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National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) (IV)
Contd. from last week
The social charter: Investing in the Nigerian people
NEEDS is about the Nigerian people—their health, education, employment,
happiness, sense of fulfilment, and general well-being. This chapter
presents the social agenda that underpins the NEEDS programme.
The social charter refers to the contract between the individual and the
government in which the government recognizes the individual’s rights and
responsibilities and promises to deliver the basic necessities for a decent
human existence. These necessities include potable water, food, clothing,
shelter, adequate nutrition, basic education, primary health care,
productive assets, security, and protection from shocks and risks.
Social conditions in Nigeria present a startling paradox: despite a rich
endowment of natural and human resources, most of the country is poor. For
decades the country has struggled to improve socioeconomic conditions, which
have declined despite increasing revenue from crude oil.
The growing incidence and the dynamics of poverty in Nigeria have stratified
and polarized Nigerian society between the haves and the havenots, between
the north and the south, between the educated and the uneducated. Poor
parents beget poor children creating a kind of dynasty of the poor. The
resulting tensions and social conflicts have eroded the fabric that held
society together
The challenge is not only to reform the economy in order to boost economic
growth but also to empower the people as a means of revitalizing the
weakened social pillar. Doing so calls for a human rights approach to
development planning that places people at the centre of development
efforts. The added value provided by this approach is that the norms and
values enshrined in it have the potential to empower the poor. This is
important, because it is now widely recognized that effective poverty
reduction is not possible without doing so.
Poverty reduction
Poverty reduction is the most difficult challenges facing Nigeria and its
people and the greatest obstacle to pursuit of sustainable socioeconomic
growth. The poverty rate in Nigeria increased from 27 percent in 1980 to 66
percent in 1996. By 1999, it was estimated that more than 70 percent of
Nigerians lived in poverty expectancy is a mere 54 years, and infant
mortality (77 per 1,000) and maternal mortality (704 per 100,000 live
births) are among the highest in the world. Other social indicators (from
1999) are also weak:
• Only about 10 percent of the population had access to essential drugs.
• There were fewer than 30 physicians per 100,000 people.
• More than 5 million adults were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.
• Among children under five, almost 30 percent were underweight.
• Only 17 percent of children were fully immunized—down from 30 percent in
1990—and almost 40 percent had never been vaccinated.
• Only about half the population had access to safe drinking water (40
percent in rural areas, 80 percent in urban areas).
• Some 29 percent of the total population lived at risk from annual floods.
• More than 90 percent of the rural population depended on forests for
livelihood and domestic energy sources.
• Rural households spent an average of 1 .5 hours a day collecting water and
fuel wood, with household members walking an average of one kilometre a day
to collect water and fuel wood.
Qualitatively, poverty in Nigeria has many manifestations and dimensions,
including joblessness, over-indebtedness, economic dependence, lack of
freedom, inability to provide the basic needs of life for self and family,
lack of access to land and credit, and inability to save or own assets. Poor
people tend to live in dirty localities that put significant pressure on
physical environment, contributing to environmental degradation. The poor,
especially farmers, perceive their economic circumstances to be fraught with
uncertainty, affected by events over which they have no control, such as
primary commodity prices, the volume of rainfall, pest attacks, fire
outbreaks, changes in soil conditions, and social conflicts. Lack of food is
the most critical dimension of poverty, reflected in the popular saying that
“when hunger is excised from poverty, the burden of poverty is light”.
Causes of poverty
Inadequate growth is the main cause of poverty in Nigeria. The lack of
growth is compounded by the volatility of the oil sector, which affects a
range of activities in the economy. High and growing unemployment increases
the number of poor people. Other factors that have contributeted to the
level and evolution of poverty in Nigeria include problems in the productive
sector, widening income inequality. weak governance. social conflict, and
gender, intersectoral, and environmental issues.
The limited growth of investment and technological innovation has
constrained the labour absorption capacity of the non-agricultural sector,
especially manufacturing. This lack of capacity has exacerbated poverty
especially in urban areas. Two other factor-problems associated with the
transition away from high-cost industries are heavily dependent on imports
and the impact of globalization on domestic industries that are unable to
compete with imported substitutes—also appear to have contributed to the
limited growth of domestic production and employment. International evidence
from countries in roughly comparable circumstances suggest that the savings
propensity in Nigeria is low, providing weak underpinning for the sustained
domestic investment growth in the fight against poverty.
Widening income inequality has contributed significantly to the increase in
poverty in Nigeria. Economic growth has tended to benefit people who work in
public sector management. Fiscal policies have not promoted income
redistribution. A related problem is the decline in the living standards of
a growing number of pensioners (including retired members of the Nigerian
middle class), due to under-funding and management problems of pension
arrangements in public and private sector institutions.
