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What northeast Nigeria needs now

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted a discussion on February 13 about risks and resilience in Nigeria as well as the way to advance nutrition and security. The panel included Adesoji Adelaja, Professor at Michigan State University and Fellow at Wilson Center, Dina Esposito, Vice President of Technical Leadership at Mercy Corps, Philip DeCosse, Vice President of Chemonics, and Greg Collins, Deputy Assistant Administrator and Resilience Coordinator at the US Agency for International Development.

Adelaja explained the fact that it is taking some time for Nigeria to recognize the significance of resilience, countering violent extremism, and economic development strategies as ways to transform conflict. Much of the focus in the past was on the military approach, overlooking the socio-economic root causes. Since coming to power four years ago, the current government did its utmost to deal with those issues, but security and economic problems are still there. Adelaja stressed the importance of educating leaders who make critical decisions on stabilizing society, investing in think tanks, and empowering NGOs. With their support, Adelaja suggests, the government will be ready to face those challenges.

Many businesses left because of the conflict in the northeast of Nigeria. Internally displaced people do not have the capacity to continue their businesses. Others have just relocated and are ready to move back if the security conditions improve. According to Adelaja, the rebuilding will cost billions of dollars as schools, water systems, and delivery mechanisms need to be reestablished.

Just back from northern Nigeria, Esposito spelled out the Mercy Corps resilience and risk assessment, which identifies how people cope and adapt in crises settings. There is still a huge reliance on old and new social networks like family, friends, and savings groups. People are relying much more on local markets than on government or NGOs to survive, making incentivizing and stocking the markets a crucial element in building resilience. Young people in Nigeria are asking for access to education, employability, startup capital, access to information, and personal mobility as ways to create flourishing businesses.

Regarding the resilience of the market, DeCosse spoke about the challenges in convincing players to move to conflict zones. He stressed the importance of the large private sector investors, but also smaller enterprises in revitalizing the local economy. He said that tremendous efforts had been made in trying to figure out how risk reduction can happen in conflict zones, and whether microfinance is the most feasible approach, or it is time to start thinking of establishing banks. With the experience available, DeCosse suggested a combination of information technology and outreach agents as well as working with banks to address the challenges.

Representing Feed the Future organization, Collins perceived what is happening in Nigeria as part of a broader phenomenon manifested in other countries in the Sahel such as Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Somalia.  Perennial humanitarian risks are a development challenge. Without development, little progress will be made in northeast Nigeria. People who escape poverty end up falling into poverty again due to their exposure to a range of stresses and shocks like climate change, environmental degradation, population growth, and conflict volatility. In Ethiopia, from 1999 to 2009, 60% of the people fell back to poverty and in Kenya 40% over a similar period. Instead of access to financial services and markets, Collins suggested a diverse, comprehensive portfolio to address the problems in northeast Nigeria and elsewhere by combining different sectors like health, conflict and governance, water and sanitation, etc.