrocket.

Making matters worse is the poor quality and accessibility of basic health care services' prevention, care, support and treatment programmes are simply not available. Many people turn to unqualified but locally available caregivers. Other factors include the region's oil exploratory activities, which produce men with easy money who engage in risky sexual behaviour with girls driven into prostitution by poverty. In general, women's low economic status hinders their ability to negotiate sex and other family planning issues, even with their husbands.

A Human Development Agenda for the Niger Delta

To address the many development challenges of the Niger Delta in a sustainable manner, the report posits that the region's vast oil wealth should be used to create an environment in which most people can flourish and can live valued and dignified lives.

Based on the situation on the ground, the wishes of the people and scenarios proffered by on-going national initiatives, the report proposes a seven-point human development agenda.

These are:

- Promote peace as the foundation for development

- Make local governance effective and responsive to the needs of the people

- Improve and diversify the economy

- Promote social inclusion and improved access to social services

- Promote environmental sustainability to preserve the means of people's sustainable livelihoods.

- Take an integrated approach to HIV&AIDS

- Build sustainable partnerships for the advancement of human development.

The United Nations Development Programme is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

They are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.

UNDP has been in Nigeria since 1960 when the country became independent. As in other parts of the world, we have been a force for change, helping the government and the people of Nigeria to create and share solutions to emerging challenges of development. We offer policy advice, advocate for change and mobilise resources to facilitate sustainable human development in Africa's most populous country.

In the 6th Country Programme, the current programme cycle running from 2003 to 2007, UNDP Nigeria is providing capacity building and policy development support to the Federal Government and 18 states drawn from the six geo-political zones in four programme areas.

The four programme areas are Governance and Human Rights, Poverty Reduction, Energy and Environment, and HIV & AIDS.

The CO engages mainly in strategic upstream supports and catalytic downstream activities, all aimed at enhancing human development in Nigeria. In addition, it advocates for gender mainstreaming and launch global, national and sub-regional Human Development Reports, which help spur policy debates and galvanise necessary action.

NOTE: The Niger-Delta Human Development Agenda will be highlighted next week