Niger Delta Human Development Report - UNDP Nigeria - United ...

Background
Overview
The Niger Delta produces the oil wealth
that accounts for the bulk of Nigeria’s
foreign earnings. Paradoxically, however,
these vast revenues from an international
industry have barely touched the Niger
Delta’s own pervasive local poverty. This
has spurred formidable challenges to
sustainable human development in the
region, particularly as conflicts over
resources tighten their often vicious grip.
Development experts and policy makers
have engaged in many debates about the
delta’s human development dilemma, questioning
why abundant human and natural
resources have had so little impact on poverty.
Why do conflict and youth restiveness
simmer despite years of development
interventions? What should be done to
calm the situation? How can environmental
sustainability and poverty reduction be
achieved given continued extraction of oil
and gas resources? What path leads towards
sustainable human development?
These questions, among others, constitute
the driving force for preparing this Human
Development Report, the first for the
Niger Delta. It analyses the various dimensions
of the human development challenges
in the region, with a particular focus on
women and youth, and proposes a peoplecentred
development agenda grounded in
the region’s natural and human capital.
The imperative for a new development
agenda arises from the fact that past development
planning efforts have failed to
adequately address the region’s needs. The
result has been disillusionment and frustration
among the people about their increasing
deprivation. They have seen one
government-sponsored development
agency after another, without any significant
changes. Instead, their physical envi-
ronment has been deteriorating at an
alarming rate, which hinders economic
prospects and harms human well-being.
Local people in the delta are acutely aware
of how much wealth oil can produce. Oil
and gas alone have generated 40 per cent
of Nigeria’s national GDP over recent
decades. Between 2000 and 2004, oil accounted
for about 79.5 per cent of total
government revenues and about 97 per
cent of foreign exchange revenues. Within
the delta, a few oil companies and individuals
appear to be flush with cash.
But for most people, progress and hope,
much less prosperity, remain out of reach.
Instead, misdirected resources, inappropriate
policy frameworks and a poor ‘visioning’
of what development should look like
have destabilized their societies, and stoked
deep and proliferating concerns. If unaddressed,
these do not bode well for the
future of Nigeria or an oil-hungry world.
The Human Development Situation
The Niger Delta region, as covered in this
report, includes all nine oil-producing states
in Nigeria (Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa,
Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and
Rivers states) with a total land area of
about 75,000 square kilometres and 185
local government areas. The region
contains the world’s third largest wetland,
with the most extensive freshwater swamp
forest and rich biological diversity. Over
half of the area is criss-crossed with creeks
and dotted with small islands, while the
remainder is a lowland rainforest zone.
Difficult topography encourages people to
gather in small communities—of the
estimated 13,329 settlements in the region,
94 per cent have populations of less than
5,000. These are rural communities, which
Vast resources from an
international industry
have barely
touched pervasive
local poverty.
The imperative for
a new development
agenda for the
Niger Delta arises
from the failure of
past development
planning to meet
the needs of the
people.
Instability in the
Niger Delta does not
bode well for the
future of Nigeria or
an oil-hungry world
NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1