Through its advocacy campaigns and interventions across Akwa Ibom State since 2007, the Family Life Enhancement Initiative (FLEI) has emphasized the role of the family in sustainable development. Koko udonquak looks at how FLEI’s focus on the family is contributing to the state’s efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs ).
Twelve years ago, world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight ambitious goals for combating major problems such as hunger, disease, illiteracy, and gender discrimination. More than 180 nations, including Nigeria, agreed to pursue the goals and meet specific targets in fifteen years. Since then, the MDGs have become something of a rallying cry for development efforts at all levels, from the local to the global.
Twelve years ago, world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight ambitious goals for combating major problems such as hunger, disease, illiteracy, and gender discrimination. More than 180 nations, including Nigeria, agreed to pursue the goals and meet specific targets in fifteen years. Since then, the MDGs have become something of a rallying cry for development efforts at all levels, from the local to the global.
Akwa Ibom State has been no exception. The current administration has left an undeniable trail of social infrastructure and human capital investments everywhere in the state; leaving development pundits in little or no doubt on the state’s potential to meet the MDGs within the given timeframe.
Grace and Glory, three-year old twin daughters of Mrs. Magdalene Okon, are typical beneficiaries of such an alternative. They were born preterm in 2009. Just two years before, the General Hospital where the twins were born did not have the equipment to handle such cases and infants born with complications there had rather slim chances of survival. But the Okon twins were fortunate, thanks to incubators and other special medical equipment donated by Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, wife of the Akwa Ibom State Governor to some hospitals in 2007.
Those were, perhaps, the earliest signs of Mrs. Akpabio’s passion for improving maternal, infant and child health. Clearly not oblivious to Nigeria’s poor ranking on the global charts, she was determined to leave a mark by working to ensure safe motherhood for women and their babies in Akwa Ibom State, in line with MDGs 4 and 5. Since then, her vehicle for social change, the Family Life Enhancement Initiative (FLEI) has driven various interventions in this direction.
For instance, recognizing that multiple birth cases are at higher risk of maternal and infant death, FLEI has provided cash support, insecticide treated mosquito nets and personal care supplies to several hundreds of multiple birth mothers from across the state. The quarterly multiple birth events are also used as a platform for sensitizing mothers on maternal health, child nutrition and care. So far, over 3,000 multiple birth families have been positively impacted. Grace and Glory, mentioned at the outset, also benefitted from this intervention, further enhancing their chances at life.
Somewhere in Ikot Inuen, Oruk Anam Local Government Area, another family is being touched in a different way. On April 4, 2012, Mrs. Helena Dominic Udom, a widowed mother of four, received the keys to a new, fully furnished, two-bedroom bungalow. She also received a one hundred thousand naira start-up grant to begin a business of her choice.
But life had not always been this way. With no farmland of her own, Helena used to move from one farm to the other, looking for work to buy food for her family. When she lost her husband six years ago, two of her children dropped out of school to help her with the menial jobs. The family lived in a mud hut with crumbling walls and leaking roofs. “Each time it rained” says Ekopima, Helena’s eleven year-old daughter, “we had to stay awake all night, scooping out the water and praying to God that the house should not cave in on us.” She added with tears in her eyes: “Most nights we went to bed hungry. But today, we thank God that we have a house of our own. Now we can go back to school and live a decent life like other children.”
The Udoms’ new home was a gift from Mrs. Ekaette Godswill Akpabio. Since 2007, over 70 families from every local government area of the state have benefitted from FLEI’s Shelter Support Programme, which provides decent housing alternatives for poor and marginalized families. At one of the inauguration events recently, Mrs. Akpabio justified the intervention in this way: “I believe that the provision of adequate housing for the poorest of the poor, especially these poor widows, is an essential step towards taking them out of poverty.”
The housing interventions at once respond to MDG number 7, which addresses environmental sustainability, while also dealing with the first three goals relating to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, primary education and empowering women.
Each year, over 500 individuals, mostly women, but also youths and persons with disabilities, receive equipment and grants from FLEI for small business start-up or expansion. Women farmers receive farm equipment to expand production. The interventions have a huge ripple effect on the quality of life of beneficiaries’ families. Out-of-school children resume schooling, child nutrition is improved and family health needs are met.
Another remarkable programme of FLEI is its work with children. Mrs. Akpabio’s persistent advocacy led to the passage of the Akwa Ibom State Child Rights Act in 2008. Since 2007, an estimated 10,000 children and young persons who otherwise would have been on the streets are currently benefitting from the state’s free and compulsory education scheme. FLEI has directly reconnected over 3,000 of these kids with their families or with professional foster care.
Other planks of FLEI’s work include HIV and AIDS, and promotion of women’s participation in public life. The latter has yielded huge results as seen in the rising numbers of women assuming public leadership positions in the state, a positive report for the state’s efforts towards MDGs number 3 on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
How successful are these programmes in terms of the MDGs? Mrs. Asuama Sydney, Coordinator of FLEI, answers: “Our programmes are deliberately tailored towards achieving the MDGs targets. For instance, we’ve contributed to the targets on basic education by taking several hundreds of children from the streets to the classrooms. Similarly, our multiple birth programme has been widely hailed as a very successful model for reducing maternal and child mortality.”
Mr. Steve Akpan, Governor Akpabio’s Special Assistant on MDGs agrees. “The Governor’s wife has successfully mainstreamed the MDGs into the programmes of the Family Life Enhancement Initiative with very high impact.” He adds: “Her work on provision of shelter and economic livelihoods for widows and vulnerable families, child rights, reduction of maternal and child mortality and many other areas is basically what the MDGs is all about and will help the state maintain its lead towards achieving the goals by 2015.”
