The World Bank-assisted Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) has requested the Akwa Ibom Government to pay its N500 million counterpart fund for the control of erosion in the state.
Dr. Iniobong Ene Essien, Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Environment and Mineral Resources
The NEWMAP National Project Coordinator, Alhaji Salisu Dahiru, made the request on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 in Uyo at the launch of project in the state.
Dahiru’s submission appears to be in line with major resolutions of the National Council on Environment (NCE) held from October 16 to 18, 2017 in Abeokuta, Ogun State that states interested in keying into NEWMAP should make the contribution. Similarly, they (the states) are to provide 12.90% of total cost of the project as well as make available base line data of erosion sites in their states.
Salisu said in Uyo that, so far, the state had paid only N50 million out of the N500 million counterpart fund for NEWMAP activities.
He added that payment of counterpart fund was necessary to boost the tempo of NEWMAP operations in the state.
He noted that NEWMAP came into being following the failure of several agencies of government to address erosion problems in the country.
The NEWMAP coordinator, however, said Akwa Ibom, earlier listed among the second phase of NEWMAP intervention activities, was on the verge of surpassing the pioneer states in the project intervention.
He commended the state government for making efforts to map out erosion sites across the 31 local government areas of the state with aerial photographs.
The state governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, who launched the project, promised to support it by fulfilling the conditions for its successful implementation.
The governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr Moses Ekpo, urged communities benefitting from NEWMAP intervention to cooperate with the project team.
He said Akwa Ibom was in dire need of support from the World Bank because of its peculiar environmental challenges such as perennial flooding and gully erosion.
“I want to assure the World Bank that as a state that is faced with several environmental challenges, we will endeavour to meet the prerequisites to enable the state to benefit from financing.
“I have directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the state as represented in NEWMAP Steering and Technical Committees to give the project the necessary support,” Ekpo submitted.
In his address, the state’s Commissioner for Environment, Dr Iniobong Essien, said a total of
1,000 critical gully erosion sites had been documented in the state.
Essien said the execution of control measures in identified erosion sites across the 31 local government areas of the state would gulp N150 billion.
The commissioner said the State Steering and Technical Committees for NEWMAP were inaugurated in February this year.
Essien added that, so far, NEWMAP had identified 10 critical gully erosion sites for immediate intervention in the state.
He disclosed that affected households would need resettlement to allow full implementation of the palliative measure and permanent intervention in line World Bank guidelines.
The launch of NEWMAP intervention was done at Etim Umana in Uyo, one of the critical gully erosion sites in the state capital.
Other severe sites in the state capital included St.Luke’s Hospital gully erosion sites and IBB Avenue flood site.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, says that the Federal Government is partnering with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) to implement a Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) initiative in Nigeria.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)
Fashola disclosed this on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at the commemoration of the 2017 “World Habitat Day” and “World Cities Day” by the Ministry with the themes: “Housing Policies: Affordable Homes” and “Innovative Governance, Open Cities” respectively.
While the World Habitat Day is observed on every October 2, the World Cities Day is celebrated on October 31.
Fashola noted that the ministry has been undertaking urban renewal and slum upgrading programmes as a key strategy to encourage housing delivery and improve living condition of the people.
“This initiative has been adopted by the UN agency as a sustainable way of addressing the salient issues and challenges of slum situation in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, we are fortunate to benefit from it.
He said that at the instance of the international agency, three cities, namely Karu in Nasarawa State, Ifako-Ijaye in Lagos state and Onitsha in Anambra state have been profiled.
He listed other states, which have further adopted the PSUP initiative and successfully profiled some of their cities as Kastina, Yobe, Rivers, Osun, Ondo, Kogi.
“Nigeria is at the second phase of the programme, which involves implementation of prioritised projects to alleviate slum conditions in profiled settlements,” he added.
He regretted that the housing deficit in Nigeria has continued to increase despite the implementation of various housing policies and programmes in the past.
