MAMA Centre, VOICE Nigeria unveil baseline data on abandoned livelihood road projects

As part of the underlying activities under the project, conducted a baseline study titled ‘Abandoned Livelihood Road Projects Accountability and Participatory Budgeting: Baseline Study of Udi Women/Rightsholders in Udi Local Government, Enugu state’, with primary objectives to:

• Establish key indicators for the Accountability for Empowerment (A4E) project against which the project progress and impact will be measured;
• Determine, analysis and report, through evidence-based quantitative and qualitative data on how abandoned road projects in Udi Local Government of Enugu state negatively impact the rural women/rightsholders’ access to livelihood; and
• Ascertain the skills possessed by the rightsholders and capacity needs for effective policy and legislative engagements on the abandoned livelihood projects.

MAMA Centre observed the urgent need for a concentrated study on how abandoned road projects in Udi Local Government of Enugu state negatively impact the rural women/rightsholders’ access to major markets. This baseline study is critical to understanding the existing capacity possessed by the rightsholders to demand accountability on the abandoned road projects from their state government. It is also paramount to ascertain the level of awareness and capacity possessed by rightsholders as well as their rights to demand accountability and active participation in budget process. The baseline report and its recommendations were leveraged in monitoring progress and impact of the project.

Presenting the scope of the report at a town-hall meeting, the Director Legal, MAMA Centre, Barr. Ola Onyegbula, noted that the study covered seven (Ngwo-Asa, Ngwo-Uno, Opkatu, Obioma, Awhum, Umuaga, Amokwe) out of 23 wards in Udi Local Government Area.

On socio-economic activities of Udi Local Government, she said: “Basically, agriculture plays an important role in Enugu state’s economy; yams, oil palm products, taro, corn (maize), rice, and cassava (manioc) are the main crops.

“Enugu, the state capital, is a major centre for coal mining. Iron ore also is mined, and deposits of limestone, fine clay, marble, and silica sand are worked.

“Industries include textile manufacturing, food processing, lumbering, soft-drink bottling, brewing, and furniture manufacturing.

“A network of roads connects Enugu town with Awgu, Ezzangbo, and Nsukka. Enugu also is linked by the eastern branch of the Nigerian Railways with Port Harcourt, and it has an airport.

“In the area of occupation, inhabitants of Udi Local Government Area are predominantly farmers.

“They involve in agricultural activities such as cultivation of cassava, palm oil, yams, cashew trees, stringed beans, vegetables, oil beans, tropic fruits and assorted agricultural products.

“Udi LGA is widely known for the “Uneke Achime” which is the local name of the area’s high-quality palm wine with a cluster of the area’s residents engaging in palm wine tapping.

“Trade also flourishes in the LGA with the area hosting several markets such as the Orie Agu and the 9th mile modern market where a variety of commodities are bought and sold. Other important economic activities that take place in Udi LGA include farming and crafts making.”

She added: “Like many women around the world, women in Udi Local Government perform unrecognised and unremunerated work such as caring for children and relatives, running the household, informal jobs, organising cultural activities and acting as teachers within their communities.

“Apart from these roles, Udi women are key agents for community development.

“They play a catalytic role towards achievement of transformational economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development.

“But limited access to enabling livelihood projects and empowerment opportunities are among the many challenges they face.

“These are further aggravated by the continued neglect of abandoned livelihood projects like accessible roads with potential to enhance their agricultural productivity, marketability and profitability for socio-economic empowerment and self-stainability as well as community development.

“MAMA Centre observed that empowering Udi women is essential, not only for the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities, but also for overall economic productivity, given women’s large presence in the agricultural workforce in the Local Government.

“This informs MAMA Centre support for the leadership and participation of Udi women in shaping policies and programmes on all issues that affect their lives, including improved food and nutrition security, and better rural livelihoods.

“More importantly, hundreds of Udi small-holder farmers (majorly female-headed) are currently spearheading a silent revolution towards self-reliance through critical contributions to agricultural productivity, which has proven to be an effective poverty alleviation intervention in enabling marginalized women to become economically independent.

“The progress is however, hampered by inaccessible roads linking communities to major commercial markets within the Local Government; as women are not able to sell their farm products.” she highlighted.

“MAMA Centre strongly expects and demand inclusive participation in the implementation of livelihood projects. Inclusive participation in this regard is the process by which marginalised groups in communities assume responsibility for their own welfare and develop capacity to contribute to their own and the community’s development by being involved in the decision-making process, in determining goals and pursuing empowerment issues of importance to them.

“This fundamentally defines the target-led MAMA Centre-Udi rightsholders Accountability for Empowerment (A4E) project supported by OXFAM-Voice Nigeria.

“MAMA Centre observed that while public discussions in most occasions stress the need for involvement of communities in the project planning and implementation, they are silent on the method of bringing the marginalized groups of people or individuals for example the less empowered and informed.

“Underlying activities under the project are targeted at inclusive/participatory planning, participatory implementation, participatory monitoring and participatory evaluation of communities in livelihood projects.

“In this case, participatory planning includes marginalised groups’ (vulnerable women/rightsholders) participation in situation analysis, needs assessment, mobilization of resources, budgeting and timing, while participatory implementation is referred to their inclusion in the implementation of livelihood projects.

“Under this study, livelihood is adopted as a set of actions involving securing water, food, medicine, housing, outfit and the ability to gain the above necessitation for meeting the materials of self and a rightsholder’s household of a sustainable basis and dignity.

“It is ownership, accessibility, social capital, income generating activity and awareness (informed decision) and community participation,” she added.

“MAMA Centre confirmed that Udi communities are not openly and substantially involved in the budget process, and their level of knowledge regarding the government’s goal in citizen participation in the budget process is low.

“Consultations are held with communities basically at implementation stage, when Environmental and Social Impact Assessment are conducted to ascertain and communicate the potential impacts to the affected communities.

“On the level of engagement with the Udi communities, the rightsholders disagreed with the existence of instances of budget input occurring early in the process, participation being open to large numbers of people, and representatives of the community.

“They also denied understanding goal of citizens’ participation in budgetary process.

MAMA Centre observed gaps in the level of knowledge among the rightsholders regarding citizen participation in the budget process and right to know allocated sums to livelihood projects in their communities.

“It is also noted that there is a limited number of interventions by Civil Society groups on communities’ participation in budgeting at the state and local government levels.

“On community participation, MAMA Centre noticed that transparency alone is not sufficient for improving implementation of projects, and inclusive community participation is crucial for realizing the positive outcomes associated with greater budget transparency and accountability.

“While participatory budgeting at community levels focuses on promoting social justice, transparency and accountability by providing the government with community-oriented information and facts that improve financial efficiency, the rightsholders indicated little or no knowledge of the goals of government in the budget process.

“This from the finding is triggered by the absence of engagement or a low level of engagement at the community levels,” Onyegbula recounted.