Weak governance (including corruption) is believed to have contributed
significantly to poverty in Nigeria. Governance problems are widely thought
to have been among the major reasons why past poverty alleviation programmes
have had little effect. The capacity of individuals and businesses to
exploit the potential of the Nigerian aconomy has been hampered by the costs
associated with corruption.
The economic and social dislocations caused by internal conflicts have
negatively affected the economic well-being of individuals and businesses in
various ways. Conflicts often lead to the deaths of principal income earners
or the destruction and loss of major assets, such as houses or land. Those
not displaced from conflict areas often face inadequate infrastructure and
other facilities needed to earn a decent living. The occurrence and in
several cases reoccurrence of social conflicts in various localities in
Nigeria has increased poverty, not only in areas directly affected by the
conflict but also in areas affected by inflows of internally displaced
people. The uncertainties associated with actual or potential conflict
situations also tend to discourage domestic and foreign investments.
As in many developing countries, women in Nigeria are more likely than men
to be poor. They also have fewer options than men for escaping poverty.
Partly due to traditional proper, rights and inheritance practices, widows
are more vulnerable to poverty than widowers. Partly because they have less
formal education than their male counterparts, women generally benefit less
from using employment to fight poverty. Children’s and Women’s Rights in
Nigeria: A Wake-Up Call, a 2001 study published by the National Planning
Commission and UNICEF provides detailed information on the problems,
progress and possibilities facing women and children in Nigeria. The study
is a valuable source of information for developing gender policies as the
implementation of NEEDS proceeds.
Some evidence suggests that the rural sector where about 70 percent of
Nigeria’s people live, has been facing a more serious poverty situation than
the urban sectcr. The difference is caused by a variety of factors,
including the following:
• Sharp seasonality in the flow of production income and employment
opportunities in the rural sector
• Shortage of social and economic infrastructure compared with urban areas.
• Migration of the educated workforce to urban areas and the consequent
aging of the rural population
• Low productivity of rural (and especially agricultural) production, due
partly to limited access to credit, pesticides, extension services and
modern technology for agricultural production, processing and preservation
At the same time, increases in population is putting pressure on limited
resources in urban areas which face serious problems of unemployment,
under-employment, and housing and other environment related problems.
Emperical evidence shows that poverty and environmental degradation are
inexpicably linked in Nigeria, because 75 percent of rural people depend on
natural resources for their livelihood. Environmental degradation reduces
opportunity for poor people to earn sustainable incomes. Left with no other
viable options they engage in extractive activities, contributing to the
vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. Rural dwellers are
also more vulnerable to environmental disaster and hazards and have few or
no strategies for coping with these stresses. In urban areas the poor live
in slums where they are exposed to overcrowded living quarters, unsafe
water, improper waste disposal and other health risks. These conditions
reduce savings and investment at the individual household, and national
levels.
Other factors affecting poverty in Nigeria include the following:
* Historically, actual and potential participants in economic activity faced
an unstable and inconsistent policy environment, which hinders the sustained
pursuit of personal or corporate economic improvement plans.
* Poor maintenance has caused Nigeria’s infrastructure to deteriorate,
increasing the cost of production and limiting opportunities for employment
growth and other means of exit from poverty.
• Nigeria’s population is growing at the relatively rapid rate of rate of
2.83 percent a year, making it difficult to increase per capita income.
The response of various administrations to the poverty problem appears to
have been largely ad-hoc and uncoordinated. A recent survey of policies and
interventions chronicles 28 federal projects and programmes with poverty
reduction thrusts. Several state governments have also put poverty reduction
schemes in place.
Programmes such as community banks, family support programmes, the National
Directorate of Employment, the Peoples Bank, Better Life for Rural Women,
and the Directorate of Food, Roads, and Rural infrastructure were
established by different governments to address various manifestations of
poverty, such as unemployment, lack of access to credit, and rural and
gender dimensions of poverty. While none of these programmes was completely
without merit, none of them had a significant, lasting, or sustainable
positive effect.
With the advent of democratic government in 1999, measures were adopted to
streamline poverty-related institutions, review past poverty alleviation
programmes, and harmonize sectoral efforts. Several major factors hindering
the success of government efforts to reduce the level of poverty were
identified. They included:
• Poor coordination
• The absence of a comprehensive policy framework
• Excessive political interference
• Ineffective targeting of the poor, leading to leakage of benefits to
unintended beneficiaries
• The unwieldy scope of programmes, which caused resources to be thinly
spread across too many projects
• Overlapping functions, which led to institutional rivalry and conflicts
• The absence of sustainability mechanisms in programmes and projects
• Lack of involvement of beneficiaries in project design, implementation,
monitoring, and evaluation
Policy thrust and targets
NEEDS seeks to significantly improve the quality of life of Nigerians,
create social safety nets for the vulnerable, and meet the needs of people
displaced by the reform process. Economic empowerment is the main focus of
the new strategy. Given that overall economic growth may not generate
poverty reduction at the desired pace, actions to facilitate individual
economic empowerment, particularly among the poor and other vulnerable
groups, are imperative.
