How we are fighting poverty, empowering Niger Delta communities – PIND

The Foundation for Partnership Initiative in Niger Delta (PIND), a Chevron funded programme, on Tuesday shared its success stories in its various interventions in the Niger Delta region to a cross section of stakeholders at the 2018 edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG 24) holding in Abuja.

Giving an insight into PIND’s activities, its Executive Director, Dr. Dara Akala, said the organization has achieved its specific objective of improving the capacity of the people of the region to fight poverty in a manner that promotes inclusive economic development.

He noted that various evaluations conducted showed that there was great improvement in the lives of the people of Niger Delta, owing to PIND’s innovative approach which has made communities in the region more independent in the way they deal issues of economic prosperity.

“Individuals and communities empowered through our projects are now able to perform their core functions efficiently and sustainably, and they develop over time such that they no longer depend on government support or donations, Dr. Alaka said.

Akala said such sustainable human capacity development goes beyond skills acquisition or development.

“It is evidence-driven, not a one-off process that requires time. It is systemic rather than individualistic and is a bouquet of mutually supporting interventions,” he explained.

He said such a human capacity development approach should be sustainable and one that identifies, inspires and empowers individuals, organizations and systems within the productive sectors to make change happen on their own, and to cascade that change among their peers such that many more adopt it and spread its benefits system-wide.

Dr. Akala said it was heart-warming to note that PIND’s interventions were yielding good results in poverty reduction and wealth creation in the Niger Delta.

According to him, the interventions have led to the emergence of business and aquaculture service providers who sell advisory services to farmers and MSMEs with over 50,000 farmers and processors recording higher yields from using improved agricultural practices introduced to them by PIND.

This year’s NESG Meeting also featured group discussions on topics ranging from wealth creation to social services, conflict mitigation and job-readiness for the youth population.

NESG is a leading private sector think-thank and Policy Advocacy group.