According to the minister, urbanisation has forced millions of citizens, who cannot afford decent homes to live in slums, squatters’ settlements and marginal lands at the suburbs of cities.
He noted that the urbanisation coupled with dwindling resources to manage the cities posed daunting development challenges in Nigeria urban centres, adding that it has resulted to un-equitable distribution of development.
Fashola said part of the responsibilities of the ministry and its parastatals were to grow the housing and urban development centre harnessing its potentials for sustainable development.
He said necessary machinery has been put in place to start a housing revolution through the innovative nationwide National Housing Programme.
The minister noted that the programmes pilot implementation stage has already created opportunities for 653 contractors, 13,680 direct jobs and 41 indirect jobs.
“To complement these efforts, we have activated the roadmap for Nigeria’s Housing and Urban Development Sector and were in the process of producing a strategic National Physical Development Plan,” he added.
In an address, the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing (2), Suleiman Zarma, said that this year’s event was unique because Nigeria was celebrating the World Cities Day for the first time since its inception in 2014 by UN.
Zarma noted that the commemoration afforded an opportunity to appraise and review efforts in improving shelter and living conditions of citizens.
He urged all stakeholders in the human settlements sector to work in partnership with the ministry to achieve sustainable development and provide affordable homes.
The UN Assembly on Dec. 17, 1985 adopted every first Monday of October annually as the World Habitat Day for a thorough reflection globally on the state of the towns and cities and basic rights to adequate shelter.
The United Nations General Assembly designated October 31 as World Cities Day, by its resolution 68/239. The Day is expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanisation, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanisation, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.
On the eve of the World Hepatitis Summit in Brazil, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports increasing global momentum in the response to viral hepatitis. A record three million people were able to obtain treatment for hepatitis C over the past two years, and 2.8 million more people embarked on lifelong treatment for hepatitis B in 2016.
Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of WHO’s Department of HIV and Global Hepatitis Programme
“We have seen a nearly five-fold increase in the number of countries developing national plans to eliminate life-threatening viral hepatitis over the last five years,” says Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of WHO’s Department of HIV and Global Hepatitis Programme. “These results bring hope that the elimination of hepatitis can and will become a reality.”
Hosted by the Government of Brazil, the World Hepatitis Summit 2017 is being co-organised by WHO and the World Hepatitis Alliance. The Summit aims to encourage more countries to take decisive action to tackle hepatitis, which still causes more than 1.3 million deaths every year and affects more than 325 million people.
“We cannot lose sight of the fact that last year 194 governments committed to eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030. For sure we are still a long way from this goal but that doesn’t mean it’s some unattainable dream. It’s eminently achievable. It just requires immediate action,” says Charles Gore, President of World Hepatitis Alliance. “The World Hepatitis Summit 2017 is all about how to turn WHO’s global strategy into concrete actions and inspire people to leave with a ‘can do’ attitude.”
“Brazil is honoured to host the World Hepatitis Summit 2017 – and welcomes this extraordinary team of experts, researchers, managers and civil society representatives to discuss the global health problem posed by viral hepatitis,” says Dr Adele Schwartz Benzaken, Director of the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s Department of Surveillance, Prevention and Control of STIs, HIV/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis.”Brazil is committed to taking recent advances in its response to hepatitis forward – on the road to elimination.”
Progress in treatment and cure
Many countries are demonstrating strong political leadership, facilitating dramatic price reductions in hepatitis medicines, including through the use of generic medicines – which allow better access for more people within a short time.
In 2016, 1.76 million people were newly treated for hepatitis C , a significant increase on the 1.1 million people who were treated in 2015. The 2.8 million additional people starting lifelong treatment for hepatitis B in 2016 was a marked increase from the 1.7 million people starting it in 2015. But these milestones represent only initial steps – access to treatment must be increased globally if the 80% treatment target is to be reached by 2030.
