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progress <strong>to</strong>wards meeting the poverty reduction<br />
targets can only be based on proxy measurements.<br />
<strong>Nigeria</strong> has reduced the percentage <strong>of</strong> underweight<br />
children from 36% in 1990 <strong>to</strong> 23% in 2008. The<br />
target is 18% by 2015. The population below the<br />
national poverty line has fallen from 66% in 1996<br />
<strong>to</strong> 54% in 2004; more recent data is currently<br />
being collected. Agricultural investments, e.g. the<br />
National Special Programme for Food Security,<br />
have contributed <strong>to</strong> a doubling <strong>of</strong> production and<br />
income for farmers. Social safety nets such as<br />
conditional cash transfers have targeted over<br />
150,000 vulnerable people since 2007. Other<br />
programmes ranging from the provision <strong>of</strong> microcredit,<br />
harnessing <strong>of</strong> water resources, provision <strong>of</strong><br />
infrastructure (on-farm and others) and the<br />
development <strong>of</strong> grazing reserves have also<br />
improved animal and food production as well as<br />
reduce waste. A major challenge <strong>to</strong> this however<br />
remains expanding and deepening social safety<br />
nets for the most vulnerable within a national<br />
framework<br />
Intervention <strong>of</strong> DRG-MDGs Projects and<br />
Programmes in Poverty and Hunger Reduction<br />
Poverty and hunger reduction in <strong>Nigeria</strong> remains a<br />
great challenge <strong>to</strong> the government and other<br />
stakeholders. Deliberate efforts at achieving<br />
MDG1are made through various types <strong>of</strong><br />
interventions including funding from the DRGs.<br />
Direct poverty reduction interventions benefiting<br />
from DRGs funding include those being<br />
implemented by National Poverty Eradication<br />
Programme (NAPEP) through various schemes.<br />
Operating from the paradigm that poverty and<br />
hunger are key issues that influence the<br />
achievement <strong>of</strong> other MDGs, the <strong>Nigeria</strong>n<br />
government set up NAPEP in 2001 as its primary<br />
agency <strong>to</strong> implement poverty alleviation<br />
programmes. NAPEP‘s intervention programmes<br />
target the main challenges <strong>of</strong> the poor, which<br />
include lack <strong>of</strong> access <strong>to</strong> funds, market and<br />
information. NAPEP focuses on empowering the<br />
youths, women, and the vulnerable groups in the<br />
country. Many states in <strong>Nigeria</strong> have also<br />
established poverty reduction agencies <strong>to</strong><br />
complement the efforts <strong>of</strong> NAPEP in<br />
implementing programmes such as skill<br />
acquisition, micro-credit and other related<br />
activities for youths, women and the vulnerable<br />
groups.<br />
NAPEP collaborates with the National Direc<strong>to</strong>rate<br />
<strong>of</strong> Employment (NDE), which has the primary<br />
mandate on some <strong>of</strong> these activities. This<br />
collaboration is aimed at expanding production,<br />
improving processing and expanding marketing<br />
across the country. The DRG funded poverty and<br />
hunger reduction programmes targeted at<br />
achieving MDG1 are implemented by NAPEP<br />
through its Social Safety Nets programme. These<br />
include:<br />
The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme<br />
which targets the core poor or the<br />
disadvantaged <strong>Nigeria</strong>ns such as HIV/AIDS<br />
patients, lepers, the aged, and the physically<br />
challenged who are not normally involved in<br />
the economic development process <strong>of</strong> the<br />
country 6 ;<br />
The Multi-Partner Matching Fund (MP-MF),<br />
which is a micro-credit scheme tailored for<br />
poor <strong>Nigeria</strong>ns mostly in agriculture and other<br />
informal economic activities. Through this<br />
scheme, over N8 billion has been pooled and<br />
disbursed <strong>to</strong> various beneficiaries across the<br />
6<br />
The NAPEP CCT Programme has been applied in various ways in<br />
some states <strong>of</strong> the federation. This has given rise <strong>to</strong> a variety <strong>of</strong><br />
names such as Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) and Poverty Reduction<br />
Accelera<strong>to</strong>r Investment (PRAI) programme implemented in Kwara<br />
State.<br />
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