In spite of some concerns that the Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP) might be a failure, the programme has been re-evaluated and it has recorded significant success stories by lifting many beneficiaries and their dependants out of poverty.
The CBNRMP is an integrated agriculture and rural development programme aimed at improving the livelihoods and living conditions of at least 400,000 rural poor households in the Niger Delta region, targeting women and youths in particular.
The programme, whose implementation started in 2006, is partly financed with a 15-million-dollar loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), while the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is also providing a total of 19 million U.S. dollars.
The programme is being implemented over a 10-year period at a total cost of 84.8 million U.S. dollars.
The nine states in the Niger Delta region — Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers — as well as the benefiting local governments and communities were expected to contribute the balance of the project’s cost via a counterpart funding arrangement.
After nine years of its implementation, however, the supervision mission, regularly undertaken by IFAD officials and their consultants as well as Federal Government officials, viewed the programme as not having made any noticeable positive impact.
They attributed the development to the non-payment of counterpart funds by the partners, especially the local governments.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
The programme managers blamed the lapse on the unfavourable funding ratio allocated to the third tier of government by the programme’s designers, who believed that the local government councils, being closest tier of government to people at the grassroots, ought to contribute significantly to the programme’s funding.
In accordance with the specified guidelines, the non-payment of counterpart funds made it impossible for the programme managers to draw down on IFAD funding.
The poor funding arrangement also necessitated the scaling down of the programme’s coverage during the mid-term review of April 2011.
Consequently, the programme’s coverage was downsized from the initial 80 local government areas, which involved nine local government areas in each state and a total of 243 communities, to 51 local government areas and 153 communities currently.
However, the release of funds by NDDC thereafter somewhat rekindled the programme implementation processes, as the programme’s beneficiaries and managers embarked on novel approaches which turned the programme around significantly within six and half months.
To date, the programme has been able to draw down about 96 per cent of IFAD funds, courtesy of the release of funds by NDDC and the payment of counterpart funds by few states.
With barely six months to the programme’s completion date of Sept. 30, 2015, the status implementation report was presented by the National Programme Coordinator, Mrs Irene Jumbo-Ibeakuzie, at the 17th Supervision Mission, the last of its kind.
Jumbo-Ibeakuzie listed the programme’s areas of success as capacity building, infrastructural development and establishment of sustainable agricultural enterprises, using available natural resources, among others.
“Its achievements are enormous, as youths were trained in entrepreneurial agriculture such as bee-keeping, plantain cultivation, cassava and vegetable farming as well as fishery, goatery, piggery, poultry and snail farming,’’ she said.
She, however, identified one of the challenges facing the programme as the non-payment of counterpart funds by states and local government councils.
Besides, Jumbo-Ibeakuzie noted that the 45-per-cent funding ratio allocated to local government councils was too difficult for the councils to bear.
To avoid such pitfalls in future donor-assisted programmes, she said: “I will advise that in future intervention programmes, IFAD should limit local government funding to only taxes and rent.’’
All the same, an analysis of the livelihood intervention revealed that the programme has midwifed the establishment of 3,764 group-based and 3,461 individual-based agricultural enterprises.
It showed that the programme has also facilitated the establishment of the Commodity Apex Development Association (CADA), an institution building model for adequate rural governance and decentralisation of resources to communities and commodity associations.
According to the programme, CADA is a platform for knowledge-sharing and replication of best practices within communities, for members and non-members alike.
The association is also expected to serve as an entry point for IFAD and other development partners into communities in future donor-assisted programmes.
In addition, the programme has also initiated the Youth In Agriculture Foundation (YIAF), a scheme designed to promote youths’ interest in agriculture and peer review among youth agro-entrepreneurs, while promoting and supporting youth innovators who are creating sustainable enterprises.
Under YIAF, youths in the nine benefitting states are equipped with entrepreneurial skills for self-reliance through job and wealth creation schemes.
“The platform enables the youths to engage in policy dialogue with government on agriculture and make requests from the government and other institutions on matters affecting agri-business,’’ the programme authorities said.
Jumbo-Ibeakuzie said that these institutions and platforms would ensure the sustenance and sustainable development of enterprises developed under the programme, particularly after the exit of IFAD.
Some of the beneficiaries of the programme spoke of the positive impact of the programme on their lives.
Ogbonnaya Uko, a 35-year-old Estate Management graduate, who embraced fish farming after years of fruitless search for a job, said that he had eight workers on his payroll, each getting a N10,000 monthly salary.
With proceeds from his farm, Uko said that he had bought a car, while building his own house and training his siblings in school at the same time.
He said that he had set up other fish production chains, apart from training youths in his neighbourhood on fish farming.
Similarly, Kingsley Nwaogu, a 29-year-old graduate of Animal Science from Amizi community in Ikwuano Local Government of Abia, who started his bee-keeping business (Apiculture) in 2013, said that he had been generating about N12 million every year from the business.
He said that with his appreciable income, he had been able to enrol for a Master’s degree programme, while expanding his business operations to include product packaging and branding.
Nwaogu said that he has also established a world-class bee-keeping rural farm/skills acquisition centre, which had trained 17 entrepreneurs while producing other bee-based products.
“It is my desire to transform my remote community to a honey exporting zone as well as a tourist destination, as we have them in Israel,’’ he added.
Assessing the performance of the programme thus far, Dr Ben Odoemena, the Country Programme Officer of IFAD in Nigeria, said that the programme had achieved its primary goal of reducing poverty among the rural population in the Niger Delta area.
He said that the programme had recorded tangible results in the areas of capacity building, infrastructural development and development of entrepreneurial businesses to enhance wealth creation, while provoking interest in agri-businesses, particularly among young graduates in the area.
“Agro-based enterprises have effectively institutionalised enterprise promotion in most of the local government areas, communities and families of the rural poor.
“The IFAD programme has succeeded in making huge impact on income generation and productivity, and it has promoted competition in the value chain.
“Recently, an impact study showed that 286,000 paid jobs have been created through the ownership of enterprises.
“This IFAD programme has empowered youths, as members of households now have access to over one million naira profit per annum.
“The income base of beneficiaries in the programme is quite above the stipulated minimum wage and also above World Bank benchmark of two dollars per day,’’ he said.
Odoemena observed that one of the outstanding beneficiaries of the programme now had a bee-keeping enterprise which generated an estimated profit of about N12 million per annum.
He, nonetheless, noted that training in the application of improved agricultural methods was critical to the successes recorded by the programme.
Odoemena stressed that the programme had been very advantageous in efforts to fast-track the development of the Niger Delta region.
He, however, urged the participants and programme implementers to ensure the documentation of all the experiences and lessons learnt in all the phases of the programme in a very transparent manner.
Mr Oyesola Oyebanji, who represented the Director, Rural Development Department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at the opening of CBNRMP’s 17th Supervision Mission in Port Harcourt, lauded the programme for its achievements and urged other donor-assisted programmes to learn from the CBNRMP example.
Oyebanji, who is also a Consultant to the National Programme for Food Security (NPFS), described the programme as unique in the sense that it was the only donor-assisted programme funded by two major financiers — IFAD and NDDC.
He, however, underscored stressed the need for sustained efforts to consolidate on the feats recorded by the CBNRMP, as the programme would soon wind up. (NANFeatures)