COMMUNIQUE FROM THE IACD NIGERIA CONFERENCE

The Communiqué of the 4th National Community Development Consultative Conference/Workshop Organized by the International Association of Community Development (IACD) Nigeria, Held at the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences (FEES), Bayero University, Kano – Nigeria on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th November 2017

The International Association of Community Development (IACD) Nigeria, organized a two-day

4th National Community Development Consultative Conference/Workshop with the theme:  Strengthening State-Third Sector Engagement for Sustainable Community Development. The Conference provided a platform for robust interaction where the state of the partnership between the government and the third sector was intensively examined with a view to charting a way forward for community development, in line with the sustainable development goals.

The Conference drew participants from different parts of the country within the public sector, the private sector and the third sector. These include the academia, the Federal government and Kano State government officials, local government employees, students, non-governmental organizations, members of the press, and the general public. A total of 180 delegates participated in the deliberations.

The Conference was declared open by The Head Civil Service of Government of Kano State ably represented by Director Establishment matters. The Keynote/Lead paper titled: State-Third Sector Engagement – Challenges and Opportunities, Health Sector Perspective was presented by Dr. Magashi Garba who set the pace for the stimulating contributions that marked all the sessions. In 10 concurrent technical sessions, 37 exciting and thought provoking papers were presented by experts from various fields and were carefully deliberated upon.

The participants appreciated the organizers of the conference for rendition of such an opportunity.

Observations

A number of observations were made by the Conference as follows:

  1. There is over-dependence on the governments for sustainable development issues even though no government at any level can shoulder these responsibilities completely.
  2. There is an urgent need to augment governments’ efforts through active community participation in the process of governance from decision and policy making through policy implementation to projects/programmes monitoring and evaluation and culminating into project/programme sustainable maintenance.
  3. There exists a wide gap between the state and the third sector in terms of relationship and engagement.
  4. There is remarkable failure to alleviate poverty in the country.
  5. There is lack of needs assessment before embarking on development issues.
  6. The third sector suffers from lack of financial independence, with dwindling opportunities to fund sustainable development projects.
  7. The third sector faces threats of some government policies as a result of the instability of the Nigeria’s policy environment which hinders effective partnership between the public sector and the third-sector.
  8. There exists inadequate synergy amongst the third sector actors.
  9. The third sector suffers from insufficient staff and poor management (especially financial records).
  10. Peace building and conflict prevention initiatives based on community based strategies seems to be grossly inadequate in the face of global terrorism challenge

Recommendations

The interactive conference/workshop then proffered recommendations as follows:

  1. The state and the third sector should be strategically engaged in a mutual relationship that will strengthen the foundation of sustainable development emanating from the grassroots.
  2. Community development standards and qualifications needs to be carefully developed and strengthened based on global best practices and to ensure clear understanding of state-third sector partnerships as well as addressing SDGs
  3. Community developers should articulate the needs and aspirations of the vulnerable people (children, women and physically challenged), the poor and the elderly.
  4. Engagement should be by all stake holders (philanthropists, CBOs, partners, etc.).
  5. Measures/mechanisms to tackle donor dependence should be strategized through community mapping.
  6. Government should develop and formulate a clear cut policy on almajiri education in the country. So as to strengthen opportunities for lifelong education towards SDG 2030
  7. Curricula should be modified and strategized to incorporate guidance and counselling vis-à-vis vocational training for youths to dislodge their orientations for white-collar jobs and salary earning endeavours.
  8. Projects and programmes whether by the governments or NGOs should not only emanate from the grassroots but also be divested to the grassroots (communities) for maintenance and sustainability.
  9. Stakeholders should be made to understand the value of collaboration, cooperation and coordination.
  10. The third sector should be made to exhibit deep sense of accountability and transparency.
  11. There should be adequate sensitization for the collaborators on their respective roles.
  12. The third sector should be involved in adoption of improved agricultural technologies
  13. Awareness should be created on the dangers of deforestation so as to address climate change issues.
  14. Everyone should be a stakeholder in environmental protection and community development.
  15. Good governance should be promoted and the culture of continuity should be projected.
  16. Community peace building activities should be intensified. Violence must be curtailed right from the family unit by all and sundry and which must be reflected in the community based institutions.
  17. There should be emphasis on monitoring and evaluation for donors to be interested in funding the third sector projects/programmes.

Members of the Communiqué Group:

  1. Lawan Jibrin Magaji
  2. Alhaji Tijjani Garba
  3. Joseph James Mbavai
  4. Nura Ibrahim Mukhtar
  5. Muhammad Shehu Hussain