However, funding remains a major constraint: most countries lack adequate financial resources to fund key hepatitis services.
Diagnosis challenge
To achieve rapid scale-up of treatment, countries need urgently to increase uptake of testing and diagnosis for hepatitis B and C. As of 2015, an estimated one in 10 people living with hepatitis B, and one in five people living with hepatitis C, were aware of their infection. Countries need to improve policies, and programmes to increase awareness and subsequent diagnosis.
Prevention gaps
Countries need to provide a full range of hepatitis prevention services that are accessible to different population groups, particularly those at greater risk.
Largely due to increases in the uptake of hepatitis B vaccine, hepatitis B infection rates in children under 5 fell to 1.3% in 2015, from 4.7% in the pre-vaccine era.
However, the delivery of other prevention services, such as birth-dose vaccination for hepatitis B, harm reduction services for people who inject drugs, and infection control in many health services, remains low. This has led to continuing rates of new infections, including 1.75 million new hepatitis C cases every year.
Need for innovation
Innovation in many aspects of the hepatitis response must continue. New tools required include a functional cure for hepatitis B infection and the development of more effective point-of-care diagnostic tools for both hepatitis B and C.
“We cannot meet the ambitious hepatitis elimination targets without innovation in prevention interventions and approaches, and implementing them to scale,” said Dr Ren Minghui Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases, WHO. “The great successes of hepatitis B vaccination programmes in many countries need to be replicated and sustained globally in the context of moving forward to universal health coverage.”
Implementation of elimination strategy
The World Hepatitis Summit 2017 will be attended by over 900 delegates from more than 100 countries, including Ministers of Health, national programme managers, and representatives from organisations of people affected by viral hepatitis. The Summit will review progress and renew commitments by global partners to achieve the elimination of viral hepatitis by 2030 – a target reflected in WHO’s elimination strategy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The health of hundreds of millions of people around the world is being damaged by climate change, a major report has revealed.
Christiana Figueres, former UN’s climate chief, co-chaired the new report
The report, which was published in the Lancet journal, was prepared by researchers at 26 institutions around the world, including many universities, the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank and the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
The report found that climate change has increased the ability of dengue fever to spread, because the mosquitoes and the virus they carry breed more quickly.
Dengue is also known as “breakbone fever” due to the pain it causes and infections have doubled in each decade since 1990, now reaching up to 100 million infections a year now.
Dengue was used as an example in the report and the researchers suggest global warming will also increase the spread of other diseases such as schistosomiasis.
The researchers also said heatwaves are affecting many more vulnerable people and global warming is boosting the transmission of deadly diseases such as dengue fever, the world’s most rapidly spreading disease.
They said air pollution from fossil fuel burning is also causing millions of early deaths each year, while damage to crops from extreme weather threatens hunger for millions of children.
The WMO reported on Monday, October 30, 2017 that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere made a record jump in 2016 to hit a concentration not seen for more than three million years.
“Climate change is happening and it’s a health issue today for millions worldwide,” said Prof Anthony Costello, at the WHO and co-chair of the group behind the new report.
It follows a related report in 2009 that warned thatclimate change was the biggest danger to global health in the 21st century, an assessment repeated in the new report.
Costello said acting to halt global warming would also deliver a huge benefit for health: “The outlook is challenging, but we still have an opportunity to turn a looming medical emergency into the most significant advance for public health this century.”
“Our scientists have been telling us for some time that we’ve got a bad case of climate change. Now our doctors are telling us it’s bad for our health,” said Christiana Figueres who, as the UN’s climate chief, negotiated the Paris climate change agreement and also co-chaired the new report.
“Hundreds of millions of people are already suffering health impacts as a result of climate change,” she told the Guardian.
“Tackling climate change directly, unequivocally, and immediately improves global health. It’s as simple as that.”
One of the most striking of the 40 indicators assessed by the researchers was a huge increase in the number of people over 65 exposed to extreme heat.
