The Nigerian state putting communities in charge

This is Part 1 of a two-piece series on community-led development in Nigeria. In Part 2, we meet the communities stepping in and pooling their resources to fill the gaps left by the government in local hopsitals. ENUGU STATE, Nigeria — It was mid-2018 when Ndubuisi Eleje, town crier for the village of Ogbozalla Opi in southeast Nigeria, called his community to the village hall for a meeting. The purpose was to discuss their collective development priorities. “When we met, our traditional ruler allowed us to speak our mind about the kind of project we wanted,” smallholder farmer Eleje recalled. “[The] majority said they wanted a hospital because we have to drive for more than one hour to another community when we are sick.” Their small rural hospital is now on the verge of completion, with six rooms and a corrugated iron roof — built by local youth thanks to a program initiated by the Enugu state government known as “Visit Every Community.” “The beauty of VEC is that it started with a top-down approach but then reversed to a bottom-up strategy when it was clear that the people had tested it and enjoyed it and ... took ownership.” --— Eric Oluedo, program manager, VEC This decade-old initiative — recently renewed with increased local leadership — is an effort to move away from the conventional top-down approach to addressing the needs of low-income communities. It launched in 2009, with 17 teams who visited over 470 communities in Enugu to find out what they needed most, before reporting back to the state government on how to allocate resources. From electricity to health facilities, to schools, civic centers, access roads, and bridges, the waves that VEC created are now rippling across Enugu — and beyond. One simple question: What do you need? Despite being Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria is struggling to provide adequate health care, education, and basic services for its rapidly growing population. Yet when funds are dedicated to public projects, factors including corruption, a lack of accountability, and a failure to consult communities about their needs mean they frequently end up failed or abandoned. A survey by the Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria found there were about 56,000 abandoned public projects nationwide as of 2017, estimated to be worth 12 trillion naira ($35.7 billion). “Lack of needs assessment is one of the greatest problems we are having and, as a result of this, we have a high number of abandoned projects across the country because these are projects that do not meet the needs of the people,” explained Damen Ilevbaoje, head of Tracka, a web-based platform that works with citizens to monitor public projects and spending in Nigeria. Ilevbaoje recalled the example of an agrarian community in northern Nigeria whose representative at the National Assembly had nominated them to host a bus terminal. “When they started the overpriced project, the community wasn’t even aware of what it was all about; it was upon completion that they discovered what it was,” he said. “Now the project has been abandoned because the community doesn’t need it.” It was problems such as this that prompted Enugu’s state government to introduce VEC, pinpointing the most urgent needs in collaboration with communities, which would then be worked into government budgets to be executed by ministries. VEC’s “success lies [in] the huge number of projects that have been successfully completed and the low record of failed public projects in Enugu state,” said Igboke Onyebuchi, project manager of the Advocacy Partnership for Good Governance, an NGO that works with government to improve oversight functions and helped to facilitate community participation in VEC. “The road network is there as a testament and so are newly built markets, schools, hospitals, and rural electrification projects.” In 2016, VEC was given a new lease of life, with greater control handed to communities to implement the projects themselves. Under the new arrangement installed by state governor and former federal lawmaker Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, each community in the state would receive 10 million naira, disbursed in two instalments. The VEC team again visited the more than 470 communities to engage them and identify two priority needs each. “The beauty of VEC is that it started with a top-down approach but then reversed to a bottom-up strategy when it was clear that the people had tested it and enjoyed it and ... took ownership and are now demanding for it,” explained Eric Oluedo, a former commissioner of rural development who has managed the program from the start. The first tranche payments of 5 million naira were sent out to community-managed bank accounts last year, enabling communities to start small projects which are decided at village meetings. It’s typically a heated debate, said Onyebuchi. “This meeting usually [is held] in town halls, markets or village squares. You will see women calling for health centers, schools, water, and markets, or youth demanding electricity and vocational training centers, or the more elderly community members asking for roads and civic centers,” he said. These are groups of people who may not have been consulted on their priorities or permitted to speak about them before, he said. Allowing full community participation forces the group to assume ownership of the project — meaning they can and will fix projects when problems occur, and know who to hold accountable if things go wrong, Onyebuchi added. When projects go wrong VEC has inspired similar projects elsewhere, with delegations visiting from other states to learn about the model. In neighboring Anambra, the state runs the “Community Charter of Demand” initiative, under which communities submit their priorities to state authorities, who then decide which are eligible for funding. But despite its successes, VEC has its shortcomings — chief of which is that the current system does not facilitate strict monitoring and compliance. One example is the community of Oduma Achara. In late March, youth leaders organized a huge protest against their traditional ruler and the president of the town union, both of whom they accuse of misappropriating the first tranche of the development fund. Angry villagers waved placards bearing demands to “return our community funds.” “During our meeting, we agreed that we will use the money for electricity, so until our leaders use it for that purpose, this community will remain in crisis,” Moses Njoku, one of the youth leaders behind the protest, told Devex, his clenched fist banging a plastic table. But both the accused deny the allegations, saying they are waiting for the second tranche payment to complete the project, and state authorities are yet to intervene in the situation. While advocates say local implementation under VEC makes it more accountable than other development initiatives which are implemented at the national level, there is still a long way to go. “Monitoring and evaluation needs to be strengthened; if not, the aim of this laudable initiative might be defeated,” Onyebuchi said, calling for the use of community-based monitors who would ensure that projects are implemented and any instance of misappropriation reported to the state authorities. More importantly, VEC needs to be backed by local legislation so that it is no longer left at the discretion of the state governor, he said, which makes it vulnerable to delays and changes of leadership. That would help guarantee funds for the program; establish a more detailed process for when and how those funds are released; and improve transparency and accountability, with formalized sanctions for any misuse of funds. In Ogbozalla Opi, Eleje and other residents in the village talk with a deep sense of pride about the health facility they built. They are now waiting on the second instalment of funding to finish it off, which — following recent elections and a renewed administration — is expected any time from June. Staffing and medical supplies will be the responsibility of the state government. “I will be the first person to come here for treatment when it is completed,” the father of three said. “As you can see we did not [mismanage] our money like some other communities, so it would be good if the government can do anything to help us complete this project.” Read Part 2: Communities come to the rescue of Nigeria's local hospitals