To reduce poverty, NEEDS will seek to meet the following broad targets:
• Increase average per capita consumption by at least 2 percent a year.
• Create about 7 million jobs by 2007.
• Increase immunization coverage to 60 percent by 2007.
• Increase the percentage of the population with access to safe drinking
water to at least 70 percent by 2007.
• Significantly increase school enrolment rates, especially for girls, and
increase the adult literacy rate to at least 65 percent by 2007.
• Significantly improve access to sanitation.
Sectoral strategies
Achievement of the social sector targets depends critically on collaboration
by all stakeholders— federal, state, and local governments, as well as well
as the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the
international community. Sector-specific strategies will be developed in
2004 to ensure synergy and complementarity in the interventions of the
various actors in each of the social sectors. National councils for
education, health, environment, and other social sectors will serve as the
fulcrum for the development of such strategies, which will complement the
NEEDS document. The objectives of the sector-wide strategies are to
eliminate duplication and waste, clearly delineate roles and
responsibilities, and prioritize and cost sectoral programmes, by creating
targets and benchmarks, monitoring mechanisms, and timelines. The strategies
will address the effectiveness of service delivery in each sector.
Increasingly, public spending in these sectors wiill rely on key performance
benchmarks.
Empowering people through education
The Constitution of Nigeria gives all citizens the right to education. But
the delivery of education in Nigeria has suffered from years of neglect,
compounded by inadequate attention to policy-frameworks within the sector.
Findings from an ongoing educational sector analysis confirmed poor state of
education in Nigeria. The national literacy rate is currently 57 percent.
Some 49 percent of the teaching force is unqualified, acute shortages of
infrastructure and facilities at all levels. Access to basic education is
inhibited by gender issues and socio-cultural beliefs and practices, among
other factors, disparities persist in educational standards and learning
achievements. The system emphasises theoretical knowledge at the expense of
technical, vocational, and entrepreneurial education. School curricula need
urgency to make them relevant and practice-oriented.
NEEDS recognises education as the vital transformational tool and a
formidable instrument for socio-economic empowerment. The education sector
has responsibility for producing and supplying the personel required to
propel and sustain the NEED’s initiative. The goals of wealth creation,
employment generation, poverty reduction, and value re-orientation can be
affectively pursued, attained and sustained, only through an efficicient
relevant and functional education system. Education is critical to meeting
the goals set by NEEDS. It is also a sector that the initiave seeks to
reform.
Policy thrust
The overall policy thrust of NEEDS in education is.
* Provide unhindered access to compulsory universal basic education to all
citizens as a bridge to the future socio-economic transformation of Nigerian
society.
* Establish and maintain enhanced quality and standards through relevant
competench-based curricula and effective quality control at all levels.
* Enhance the efficiency, resourcefulness, and competence of teachers and
other educational personnel through training, capacity building and
motivation.
* Strengthen Nigeria technological and scientific base by revamping
technical, vocational and entrepreneural education and making optimal use of
information and communication technology to meet the economy’s manpower
needs.
* Provide an enabling environment and stimulate the active participation of
the private sector, civil society organisations, communities and development
partners in educational development.
Educational goals and key strategies
NEEDS sets six goals for education. The first is to ensure and sustain
unfettered access to education for the total development of the individual.
Targets for achieving the goal include the following:
• Increase the percentage of graduates of primary schools who acquire
functional literacy and numeracy to 100 percent.
• Increase the percentage of junior secondary school graduates who go on to
senior secondary school or senior secondary technical school to 80 percent.
• Increase the percentage of senior secondary school and senior secondary
technical school graduates who go on to tertiary institutions to 20 percent.
• Increase the adult literacy rate to 65 percent.
• Reduce the number of cases of examination malpractice in educational
institutions by 40 percent.
• Reduce the number of cases of cultism in educational institutions by go
percent.
• Increase to 70 percent the percentage of primary and secondary schools
that establish sustainable programmes of physical development.
• Ensure that all tertiary institutions establish sustainable programmes of
physical development.
The second goal is to improve the quality of education at all levels.
Targets for achieving the goal include the following:
• Ensure that 80 percent of primary school teachers acquire the minimum
teaching qualification (the National Certificate in Education).
• Ensure that 70 percent of secondary school teachers obtain professional
qualifications (BEd., PGDE).
• Ensure that 80 percent of teachers in tertiary institutions acquire
pedagogical skills.
• Ensure that 80 percent of teachers at all levels are professionals.
• Ensure that 50 percent of primary schools have conducive teaching and
learning environments.
• Ensure that 60 percent of secondary schools have conducive teaching and
learning environments.
