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

NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT
Chart 1.7: Types of Household Toilet Facilities
Source: National Demographic and Health Survey 2003.
an area of 583 square kilometres. A single
facility serves an average of 48 settlements.
Poor access to health care reduces people's
quality of life and increases their poverty.
CONCLUSION AND PREVIEW OF
THE REPORT
This chapter has clearly shown that an
income-centred development paradigm
would be grossly inadequate to deal with
the varied and complex development
challenges facing the peoples of the Niger
Delta. In failing to address the human
development needs of the region, past
development planning efforts have resulted
in disillusionment and frustration about
deepening socio-economic deprivation and
environmental devastation. The peoples of
the Niger Delta have seen one governmentsponsored
development agency after
another come and go, without any
significant changes in their lives or in the
quality of their delicate physical
environment. There is clearly a need for a
new development paradigm that makes
people the centre of all development goals
and actions.
A people-centred or participatory approach
to development planning and management
involves people's active participation in
decision-making on issues that pertain to
their livelihoods and interests. This helps
people to realize their potential and play
an active role in the social and economic
transformation of their different
communities. A people-centred
development paradigm would help not only
to achieve the goals of physical and socioeconomic
development, but also to
empower the local people, who are
undoubtedly the most important factor in
the development process in the Niger Delta.
Chapter two of this report provides an
account of the human development status
of the Niger Delta region. It examines
poverty scenarios, with the aid of associated
metrics and graphics-including the human
development index (HDI), the human
poverty index for developing countries
(HPI-1), the gender-related development
index (GDI) and the gender empowerment
measure (GEM)-and looks at disparities in
the incidence of poverty by location and
group. The chapter also assesses the region's
progress towards achieving the MDGs.
The focus of chapter three is the
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