This rose by 125 million between 2000 and 2016 and worries doctors because older people are especially vulnerable to heat.
Current national plans to slow down global warming are inadequate and will raise, rather than lower, the likelihood of serious climate impacts, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said Tuesday, October 31, 2017.
Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Photo credit: OECD/Michael Dean
According to UNEP, while signatory countries agreed to limit global warming between 1.5 and two degrees Celcius in the Paris Climate Agreement, national policies to reach that goal would likely heat up the globe by at least three degrees by 2100.
“This is unacceptable,” UNEP chief Erik Solheim said.
The Paris targets are meant to reduce the likelihood that climate change has severe impacts on the health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.
While CO2 emissions have remained stable in the past two years, weather phenomena have pushed concentrations of this gas in the atmosphere to record levels.
In addition, the output of other greenhouse gases such as methane is still rising.
While UN Environment urged governments to come up with more ambitious policies, it also stressed that cities and industries must do more to reduce the risks of climate change.
The UN said on Monday that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding three degrees Celsius to temperatures.
The Paris Agreement is already under pressure because U.S. President Donald Trump has said he plans to pull the United States out of the deal unless there is a renegotiation more favourable to Washington.
Conservator-General, Nigeria National Parks Service (NPS), Alhaji Ibrahim Goni, says the service has arrested an international trafficker of endangered species of wildlife.
Zakari Yau was arrested in possession of a pair of elephant tusk. Photo credit: planetsave.com
The Conservator-General, who said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, gave the trafficker’s name as Zakari Yau.
Goni said that Yau was arrested at a spot near the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
He said that the service rangers had embarked on aggressive patrols of parks, with the aid of the military and other agencies, to check illegal activities in all the national parks.
“The exercise led to the arrest of Zakari Yau from Cameroon, who was in possession of a pair of elephant tusk, contrary to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Fauna and Flora Act (CITES).
“The suspect had since been handed over to the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) for further investigation and prosecution,” he said.
NAN recalls that the NPS said that it had arrested 325 wildlife offenders at seven parks across the country in the first half of 2017.
Goni said that the offenders had since been taken to court, adding that some of them were fined, while compensations were paid to the NPS.
The conservator-general, however, said that in the first half of 2017, more than 5,356 tourists visited national parks across the country.
“The service is making frantic efforts to improve and maintain international global standards and services; we want to give our parks a facelift to attract more tourists, both local and international,” he said.
Goni said that the service had developed a network of national parks that could compete favourably with other national parks in the world.
“To this end, the park service is making efforts to put in place operational management plans for each park and a systems plan for the entire country.
“We want a national park system that meets the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians, and indeed the whole world, in preserving and protecting our natural heritage and the cultural relics that enliven them for generations to come.’’
Besides, Goni said that 1,986 students, who were on industrial attachment, were trained in national parks across the country.
“The national parks are not only for revenue generation but they are also for research and training,’’ he said.
He thanked the Federal Ministry of Environment, the media, military and paramilitary agencies for their support for the service.
The Yobe State Government on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 appealed to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to develop 5,000 hectares (ha) of land it received from the state to establish the proposed grazing reserve.
Herdsmen grazing their cattle
Dr Mustapha Gaidam, the Manager of Yobe Pilot Development Programme, made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Damaturu, the capital city.
He said that the Yobe government donated 5,000 ha of land to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to enhance the implementation of its cattle ranch programme.
“The Yobe Government provided Federal Ministry of Agriculture with 2,500 ha of land at Jakusko/Nazari in Jakusko Local Government Area and another 2,500 ha at Gumsa in Nguru for the development of the grazing reserve.
“Yobe State has 28 grazing reserves, out of which 16 have been gazetted,” he said.
Besides, Gaidam said that the state government had demarcated 1,560 kilometres of cattle routes from 2007 to date.