Mrs. Akpabio sees the work of non-profits like hers as being complementary to what government is doing. “With all the challenges facing the formal establishment” she observes, “it is easy for some social issues to slip into the backseat within the regular government programmes. And as each day passes, we lose time to achieve the MDGs.”
It was this need that motivated her to establish FLEI in 2007 as an alternative, non-governmental vehicle for delivering social goods and services to otherwise excluded constituencies. The organisation has a stated mission “to work for the empowerment of the family unit by linking disadvantaged individuals and groups with the tools, opportunities and values they need to overcome social disadvantage and unlock their potentials”.
In line with its stated mission, FLEI was soon to become a channel for redirecting the focus of development efforts on the family as a strategy for achieving the MDGs. Mrs. Akpabio put the connection this way: “The family is the basic unit of society, so we cannot achieve the MDGs if the family unit is not empowered.”
Also worthy to mention is MDGs - CCT, the MDGs Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme is a component of the social Safety Net of the Federal Government aimed at improving the lives of the extreme poor in Nigeria. It is a community-driven development approach designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability. It entails providing a monthly welfare stipends of five thousand naira (N5,0000) to the extreme poor households (particularly those households parented by women, a disabled person or a minor) on the condition that children of basic school age in those households attend school, pregnant women in the households attend full antenatal.
The MDGs – CCT is conditional because the benefiting households would be required to meet the above conditions to continue to benefit from the scheme. As an exit strategy; within the 12 month period of the scheme, a member of each household would be trained in any skill that would enable the household continue to generate the N5,000 at exit. A take-off grant of N100,000 is also payable to each household to invest in the skills acquired. This laudable and impactful scheme is designed to help Nigeria meet goals 1, 2, 4 & 5 of the MDGs.
In Akwa Ibom State, the objectives of the CCT are in tandem with the vision of the Family Life Enhancement Initiative of Her Excellency, the wife of the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, in addressing the social problems of inequality and poverty amongst these categories of the poor. Hence the scheme is nick named: Family Life Conditional Cash Transfer.
The Benefitting Communities and the Selection Processess.
Under the 2012 MDGs Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme, 24 State in Nigeria including Akwa Ibom State were selected to implement the pilot scheme. From the National Poverty Mapping Exercise conducted around the country, five (5) local government areas with the highest poverty index (HPI) in Akwa Ibom were selected for the pilot scheme.
These are: Udung Uko 75.8%, Nsit Ibom 50.0%, Etinan 39.8%, Okobo 36.7%, Uruan 35.8%.
Five (5) wards in each of these 5 LGAs were also selected for the 2250 benefiting households. However additional 25 benefitting households have been selected through Family Life Enhancement Initiative to complement the efforts of the NGO in addressing the social problems of inequality and poverty amongst these categories of the poor. This brings the total number of benefitting families in Akwa Ibom State to 2,275.
Score Sheet (MDGs Akwa Ibom State). 2008-2012
MDGs have actively worked at ensuring that the 18 targets and 48 indicators enshrined in the 8 time-bound and measureable goals are actualized come 2015.
Improving Maternal Health and Reducing Child Mortality
Some rural communities still face the challenge of accessing primary health care services. The burden becomes even more alarming for pregnant women and children. MDGs over the period have constructed twenty seven (27) new primary health care centres and renovated one hundred and eight (108) to scale up access to health care services in the rural communities.
Basic drugs have been donated to all facilities in eight (8) local government areas while obstetric care and gynecology equipment have also been donated to one hundred and fifteen (115) primary health care centres across the state. Mobile clinics fitted with up-to-date equipment have been donated to health care centres in Orukanam and Nsit Ubium to enhance service delivery.
In addition, twelve (12) staff quarters have been constructed to enable round-the-clock service in the health centres. These interventions have provided better and prompt health care services especially in times of emergency.
Education: MDGs in Akwa Ibom has made significant progress in this regard. Six (6) new blocks of classroom have been constructed and twelve (12) renovated. Books and other learning materials have also been supplied to schools. De-worming programmes were carried out in school for children especially in the rural communities to enable them stay healthy.
Water and Sanitation: Water is essential to life and economic development. One Hundred and Seventy Four (174) Solar Power boreholes have so far been constructed across the state to provide portable water for several communities. This has helped to prevent water borne diseases amongst the rural poor. The facilities also enabled rural poor households supplement their income through productive activities – fish farming, poultry, and vegetable farming.
One hundred and three (103) Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) toilets have been constructed in schools and public places. This has boosted sanitation and prevented diseases.
MDGs Akwa Ibom by its activities has scaled up its programs through strong partnerships with the three tiers of government. Such partnerships have improved the living conditions of the people and strengthened the economic empowerment of rural families enabling them to lead more fulfilling lives. The MDGs Family Life CCT. As expected would lift these 2275 households from poverty into a lifestyle of self-sustaining income generation that would contribute to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Under the leadership of His Excellency, Chief (Dr) Godswill Obot Akpabio (CON), Akwa Ibom State has witnessed unparalled political and socio-economic developments through the administration’s Uncommon Transformation. This imitable agenda has engendered confidence and growth. There are strong indications that with the current policy environment, Akwa Ibom State in 2015 would meet most of the goals in the MDGs namely: Goal 2 – Achieve Universal Primary Education, Goal 3 – Achieve Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, Goal 4 – Reduce Child Mortality, Goal 5 – Improve Maternal Health and Goal 7 – Attain Environmental Sustainability. The State has the potential to also meet the remaining 3 MDGs namely, Goal 1 – Poverty Eradication, Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS and Goal 8 – Develop a Global Partnership for development.
With barely a year to the final review of the MDGs in 2015, time is indeed running out on the world to meet the goals, and hope can at times be in short supply. But in Akwa Ibom State, one woman is quietly restoring hope, helping government to score the goals, one family at a time.
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