when money really counts: connecting communities with opportunities ndff 2012 conference...

When Money Really Counts:Connecting Communities with

Opportunities

NDFF 2012 Conference [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Pursuit of happiness

There has been too much focus on the material value of wealth as if it is an end in itself. This is to the detriment of its social value. Money has significance when it is able to provide happiness

Aristotle: What is the GREATER GOOD = Prosperity +virtue

Amina Salihu NDFF UK May 25 2012 2


can we not achieve prosperity and virtue?


• There has been undue attention paid to prosperity of the few to the exclusion of the wellbeing of the many – hence the sharp class divide, social and physical insecurity and further economic recession

• If we do not pay attention to this situation and the danger it poses even to the prosperous, we cannot have a safe world in which to grow wealth

How the Majority lives -the well crunched statistics

• Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with 160 million people of whom about 72 million live on less than a $1 a day (NBS, 2005). Despite being one of the world’s ten major oil exporters (with crude oil production exceeding 2 million barrels per day in 2006);

• Nigeria has experienced a rather disappointing economic performance over the last four decades, with minimal improvements in living standards and extensive macroeconomic instability.


The data

• Several factors including gender inequality, widespread corruption, political instability, under-investment in key infrastructure, lack of diversification, and the ‘dutch disease’ have jointly resulted in poor economic performance and lack of sustainable growth


The Data

• Since 2000, Nigeria’s economic performance has improved, with the economy currently growing at approximately 6 per cent per year. This has been attributed to a revamping of agricultural production and export but is most likely a result of the recent surge in oil prices. Oil accounts for over half of GDP, 98 per cent of exports and nearly 85 per cent of Government revenue.

• While the non-oil economy grew at 10 per cent p.a. in 2004-2007 it has not created many formal sector jobs

DFID / CIDA 2009


How the Majority lives - the less chewed people statistics

• Nigeria is among the thirty most unequal countries in the world with respect to income distribution.

• The poorest 50% of the population holds only 10% of national income.

• Though many women are involved in subsistence agriculture and off farm activities, men are five times more likely than women to own land.

• Women own 4% of the land in the North-East, and just over 10% in the South-East and South-South

• 42% of Nigerian children are malnourished. • Only 3% of girls finish a course of secondary schooling in

northern Nigeria.(British council Nigeria gender report 2012)Amina Salihu NDFF UK May 25 2012 8

People Statistics • Nationally, the maternal mortality rate is 545

deaths per 100,000 live births, nearly double the global average.

• In the rural North-East region it is 1,549 – over five times that average.

• Nearly six million young women and men enter the labour market each year but only 10% are able to secure a job in the formal sector, and just one third of these are women.

British Council / DFID Nigeria gender report 2012


• A third of 15-19 year olds in Northern Nigeria have delivered a child without the help of a health professional, traditional birth attendant or even a friend or relative

• Only 8% of women without education have used contraceptive.


The people statistics. Politics◦ Women’s contribution to household not captured in the

formal economy – so labour not recognised ◦ Women are politically under represented. The National

Assembly representation for women fell from 7% in 2007 to 5% in the 2011 election (the African average is 19%).

◦ Only 7 of 109 Senators and 25 of 360 Representatives are women

Violence Against Women (VAW)◦ Up to one third of Nigerian women report that they have

been subjected to some form of violence. One in five has experienced physical violence

◦ Nearly half of unmarried women in parts of Southern Nigeria have experienced physical violence.

◦ Most 15-24 year old women in Nigeria think it is reasonable for a husband to beat his wife if she burns the food, refuses sex or goes out without his permission


Female Candidates with a minimum of five credits (including English & mathematics)


We Need Human Footholds

• Security- social and physical

• Infrastructure: physical and human

• Opportunity for the poor

• Growing SMEs

• Sustainable policy implementation

• Access to land and other inputs

• Incentivizing broad-based participation in public life


Some footsteps in the right direction

• Decentralising power generation• Integrated transportation• Focus on SME and agriculture • Banking sector reform• Mortgage under mass housing• More women in public office • Critical laws


The weaknesses in the chain – Where are they ??

===== -----------------


The Elephant in the room• Scale of operation• lack of technical capacity• Zero risk credit institutions • the problem of ghettoisation • the ‘leaky bucket’; corruption characterised by waste,

rent seeking and misappropriation • A people with a low expectation of government • Absence of an integrated perspective to infrastructure

development• A weak attention to issues of voice and control for

women• Absence of policy continuity


What are the key social sector indicators?

• Education• Health• Livelihood • Income

generation• Political

participation and • Violence against

women British council report on gender in Nigeria

2012 www.britishcouncil.org/africa


http://www.britishcouncil.org/arica

Key pointer to accelerating development Increased purposeful

spending on physical and human infrastructure Investing in viable

environmentally sensitive alternatives

Addressing power and transportation

Support for women entrepreneurs


WO

MEN

IN N

IGERIA

Increased purposeful spending on physical and human infrastructure

More women in public life and leadership

Nurturing young entrepreneurs across generations

Reform of land holding system and agriculture

Public Office Holding (1999 – 2011)

Some Minimum Commitments?

• Banks: Access to banking halls for persons with disabilities. More flexible account opening terms for poor women

• FCT; a target to open up 10% of farmland every year with specially designed programmes for women’s participation

• Every corporate organisation pledges to design and implement an organisational gender policy

• CBN NIRSAL – A Nigeria Incentive based risk sharing system for agriculture that sets benchmarks for women’s participation. Asking the question where are the women?


• If it is smart economics to focus on women it is even smarter economics to focus on girls. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala


Conclusion: One moral Compass

• Are there many truths or just one truth? • No indeed, Truth is indivisible. So if 6 blind

people touch the elephant each verdict of its shape could be true but different yet representative of the elephant = same truth but different sides. In the same manner, there can only be one moral compass for both private and public sector



communities cannot be expected to mortgage their future for the sake of a few extra bucks for shareholders of companies. Private sector can indeed balance ambition and responsibility to all.

Happiness Economics

• Therefore business cannot see itself solely as an economic actor, which is all about the biggest market and the cheapest labour and the highest profit.

• Attention to community resources: women, children, the environment including; flora and fauna, ways of life and people’s expectations are all social issues with economic costs and benefits.

• Paying attention to them matters if business is to survive.


The Fabio Rosa & Wangari Maathai Principle

• A project only makes sense to me when it proves useful to make people happier and the environment more respected, and when it represents a hope for a better future. This is the soul of my projects”

• Thank you as you recommit to Nigeria

Six qualities of a successful social entrepreneur in Bornstein pg 339


when money really counts: connecting communities with opportunities ndff 2012 conference...

Documents

wealth slide

opportunities ndff

crunched statistics

northern nigeria

oil prices

oil accounts

crude oil production

poor economic performance