“The state government has also constructed water facilities along the cattle routes to curb cattle encroachment into farmlands in search of water.
“Government has, within the same period of time, vaccinated over six million herds of cattle, goats, sheep and dogs against trans-boundary animal diseases and rabies.
“It has become a deliberate policy of this administration to maintain healthy animals for public consumption.
“When a country, state or society has healthy animals; the animals produce healthy meat and milk and this, in turn, translates into healthy human population,” he said.
Nigeria’s northeast exemplifies a typical extreme case of the country’s version of climate change, reveling in ecological imbalance and accompanied with devastating consequences. It is evident that the northeast grapples with an unprecedented number of “climate induced migrations” courtesy of the multifaceted climate change and its palpable effects; ranging from desertification, drought, flooding and, quite disturbing, the near disappearance of the Lake Chad basin – which all put the region in a dire strait.
Scientists say the Lake Chad, that borders Nigeria and some other countries, has shrunken by 95 percent over the past 50 years. They have also linked the Boko Haram insurgency to the lake’s situation. Photo credit: AP/Christophe Ena
The utmost source of apprehension is the impending disappearance of Lake Chad, the multipurpose lake and economic backbone of the region used to be characterised with fertile shores for farming, a natural habitat for fishing, a medium for moving freight across the adjacent countries and which constitutes the core source of irrigation in the region – is now shadow of itself and threading the catastrophic path of oblivion.
Russell Bishop, Senior Research Fellow, Overseas Development Institute, said: “Between 1963 and 2013, the lake lost 90 percent of its water mass, shrinking from 25,000km2 to 2,500km2”.
In the same vein, more than 30 million lives depend on the lake. And the lake, which was once one of the biggest bodies of water in the world, could disappear entirely by 2030, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
As the region grieves the ripple effects of the shrinking lake, drought takes hold of the region – further worsened by desert encroachment which is fast depleting the arable lands and turning them to sand dunes. The livelihoods of the inhabitants in the region which revolve around farming, cattle rearing and fishing are facing existential threats owing to the devastated ecosystems. Suffice to say that the annual outputs of wheat, millet, corn, peanuts, rice, sorghum, tubers among others which are peculiar to the region are first time in history at the lowest ebb.
While the once lively and economically endowed fish market in Baga, Maiduguri remains desolate, attention has shifted to Darak, an affluent fishing settlement lying within Cameroonian territory. All these trigger downward spiral of Nigeria’s GDP. Not surprising, the combined effects of the unfortunate incidences have dwindled economic fortunes and even impaired economic activities of the region bringing it to a halt – thereby forcing exodus of farmers, fishermen and pastoralists to turn to environmental migrants in their quest for greener pastures.
It is now a thriving place for illicit arms and Boko Haram terrorism. Boko Haram terrorists readily gain recruits within the region owing to unemployment precipitated by climate change. It is sympathetic seeing many inhabitants of Nigeria’s northeast losing their families, reeling in poverty, abandoning their properties and fleeing their homes in endlessly seeking fortress in the nearby villages and the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
According to Adams Smith International, about two million people were displaced in northern Nigeria as at 2016. Abandonment of properties and displacement profile which keep rising daily are clear indications that “climate migration” is a ticking bomb that urgently need attention.
How it all started
In their research, Coe and Foley of the University of Wisconsin, Madison stated: “Irrigation demands increased four-fold between 1983 and 1994, accounting for 50 percent of the additional decrease in the size of the lake.” Based on the data and the reality of population increase in the region, need do I say that the percentage attributed to irrigation demands increased.
Reduction in the Lake size is attributed to many cogent factors by researchers and environmentalists – the factors comprise physical and evolving climate factors. Part of the factors are: pressure on the lake culminating water diversion, irrigation, over fishing and damming; further compounded with less rainfall which induces drought. All these have facilitated and exacerbated perpetual shrinkage of the Lake Chad basin. As a result, it won’t be out of place to note that the key known tributaries of Lake Chad – which are river Chari and Logone have drastically reduced in sizes and capacities; thereby, making natural replenishment a difficult reality.
