Solution to poverty found

The Community Driven Development approach is an effective method of reducing rural poverty and promoting development process of rural communities in Nigeria, a report by Community and Social Development Agency, which is based in Bayelsa State, has said.

The report was carried out by Dr. Edoumikeumo Gowon; Prof. Edet Abasiekong; Gun Ovuokerie and Appah Ebimobowei. The report, made available to our correspondent on Friday, focused on the impact evaluation study of community and social development projects in the state. 

It said, “The CDD approach is considered to be very effective and a major mechanism for ensuring the mass participation of rural dwellers in the poverty reduction and growth promoting development process of the country.

“This is so because all the stakeholders participate in the decision-making process of identifying micro-projects that help both the poor and the likes in reducing poverty. “The project development objective is to sustainably increase access of poor people to improved social and natural resource infrastructure services.”

The report said the inability of Bayelsa State Government to meet its financial obligation to the International Development Association (organ of the World Bank), had reduced the communities wherethe CSDP would have intervened.

Therefore, the Report recommended that in order to prevent the state government from defaulting, the World Bank should liaise with the Federal Ministry of Finance to deduct at source from their federal allocation for the counterpart funding. It believed that the strategy would help to increase timely completion of CSDP micro-projects in the state.It also recommended that the CSDA of Bayelsa  should collaborate with other donor agencies to sponsor a bill in the state House of Assembly on counterpart funding.

It urged the local government chairmen in the state to incorporate in their budgets sustenance and maintenance plan of CSDP micro-projects and replicate the CDD approach. The report said the CSDA in collaboration with the LGAs should organise workshops and training for employees.

The Managing Director, CSDA, Mrs. Oyintonyo Oboro, had said recently that the CSDP had increased the access of poor people to state’s infrastructure and incentives. She said the programme was to validate the reports of consultants that were commissioned to do the impact assessment survey on the projects in the state.

Oboro said, “We have invited a team of high- profile evaluators to examine the documents and to ascertain whether the reports represent the ongoing projects in the communities.” She commended Governor Seriake Dickson for being a community developer, who had the interest of the people at heart. “Dickson is a community developer. He was not here when the project started but he was able to clear the previous debts of N200m arrears by previous administrations,” Oboro said.

She, therefore, appealed to the state government to clear the N300m owed by the state to enable it to start CSDA2, which would cover all the communities in the state.