• Ensure that 60 percent of all tertiary institutions have conducive
teaching and learning environments.
• Ensure that 60 percent of head teachers and assistants undergo training in
school level management.
• Establish an efficient institutional framework for monitoring, learning
and teaching process at all levels.
The third goal is to use education as a tool for improving the quality of
life through skill acquisition and job creation for poverty reduction.
Targets for achieving the goal include the following:
• Ensure that Nigerians who have completed basic education acquire the
literacy, numeracy, and basic life skills needed to live meaningful lives
and contribute to national development.
• Ensure that 50 percent of secondary school students have access to good
quality vocational and entrepreneurial education.
• Ensure that 50 percent of tertiary education graduates acquire sufficient
technical skills, entrepreneurial skills, and knowledge to be self-employed
and wealth creators.
The fourth goal is to ensure periodic review and effective implementation of
the curriculum at the secondary level to meet the requirements of higher
education and the world of work. Targets for achieving the goal include the
following:
• Complete the curricular revision exercise to reflect the dynamism of
society and emerging global issues.
• Rehabilitate vocational basic technology and resource centres nationwide.
• Establish new basic technology and resource centers nationwide.
• Produce education materials that reflect the revised curricula.
• Establish libraries and information resource centers for teachers and
students to complement formal and life-long education and create awareness
of their importance.
• Involve local craftspeople in the delivery of vocational education in
schools.
The fifth goal is to mobilize and develop partnerships with the private
sector and local communities to support and fund education. Targets for
achieving the goal include the following:
• Improve collaboration among major stakeholders.
• Achieve 80 percent community involvement in the management of schools.
• Achieve 60 percent private sector involvement in managing and funding of
education.
• Retain the 2 percent education tax and enforce 100 percent compliance.
The sixth goal is to promote information and communication technology
capabilities at all levels. Targets for achieving the goal include the
following:
• Ensure that 10 percent of primary school graduates are computer literate.
• Ensure that 80 percent of secondary school graduates are computer
literate.
• Ensure that 80 percent graduates of tertiary institutions are computer
literate.
• Ensure that 50 percent of school managers and proprietors are computer
literate.
• Ensure that 30 percent of secondary schools have functional information
and communication technology facilities.
• Ensure that 80 percent of tertiary institutions have functional
information and comunication technology facilities.
• Ensure that 50 percent of teachers at all levels are trained in computer
skills.
Strategies for achieving the goal include the following:
• Complete and harmonize all on-going educational planning programmes and
initiatives in the ministry of education and its agencies.
• Making learning and teaching environments and teacher friendly.
* Train and retrain teachers, through formal and distance learning
programmes.
* Review curricula at all levels for relevance, and make them
competency-based to meet social challenges and the needs of the job market.
* Provide adult and youth vocational centres with materials and equipment
for functional and the acquisition of occupational skills.
* Establish effective partnership and collaboration with the organized
private sector and the informal sector.
* Produce textbooks and other instructional materials to reflect the
curricula.
* Integrate local crafts people in curricular delivery to accelerate the
number of craft people and improve access to their products
* Involve parents and community leaders in the planning and management of
schools in their communities
• Set guidelines on private sector involvement in education and monitor its
implementation.
• Incorporate computer literacy in primary and secondary school curricula.
• Develop and produce curricula for teaching computer education in secondary
schools.
• Provide secondary and tertiary institutions with information and
communication technology equipment and facilities.
Tertiary education
Under NEEDS the government recognizes the critical importance of tertiary
institutions for developing high-quality human resources, especially in an
increasingly technology-driven world economy. The government also recognizes
the challenges facing these institutions, challenges that include inadequate
funding and facilities, curricula that are inadequate to meet the challenges
of nation-building, inadequate and inappropriate staffing (especially among
the lecturers), cultism, and low moral and academic standards among
students. Higher institutions in Nigeria currently depend almost exclusively
on government subsidies. The bulk of federal government spending on
education goes to tertiary institutions; state governments spend at least 20
percent of their budgets on education, mostly primary and secondary
education. Almost total dependence on the government for funding higher
education is neither practical nor sustainable. There is therefore a need
for fundamental reforms of the higher education system.
The strategy for reform includes the following:
• Strictly adhere to the provisions of the University Autonomy Act.
• Diversify funding by attracting private sector funding and considering
more appropriate pricing of facilities and services (including hostel
accommodation).
• Update and restructure curricula to meet the demands of the national
economy. Mainstream science and technology, especially information and
communication technology.
• Establish effective monitoring of public and private universities to
ensure strict adherence to standards.
• Develop innovative approaches to ensure continuing retooling and capacity
building of lecturers so that they operate at the cutting edge of their
disciplines.
• Increasingly move towards a decentralized and competitive wage bargaining
system, which promotes a performance-based reward system.
To be contd. next week
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24 2006