Foley said, “The problem is expected to worsen in the coming years as population and irrigation demands continue to increase.”
Such is the precarious situation of the region and the problem in the offing. Some climatologists opine that there is high tendency for the shrinkage to not have occurred had it been the lake was not over stretched by the growing population. The earnest competition for the available scarce resources by the teeming population birthed restiveness, terrorism and territorial clashes.
Efforts so far and long-term solutions
Towards addressing the problem of the drying lake among myriads of other climate problems, Nigeria is a member of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), an intergovernmental organisation that coordinates water usage in the region. And Nigerian government actively participated in the 2015 Paris Climate agreement where an ambitious and feasible Climate Action plan was submitted to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In the universal legally binding agreement, Nigerian government was committed to cutting carbon emissions by 40%, and, most importantly, resuscitation of the shrinking Lake Chad Basin.
In that regard, Nigeria has contributed about $5 million out of about $15 million required to carry out comprehensive and holistic feasibility study on recharging the lake, thereby leading to a forecast that about $15 billion to $20 billion would be required to recharge the lake.
Conflicting speculations emerged of a recent that the lake would be recharged from the Congo River to the River Chari; which discharges into Lake Chad. While Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, said the lake recharging would possibly be from the Rangin River – located in Central Africa. However, what is certain is the assiduous commitment to recharge the lake from the nearby rivers – with quantifiable capacities.
Sadly, due to paucity of funds in raising about $20 billion within the members of LCBC, the lake recharging project slated to begin in 2017 is currently crawling and dispels hope of any tangible achievement as the year is about to end – since no significant recharging work is ongoing.
Also, Nigeria championed formulation of Great Green Wall Project geared towards creating green shelter belt (about 10,000 km long from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east and 15 km in width) in combating drought and resisting the vast encroachment of Sahara desert into Sahel and Sudan climate regions. The motive behind this commendable initiative is the set target of turning the Sahara and the Sahel regions to agricultural hubs by 2050.
No doubt, the gigantic Great Green Wall project will neutralise ecological imbalances, provide job and food for the teeming population in the Northeast thereby, easing pressure on the Lake Chad basin — if implemented.
According to The Guardian, National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) is embarking on planting of 1.6 million assorted seedlings to cover 129.3 kilometres of the shelterbelt in seven Nigerian Northern states. And out of N1.05 billion approved to carry out this ambitious project in 2017 budget allocation, only N200 million was released to NAGGW. Currently, the project is as well at a standstill.
Barack Obama once affirmed how the drying Lake Chad is a major factor in the migration of Africans to the west and laid premium emphasis on the urgent need to revive the lake towards forestalling exacerbation of climate migration in Africa.
Concerned climate justice advocates wonder why these ambitious projects promising of bringing succour to the region could be crawling. The scenario portrays good policy crafting but poor attitudinal disposition towards implementation of plans by Nigerian government. It won’t be out place to infer that Nigeria indeed has good intentions engraved on paper in combating the multifaceted climate challenges but there is a wide apprehension that the projects are dead on arrival. As it becomes evident that the government mulls over the ambitious projects and exhibits lack of political will in bringing them to reality.
It is quite sadden that nobody could envisage how long or how soon the climate challenges in the region will end. The helpless and vulnerable populations in the Northeast Nigeria are left to bask in the untoward consequences of climate change. And this is a brewing humanitarian crisis that could rattle African regions — if not proactively tackled.
By Odewale Abayomi Joseph (Climate advocate and ICFJ Migration and Climate Fellow; @ODEWALEAbayomi)
No matter your job, you need standards to ensure that you are working to meet your objectives. Unfortunately, where education and schools are concerned, these standards sometimes do not exist. Or, more often, they are not enforced. Schools are decidedly sub-standard in some places, with those in sub-Saharan Africa facing particularly strong challenges. Many teachers are not sufficiently prepared in the region, classrooms are often overcrowded, infrastructure is crumbling and learning is suffering.
