National management of socio-economic development

Despite the country's natural wealth, the civilian government of Nigeria has inherited problems of economic decline, deepening poverty and inadequate capacity for socio-economic management.

• Executing agency: UN/DESA Division for Social Policy and Development
• Senior advisor: Mr. Olympios Christou Katsiaouni
• Start date: 1 June 1999
• Partners: Government of Nigeria
• Total budget: USD 120,250

Nigeria, one of the richest and most populous countries in Africa, currently ranks 146 out of 174 countries in the UNDP listing of the Human Development Index. A relatively low life expectancy, at 50 years, a gender uneven adult literacy rate, 68.5 percent for men and 50.8 percent for women, and a low per capita income, at US $ 315, are all indicative of its low level of development despite its rich resources. Growth of output has not only been low, on average 2.5 percent annually between 1975 and 1995, but inadequate to prevent declining living standards. Indeed, per capita income for Nigerians was higher in 1975, at US $ 350 perhead, than in 1998, at about US $ 315 perhead. Official Development Assistance (ODA) has declined from US $ 263 million in 1991, to US $ 202 million in 1997 - that is from about US $ 33 dollars, to about US $ 25 dollars per head for the period. By comparison population is estimated to have increased from 57 million in 1975 to about 104 million in 1997, while poverty is estimated to affect over 40 percent, or some 60 million, of this populous country. The proportion of population without access to health services, 33 percent, safe water, 51 percent, and sanitation 59 percent, are all unacceptably high. This, in brief, is the challenge and key parameters that the new civilian Government of Nigeria has inherited, and aims to overcome with the support of its international partners.

Programme focus and support from DESA

The programme on National Management of Socio-Economic Development, NIG/98/100 was designed against a background of economic decline, deepening poverty and inadequate capacity for planning and socioeconomic management. The overall objective of the programme is to promote an enabling environment, and support institutional development, to achieve the required key social and economic objectives including a significant reduction of poverty. In particular, the main programme objectives are to :

- Support efforts to improve development planning and decision making through strengthening national and sectoral information in key socio-economic areas;

- Enhance capacity for better coordination and mobilization of external assistance; and

- Support efforts to enhance good governance and gender responsive development.

Government and UNDP invited UN-DESA to provide key advisory services to the National Management for Socio-Economic Development programme, through a Support for Technical Services Project, NIR/99/013, which includes monitoring and evaluation. Thus, the key areas of support from UN-DESA will be technical guidance, advice and expertise in the substantive aspects of the operations of the programme, assistance in reviewing training plans, and establishing a system for effective monitoring. These are challenging tasks, spread over three years, 1999-2001, which cover the entire duration of the programme.

THE BROADER PICTURE

With the recent return of democracy, and civilian government, in Nigeria expectations are naturally high. This programme as a partnership of Government, UNDP and UN-DESA, with the civil authorities firmly in the lead, aims at addressing some of the key concerns in the area of socio-economic development. The way that it pursues its objectives, through gender sensitive initiatives and high participation from civil society, as well as the attainment of those objectives will be the true measure of its success.