Drawing Water and Building Trust
For as long as there has been a Tajimi community, the women have walked long distances to fetch water. Retrieving water from afar for cooking, bathing and other daily activities was not only time consuming, but also increased the chances for disease from open, polluted sources. It was critical to find a way to bring clean water directly to the community.
In September 2001 the World Bank, in partnership with the African Development Bank and the Nigerian government, began Nigeria’s Community Based Poverty Reduction Project (CPRP). The project was the first government-funded community driven development (CDD) project―that is, the community creates, implements and maintains the project. The CPRP was also meant to strengthen local governments and build peoples’ confidence in their local agencies.
Hearing of the CPRP, the Tajimi community approached their local government for support in building the much-needed water source. The people held community-wide meetings to coordinate the project, and then submitted their proposal to the local government agency. After approving the project, the agency offered administrative support and disbursed CPRP funding to the community. The funding was received in three disbursements, which Tajimi used to hire a contractor, gather materials, and build their water source.
Initially, the Tajimis—as many communities―were skeptical of their government partners; but trust grew as work together continued. As one agency official, James Odiba, pledged, “The government must be considerably transparent and rules must be kept.” With firm guidelines on funding, neither communities nor officials could alter the assignment of funds. Odiba said that the government is working to “keep every promise.”
Such promises have so far enabled more than 1,600 communities to successfully complete school, road, health, water and electricity projects, all within 11 to 18 months.
The Community Based Poverty Reduction Project began in six Nigerian states: Abia, Ekiti, Cross River, Kebbi, Kogi, and Yobe. The government began the project with a public awareness campaign, most notably radio spots that addressed communities in a “how can we help you?” manner.
CPRP is funded through a $60 million World Bank credit, with an additional $36 million from the other partners. Disbursements are monitored and managed by the Nigerian National Planning Commission (NPC), which is responsible for providing the financial and administrative support directly to communities. Each community is given funding based on their project costs. Of that funding, at least 80 percent must to go directly to the project, while only 20 percent can be used for administrative purposes.
The communities have used CPRP to their advantage. Currently, 93 percent of the original World Bank credit has been disbursed, totaling over $55 million. More than 2.5 million people have benefited from 2,000 plus CDD projects.
|
RSS