Schools are decidedly sub-standard in some places, with those in sub-Saharan Africa facing particularly strong challenges
More than one in four young people cannot read in sub-Saharan Africa today, while by some other recent estimate nine in 10 children do not acquire minimum reading skills. Standards are slipping where they could be applied, which is putting our global education goal at risk.
Even though the number of children not in school globally has stagnated between 2008 and 2015, this doesn’t mean that the number going to school is stagnating too. During the same period, 30 million more children enrolled in primary school in sub-Saharan Africa alone – that’s more than all the children enrolled in primary school in the United States. Is it any wonder that standards are slipping?
Depending on what side of the fence you sit, the diversification of education providers, often in the form of low-fee private schools, can be a blessing or a curse. Many of these schools sprouted in densely populated slums, including in Kibera, Kenya, where governments did not wish to set foot. They attracted families aspiring to improve the education of their children. But oftentimes these schools have not lived up to expectations.
What the newest Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, “Accountability in education: meeting our commitments”, shows us is that governments must establish standards and regulations that lay down the law for all education providers, public and private. If they do not, negative practices quickly take hold.
At present, governments may not have standards in place even for public schools. We found that there are no regulations on class sizes in primary school in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali and Togo. This is a major challenge for teachers and a big contributor to low learning outcomes. Less than half of low and middle income countries reviewed by the World Bank had established standards for early childhood education – and even fewer monitored and enforced those regulations.
When governments relinquish control of education to private providers, it is equally if not more important that standards be in place to regulate them. By 2021, it is expected that one in four primary school age pupils in sub-Saharan Africa will be in private schools, up from 13.5% in 2015. If these schools’ way of working does not meet the aspirations of our global education goal, SDG 4, it is highly unlikely we will achieve it.
The reality, we found, is that regulations are not being created or streamlined to adjust to the fast rate with which education systems are expanding. The very first step of accrediting schools in the first place is often cumbersome, prone to corruption, and therefore slow, leaving many operating without meeting even minimum safety and infrastructure standards. In 2010/11, for example, only 26% of private schools in Lagos had been approved by the Ministry of Education. In Kenya and Uganda, some private schools were operating without qualified teachers and with inadequate infrastructure before regulations were put in place and courts shut them down.
An education system is not the work of just one person or body. An education system of good quality is a shared responsibility between multiple actors, governments, teachers, schools, parents and the private sector. But governments need to set the example, and introduce clear regulations that lead towards the global education goal. They are the missing link for restoring trust in the education system.
By Dr. Manos Antoninis (Director of the Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO)
Recently, some residents of Anagada, a suburb of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, near Zuba, Gwagwalada Area Council, expressed concern about how tree felling has compromised the beauty of some communities in the area.
The Abuja city gate
In separate interviews, they noted that although the community has increased in its size of population due to the regular electricity supply, tree felling and housing development have affected decent living.
For instance, Alhaji Alhassan Musa, the Village Head and Gadachi of Anagada, said some people deforested some areas because of farming activities and housing development.
Musa cited cases in which farmers had to cut down some trees in the village because they wanted to clear land for farming purposes.
“If farmers don’t cut down some trees, farm produce such as cassava and corns will not grow well according to them, while some people deforested because they wanted to build houses.
“Before, I can count number of houses in this community, but now due to regular electricity supply, many people come from neighbouring villages to acquire land to build houses.’’
The village head said the residents experienced heat due to felling of trees that had been providing protection against heat and other natural disasters.
He said further that farmers used the felled trees to empower their wives by engaging in firewood selling, not minding that the Gwagwalada Area Council had taken serious action on tree fellers.
“Area Council Task Force arrests anybody found cutting trees and does not allow anybody to do charcoal business,’’ he said.
