CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, HEALTH, ETHNIC HARMONY AND LIVELIHOOD DEVELOPMENT (CHHELD) IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BRITISH COUNCIL EU-ACT PROGRAM CONDUCTS VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT IN 4 COMMUNITIES IN RIVERS STATE.

The Local Government is the third level of government in every Federal Structure. It is the government at the grass root level. In Nigeria, the socio-economic and political structure of a local government area is headed by the local Government Chairman and is pre-dominantly elected by direct elections. It is the primary duty of the Local government to ensure the basic needs of the residents in the Local Government Area are being met, hence the need for carrying out a NEEDS assessment which helps to ascertain the true needs and vulnerabilities of the people in a participatory manner ensuring ownership of such projects by the people.

NEEDS assessment is a very important process that helps to unearth a community’s needs and set criteria for understanding how to best allocate available resources such as money, people, and facilities in order to improve the living conditions of indigenes and residents of targeted communities.

Sama and Ido communities in Asari-toru LGA, Obuama and Ipokuma communities in Degema LGA  in partnership with Centre for Human Rights, Health, Ethnic Harmony and Livelihood Development (CHHELD)  a Non-Governmental Organization funded by the British Councils European Union Agents for Citizen Driven Transformation programme (EU-ACT) organized a NEEDS Assessment of their communities to assess the vulnerability levels in their communities using the Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA) and Participatory Research and Action (PRA) tools. These tools allow every community member to make contributions and give feedback on the various vulnerabilities affecting them as individuals and as a group. Each group (the chiefs, men, women, youth-male, youth-female, and people living with disabilities) highlighted 5 vulnerabilities and an overall aggregate is picked based on the most occurring need across each group. This exercise was carried out by Advocates for Local Government Accountability and Transparency (ALAT) teams, a group of community persons trained by CHHELD with support from the British Councils EU-ACT programme on LGA administrative and budgetary processes with the collaboration of every stakeholder in the community; the chiefs, Community Development Committee (CDC), women, men, youth leaders and ward councillors.

The outcome from the NEEDS assessment in these 4 communities were presented to the council Chairmen of Degema and Asari-toru LGAs of Rivers State in order for these NEEDS to be included in the 2023 appropriation bill in the 2 local government areas.

Below are the 5 highlighted NEEDS from each of the 4 communities

The NEEDS of Ido Community presented to the ASALGA chairman are as follows:

1. Fencing of Community Secondary School, Ido to help forstall vandalism of school properties,Violence against women and students by cult gangs and to promote a conduceive learning environment for students.It is pertinent to note that  an NYSC member sent to that school was burnt to death and other injured as a result of the absence of the school fence which would have prevented the pepetrators to gain access to the school premises.

2. Provision of electricity prepaid metered to Ido households to aid economic development

3. Human capital development (i.e,provision of 21st century employability skills which include grants/loans for SMES, software development/digital marketing, rigging, seamanship, deep sea diving, pipe-fitting, animation, data management,etc.)

4. Medical equipment and Personnel for the health centre in Ido.

5. Provision of pipe borne water to the sandfield area of the community to reduce the scurge of waterborne diseases.

The NEEDS of Sama Community presented to the ASALGA chairman are as follows:

1. Construction of civic centre (Community Townhall)  to aid in community gatherings and contribute to community revenue.
2. Electricity (metering of houses in the community) to aid economic development
3. Renovation/construction of internal drainage in the community to reduce flooding
4. Provision of portable drinking water to reduce the scurge of waterborne diseases
5. Interlocking of the community internal roads to help forestall erosion and reduce flooding.

The Asari-toru chairman, Hon. Onengiyeofori George also highlighted the efforts made by the council in addressing two out of the five needs presented by Sama Community i.e the construction of the Sama community civic centre and electricity (metering of houses in the community). The ASALGA council has taken steps to engage contractors to survey and draw proposed building plans for the Sama community civic centre. By the next fiscal year, the contract for the construction of the civic centre will be awarded. It is also worthy of note that the ASALGA chairman has also metered the transformers distributing electricity in the local government area. These actions taken by council were confirmed by the Community Development Committee (CDC) chairman of Sama community, Mr. Brown Inyokpo.

The NEEDS of Ipokuma Community (Degema consulate) presented to the DELGA chairman are as follows:

1. Construction of 3 modern public toilet to reduce open defecation and the hazards that come with open defecation
2. Construction of consulate conference centre to provide a conducive environment for social and other lawful gathering in the community and increase communities revenue.
3. Human capital development (that is provision of 21^st century employability skills which include grants/loans for SMES, software development/digital marketing, rigging, seamanship, deep sea diving, pipe-fitting, animation, data management),etc.
4. Rehabilitation/construction of internal drainage system in community to reduce flooding in the areas which include the junior staff quarters, high court quarters, correctional service quarters, etc.
5. Installation of solar street lights to drastically reduce blackout in order to discourage criminality at night.

The NEEDS of  Obuama community presented to the chairman are as follows:

1. Construction of a standard market (lock-up shops) to bolster commerce and increase community revenue
2. Construction of public toilets in the community to reduce open defecation and the hazards that come with open defecation
3. Rehabilitation/construction of internal drainage in the community to reduce flooding.
4. Human capital development (I.e,provision of 21^st century employability skills which include grants/loans for SMES, software development/digital marketing, rigging, seamanship, deep sea diving, pipe-fitting, animation, data management,)etc.
5. Construction/extension of existing corpers’ lodge in the community as the present one is not able to accommodate the number of corpers sent to the community schools.

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