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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 />

Page 15 <strong>of</strong> 150

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