ECID in Nigeria

Where we work

Nigeria has the highest number of people living in extreme poverty globally (87 million). High levels of poverty and a huge gap in inequality contribute to increasing levels of social exclusion. What’s more, excluded groups are most likely to be the poorest who become less able to access basic services.

Power dynamics within the policy process and lack of evidence used in planning result in services which rarely favour the poor. Therefore, a shift to rational decision-making processes based on data as evidence is essential.

Health, education, agriculture, and infrastructure are critical areas to achieving socio-economic development in Nigeria. In addition, key issues of service delivery revolve around many aspects which include;

poor citizen engagement in decision-making,
limited access and poor quality of services,
exclusionary nature of services,
policies and legislation,
lack of data or statistical information about marginalised groups,
lack of government accountability in spending and policy.

ECID in Nigeria

We aim to contribute to reducing poverty and improving the wellbeing of over 200,000 people. We are focused on the most excluded groups; adolescents, poor rural women and people living with disabilities in Kaduna and Anambra States.

These groups have identified the services that they want to be prioritised in the programme as health, education, agriculture and infrastructure.

Our approach

We are supporting civil society organisations and marginalised groups to collect and use data about their experiences. This can be used as evidence for engaging with government and decision makers about service provision.

Marginalised groups are also being empowered with the skills and knowledge to participate in policy and decision-making to effectively meet their needs.

Case study

Hope for joy

“I don’t know how to write my name” declares Joy Meze, from Anambra state.

When Joy was at school, teachers often did not conduct lessons. Describing one teacher she said “If he comes to the school, he takes all of us to his farm to plant yam, okro and pepper. We will be there till the closing hour.” She said, “There was only one teacher as others would not travel on the treacherous roads to Nmbato.”

Years later, this community is still facing the same challenges, creating a cycle of poverty they can’t break.

Although Joy finished her primary education, due to her experience and lack of significant classroom teaching, she felt it would be a waste of time going to secondary. She is determined to speak out about the condition of education wherever she has the opportunity.

“Anywhere they said we will go and talk about the condition of Anambra West in terms of education, I will go because they are the ones that made me an illiterate”.

We are working with people like Joy to ensure their voices are heard and considered by service providers.