FROM 23 - 26 OCTOBER 2002

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) organized a planning meeting for its Poverty Eradication Project held in Abuja from 23 ? 26 October 2002. The project, which is a part of a wider programme titled CDD policy dialogue series, is intended to translate the notions of participation and ownership in the poverty eradication process into realities of engagement in terms of participation of poor people in poverty analysis and prioritisation of public policy/actions. The meeting was attended by academicians, lawyers, leaders of civil society organizations, Government officials responsible for poverty alleviation and poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) and the media.

Papers were presented by Prof. S. Alubo (Director of Research, Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies) Jos; Prof. Dora Shehu of Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; Ms Kemi Williams of DFID, Nigeria; Dr. Festus Iyayi of University of Benin and Dr. F. L. Osunsade, Macroeconomic Adviser to the Federal Government and Chairman of the Guidance Committee on the PRSP process in Nigeria.

The meeting observed that:

1. Poverty in Nigeria is massive, widespread, multidimensional and multifaceted to which goes beyond, income poverty and requires a committed, coordinated, logistic and appropriate response from the people and Government of Nigeria.

2. Central to the PRSP framework is the expectation that it should not only be locally generated and owned but developed through a wider participatory dialogue between the government and civil society and reflecting the voice of the poor in poverty and policy action.

3. The methodology of conducting poverty studies must of necessity include different strategies and approaches but must involve the poor in the process.

4. It is ironic that Nigeria, which is the 6th largest producer of oil in the world, harbours the third largest number of poor people only after India and China.

5. Our understanding of poverty should include social, cultural, political and historical dimensions.

6. Globalisation, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and Neo-liberal policies have exacerbated poverty in Third World Countries including Nigeria.

7. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process in Nigeria offers the Nigerian people an opportunity to interrogate the policy process that produces poverty and engage the whole gamut of governance, accountability and budgeting in Nigeria.

8. Previous and present poverty reduction programmes in Nigeria have failed because they are top-down approaches that did not involve poor people in their conceptualisation and implementation leading to misplaced priorities.

9. Women and Children constitute the bulk of poor people in Nigeria and there is the need to implement gender redistributive policies that have a focus for youth.

The meeting describes poverty to be:

A state of deprivation in the means needed to sustain life at some level of human dignity. The means needed to sustain life is some income level that guarantees access to the basic necessities of life at a reasonable level. The basic necessities of life include food, shelter, clothing, education, health, personal security or safety, clean environment and productive work.

The meeting approved a research methodology which included:

1. Selection of 16 states of the federation to focus on during the study.

2. Recognition of the challenges of conducting participatory poverty studies and means of overcoming them.

3. Adoption of a format for reporting the results of the research, and

4. A standard set of questions for the Focus Group Discussions (FGD).

The meeting called on the Federal Government to implement the following to eradicate poverty in Nigeria:

1. Empower the poor by increasing the capacity of poor people to tackle poverty

2. Build alliance with poor people and committed experts in the conceptualisation; implementation, monitoring and evaluation of poverty alleviation programmes.

3. Create the enabling environment for the implementation of pro-poor policies and institutions and medianism to formulate and implement such policies.

The meeting called on State and National Assemblies:

1. To conduct public hearing on annual budget where the civil society can input into the budgetary process.

2. To formulate pro-poor legislations that will lead to poverty eradication in Nigeria.

3. To derive the budget and budgetary provisions from assessments of the needs and priorities of the poor as conducted by the poor.

The meeting called on Civil Society Organizations:

1. To engage the PRSP process being led by the Federal Government.

2. Mobilize local communities to engage elected official at all levels of governance particularly at the local level to ensure good governance and accountability.

3. Form a Network of Civil Society Organizations on Poverty Eradication.

4. Calls on CDD to lead the way in formulating an alternative model PRSP for the people of Nigeria.

Dr. J. ‘Kayode Fayemi 

Director, CDD Co-ordinator, 

Mr. Otive Igbuzor

CDD Poverty Eradication Project.

Dr. (Mrs.) P. O. Donli Dr. Festus Iyayi

Member, Communiqué Committee Chair, Communiqué Committee