An advocacy and Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Policy Alert, working on economic governance, community rights and environmental justice, has called for a healthy partnership between the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), state governments and the communities saying such relationship would foster faster development of the states.
The Executive director of the group, Tijah-Bolton Akpan who made the call during a dissemination workshop it organized in Uyo to share with the public its findings from a Citizens Perception Survey on NDDC Interventions in Akwa Ibom State urged the commission to re-prioritize community participation in project decision-making and improve on its coordination with state governments in its ongoing reforms.
Explaining the rationale for the survey, Bolton-Akpan, said: “There is considerable agreement that the NDDC in its 18 years of existence, has not lived up to its mandate of ensuring speedy, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta region.
“Over the years, the exclusion of local communities from the project decision-making and monitoring chain of the Commission and weak coordination with state governments have been blamed, among other factors, for this state of affairs and we needed to test some of our assumptions in this regard, which is why we initiated this survey”, Akpan said.
Also, the Head of Programmes of the Organisation, who led the survey, Ebong Ekanem said that understanding the perspective and needs of community members before embarking on any project was important since they are the end users of the project and an onward handing over of the projects to the community would lead to sustainability.
Breaking down his findings of the Survey, Ekanem said “We found that 78 percent of beneficiaries of NDDC projects surveyed in the state felt excluded from the Commission’s budgeting processes while 59 percent of those surveyed think the Commission was not doing enough to involve their communities in project decision making, needs assessments and feedbacks.
“A staggering 85 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the speed and completion rate of NDDC projects, 71 percent were dissatisfied with the quality of jobs executed, and 51 percent were not satisfied with the spread or distribution of projects across the state, 67 percent indicated a low level of trust in the management of NDDC’s budget while 76 percent of respondents felt that the specific needs of special groups such as women, persons with disability and youth were not being considered in NDDC projects.
However, on a positive note, 63 percent of those surveyed felt that NDDC projects have had positive economic impacts on their households and communities, while 54 percent noted improvements in service delivery from the interventions.”
The organisers of the event commended the current management of the NDDC for incorporating community needs assessments and “evidence-based budget planning” in its reform agenda but challenged the Commission to “quickly walk the reform talk” by implementing the recommendations of its survey which include strengthening its state budget committee, involving community representatives and civil society in its budgeting processes, regularly publishing its budgets, contracts and quarterly implementation reports online, improving coordination with state and local governments, conducting needs assessments before initiating projects and establishing community-led feedback channels for ongoing monitoring of projects in the state.
