Despite the wealth of Nigeria’s resources, including some of the world’s largest reserves of oil, the quality of life for Nigeria’s population has been steadily deteriorating. According to USAID, the percentage of the population living below the poverty line has increased significantly over the last two decades: from 27% in 1980 to approximately 70% today.

The 2002 UNDP Human Development Report ranked Nigeria at only 152 out of 175 countries, one of the lowest levels of human development in the world. Healthcare and other government services are highly centralized with doctors and other resources found primarily in state capitals and other large towns. Lack of access to health and other services has had serious impacts on the population, with 15% of children not living to see their fifth birthday and a maternal mortality rate that is 100 times that found in industrialized societies.

Partners for Development first established operations in 1999 in the central belt of Nigeria, an area composed mainly of ethnic minorities and where poverty and malnutrition are widespread. PFD’s strategy is to combat poverty and to meet the most basic human needs of the local population through integrated programs designed to build local capacity and to increase access to services in the areas of health, agriculture, and credit.

To accomplish this, PFD works with local organizations, including non-profit, community-based, and family-based organizations, as well as representatives of relevant government structures. Partners for Development works to strengthen the capacity of these local institutions, preparing them to provide technical assistance to community-based beneficiaries in the agriculture, health, and credit sectors. PFD has conducted training sessions in financial management and reporting, participatory methods in working with rural communities, and fundamentals of small-enterprise development.

Current Programs

The United States Department of Agriculture is currently providing $7million in core funding for PFD/ Nigeria under Food for Progress agreements. The Agricultural Marketing Support Program, reaches Benue, Nassawara, and Bauchi states. All these are areas of high need and relative isolation whose populations are underserved by both the government and other aid organizations. The programs seek to increase household economic, health, and food security through micro-credit activities, NGO strengthening, agricultural training and support, and through increasing access to agricultural markets by upgrading feeder roads. The USDA funded program has a specific health focus as well, to address some of the profound health needs of the population, including HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health, and nutrition.

The Packard Foundation has provided funding to PFD/Nigeria for its program, Reproductive Health Through Women’s Micro-credit Networks in Nigeria. This program, being implemented in Benue and Bauchi states, seeks to increase partner organizations’ capacity to incorporate reproductive health education into their existing micro-credit activities and to establish links between borrowers and appropriate health care providers. The project also works to improve reproductive health services offered at selected clinics by training health care providers and by providing them with basic equipment and commodities.

The World Bank is providing funding for PFD’s Counseling People Living with HIV/AIDS project. Designed to improve health care for HIV and AIDS infected individuals, the project builds the capacity of local health care providers in counseling and other psycho-social support. PFD is creating 6 community networks that will assess the needs of local health facilities, improve the equipment available at local health clinics, improve the quality and quantity of counseling to people living with HIV/AIDS, and improve their access to services.