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

Box 6.1: Sustainable Livelihoods
Sustainable livelihoods must be accompanied by industrial diversification and economic growth, and grounded in
several capital assets fundamental to the development of communities. These include:
• Natural capital: Natural resource stocks from which resource flows useful for livelihoods are derived (land,
water, wildlife, biodiversity, environmental resources, etc.)
• Human capital: The skills, knowledge, ability to labour and good health important to pursuing different
livelihood strategies.
• Physical capital: The basic infrastructures (transport, shelter, water, energy and communities), and the
production equipment and means that enable people to pursue livelihoods
• Social capital: The social resources (networks, membership groups, relationships of trust, access to wider
institutions of society) upon which people draw in pursuit of livelihoods
• Financial capital: The financial resources (whether savings, supplies of credit or regular remittances or
pensions) that supply people with different livelihood options.
Source: Carney 1998; Scoones 1998.
The lack of work
correlates to the highest
incidences of youth
restiveness and conflicts.
The discovery of
petroleum shifted
attention from
agricultural and rural
transformation to urban
industrialization and
the extraction of
petroleum resources with
serious repercussions for
livelihoods
rural transformation. Substantial resources
poured into agricultural facilities, basic
education and primary health care. This
was the period when agricultural settlement
was established in many parts of Nigeria.
The Western Region served as the
benchmark for free education, agricultural
settlements, industrial development and the
promotion of small-scale industries, among
other things. Regional advantages were
given serious consideration, so groundnuts
were cultivated in the north, cocoa in the
west, and rubber and palm oil in the east.
The discovery of large stores of petroleum
shifted attention to urban industrialization
and the extraction of these resources.
People were pulled from rural areas to
urban centres, which widened gaps between
the two. Agricultural productivity
plummeted, while urban areas began
suffering from strains on infrastructure,
unemployment and a proliferation of
social vices. The Government’s inability to
promote balanced development during the
oil boom has had serious repercussions for
livelihoods.
Sustainable livelihoods require people to
have access to economic activities,
especially employment. The link between
employment and sustainable livelihoods
derives from the second aspect of human
development, which emphasizes the use
people are able to make of their acquired
capabilities for employment, productive
activities or leisure. In the Niger Delta,
available data show that formal and
informal sector activities are generally at a
low level, meaning that access to
employment and other economic activities
is limited (table 6.1).
Except for Abia, Edo and Ondo states, the
unemployment rate is much higher in the
region than the national average. 1 Similarly,
the underemployment rate is generally
higher, except in Edo, Bayelsa and Abia
states. A particularly disturbing dimension
is the incidence of unemployment per
household. For example, 5.8 per cent of
households have one to two dependents
without a job, 15.3 per cent have three to
four dependents without a job, and 72.5
per cent have five or more dependents
without a job (DPC, 2001). A high level
of unemployment increases the
dependency ratio, which worsens poverty.
Data from the NDDC (2005) portray the
same pattern of findings on
unemployment. The lack of work, as a
good direct measurement of
unemployment, has been most markedly
pronounced in Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa
states, which also have the highest incidence
1 The figures for Edo State in the table cannot be realistically interpreted as a reflection of the rate of unemployment. For example,
a survey from the Federal Office of Statistics that defined the labour force age bracket as 15-70 years (rather than the 15-64 years used
by the International Labour Organization) reports a composite unemployment rate of 14.3 per cent, an urban rate of 24 per cent and
a rural of 11.8 per cent for Edo State. For Cross River State, the figures are 16.6 per cent, 7.3 per cent and 18.3 per cent, respectively.
130 NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT