In our last article, we looked at the first goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via the prism of African Youth Growth Foundation (AYGF’s) performance, we established the nexus between the hydra-headed monster called poverty and other key areas of life. In continuation and conclusion of that topic, we take a step further to discuss the Nigerian government’s action plan, how it has been able to help so far and what is left to be done.

This course of action will put all of us; the government, private sector and charity organizations on the same page in this all important and decisive fight against poverty.

We must all know that charity is not a cure for poverty. The burgeoning poverty in Nigeria and Africa is beyond impulsively handing a few currency notes to indigent individuals from time to time. We must create a sustainable means of initiating, maintaining, transferring poverty alleviation programs that deliver real, visible and positive outcomes. 

While the goal is to eradicate poverty in totality, we may start by plucking the low hanging fruits of alleviation and mitigation. Aspects of poverty include low income, low savings, low investments, low productivity, inadequate education for production and managerial activities, climate change, poverty caused by violence and diseases.

The World Bank in its 1990 report on poverty eradication suggests that a holistic approach in solving the issues of poverty would be on three fronts. 

1. Economic growth that generates employment and incomes for the poor (Labour) 
2. Development of human resources (education, health and nutrition) of the poor which allows them to exploit the opportunities created by economic growth. 
3. Establishment of a social safety net for those among the poor who are unable to benefit from the economic growth and human development opportunities due to physical and mental disabilities, natural disaster and civil conflicts.

The report also goes further to emphasize that after all the strategies have been contrived and rolled out, the deciding factor is political will.

To this end, the Federal Government of Nigeria has been on its toes in rolling out policies and programs, all targeted at giving the people a better life. It is noteworthy that the issue of poverty eradication is not to be left to one party alone. It requires all hands to be on deck. 

One of the most recent programs rolled out against poverty by the Federal government is the National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP) which was kickstarted in 2001.

The program was designed to reduce absolute poverty in Nigeria. Its goals include to train youths invocations trades, to support internship, advance micro credit to entrepreneurs in the SMEs and create employment, especially for the youths, in the automobile industry.

The Goodluck Jonathan administration also initiated the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P) which had, among its other objectives;

• Provide jobs for unemployed graduates through internship programs.
• Create a database for the unemployed youths.
• Reduce vulnerability among the unemployed youths through the mechanism of the policy.

The scheme which was established in January 2012 aimed at cushioning the effects of a hike in the prices of petroleum products, particularly the price of the premium motor spirit. In all of these and many other projects to eliminate poverty, 100+ Nigerians are currently poor. Like the world bank posits in its report, the beneficiaries were not poor. The poor are often left out as a result of the following.

1. Poor policy formulation, coordination and lack of sustainability strategy. Most policies end on paper. They are not followed, supervised and monitored by the relevant authorities. Thus, as soon as a project is commissioned, the executors abandon it.
2. The three tiers of government; federal, state and local government do not, in most cases, collaborate on how to get optimum satisfaction from any project. Sometimes, conflicts of interests are recorded as a project proceeds.
3. The poor for whom the projects are carried out are usually excluded in its planning, implementation and evaluation. Thus, the need assessment in pre planning a project is zero. In some cases, the government locates a totally needless project in a particular society. For instance, where rural electrification is an urgent need, roads are being constructed.
4. Traditional leaders and the local communities are also excluded. Their needs are left out of the poverty alleviation or eradication plans.

AYGF’s Model And Policy Suggestions

At the Africa Youth Growth Foundation, we set the world best practice solutions for the problem.

One of the problems with delivering results in a project is the exclusion of relevant stakeholders in the planning process. If that is minimized, there would be less incidences of misplaced projects. For instance, AYGF’s major strategy is to conduct a need assessment in the prospective location of a project.

The relevant questions are asked through a direct communication with the prospective beneficiaries on what their scale of preference is. The result of this method gives a tailor-made solution to the needs of the people.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, hiring the best hands at every stage of the process of the project helps to ensure timeliness, credibility, sustainability and effectiveness. This is a situation aptly described by putting square pegs in square holes. For instance, AYGF would go to any length to hire staff who are fit to implement a particular project. Sometimes, consultants of repute are enlisted to not only tell how to do it, but when and to whom it should be done, in order to achieve maximum results. 

A project may have been deemed finished. But are the beneficiaries satisfied? The theory of production considers a production process to have failed if the consumer is dissatisfied with the output. To avoid this, AYGF gathers feedback from the beneficiaries in order to ascertain the level of their satisfaction and also for impact assessment. This is in order to ot create another problem while trying to solve one.

In conclusion, only the end users of the product of a project are the ones to give the right and credible assessment. 

Poverty is dangerous. Let us all fight it together with a sincere determination.

Alexander Agbo is of the Policy Research and Advocacy Office, Africa Youth Growth Foundation, Abuja.

StreetReporters.ng

This post has already been read at least785 times!