But Mrs Halimat Nuhu, a firewood seller in the village, said she remained in firewood selling because her husband used tractors to convey the firewood from his farms to house to enable her to sell.
Nuhu, who said her family survived on farming and firewood business, said they used the money realised from the business to feed and send their children to schools.
Mr Shuaibu Bako, a farmer and hunter in Anagada Village, said the number of hunters had also reduced drastically due to farming and housing development in the village.
“When we were younger, we only came out beside our village and killed bush meats we wanted.
“We don’t have more stress to kill animals for food, but now, due to the population we have, it has been until we go up to 20 kilometres before you kill animals,’’
He said the population of the hunters in the village before now higher than what they had now due to deforestation.
Musa, who said hunters survived by hunting activities, said they got away from the village because there were no more animals within the village,’’ he said.
Similarly, Dr Taiwo Audu, a lecturer in Civil Engineering Department, University of Abuja, said felling of trees had led to rise in temperature in Gwagwalada and its environs.
“The environmental temperature is on the increase this day due to the depletion of ozone layer, industrial air pollution, deforestation activities, mechanisation of agriculture and construction activities.
“The displacement of animal habitat is caused by tree felling especially animals that leave on trees; there is also increase in noise pollution caused during falling of trees that leads to animals’ migration.
“The increase in environmental temperature creates discomfort to animals and the cattle the shepherd.
“Tree felling leads to shortage of food available to animal which forces them to migrate from region of food scarcity to that of food availability, distorting the ecosystem’’ he observed.
Alhaji Mustapha Adamu, Chairman, Gwagwalada Area Council, confirmed that the council had a task force that enforced environmental regulations as part of measures to check tree fellers’ activities and other environmental hazards.
According to him, the council is collaborating with trees planting companies and other relevant stakeholders to replace the felled trees.
In his opinion, Mr Dennis Ugwuja, the Executive Director, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Initiative, a non-governmental organisation, said “due to poverty and other economic factors, more people in the rural areas engage in the business of tree felling.
“Charcoal business has become the booming business of the day. The worrisome aspect of this is that the tree fellers make little or no effort to plant new trees.
“It is common knowledge that our environment is our heritage which we are entrusted to optimally protect, preserve and conserve, especially the original flora and fauna species.’’’
Ugwuja, therefore, called for immediate actions and regulations as well as stringent measures to check indiscriminate tree felling and hunting in the country.
Yet, the National Bureau of Statistics observes that it is worrisome that 26.8 per cent households cooked with firewood in urban areas while 71.0 per cent households used firewood to cook in rural areas of the country.
The World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Survey on Agriculture General Household Survey Panel 2015/2016 in which the report is published – is produced by the bureau in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the World Bank.
The statistics also states that 4.6 per cent households cooked with charcoal in urban areas while 4.7 per cent households used charcoal to cook in the rural areas, while 59.2 per cent households used kerosene in the urban areas and 20.2 per cent households cooked with kerosene in the rural areas.
The statistics notes further that 8.4 per cent households cooked with gas in urban areas while 3.5 per cent households used gas to cook in the rural areas of the country.
However, Mr Adetolu Osakuade, the Acting Director of Forestry, Federal Ministry of Environment, said Nigeria had 1,213 forests reserves.
Osakuade said forestation in Nigeria had reduced drastically as a result of development and factors that led some forests reserves to be deforested.
“From 10 per cent at independence, we are running down to five per cent which United Nations Food Agricultural Organisation, by its own recommendations and standards for sustainable development, recommended 25 per cent for every country.
“Governments have been doing so much but the new thinking is more of creating awareness and engagement of users, takers and those that have been benefiting in the forest to have reorientation to plough back for what they have taken.’’
“You know that the forest reserve is static; it is only 10 per cent of the country’s land mark that is under forest reserve.
“So, if we must achieve 25 per cent forests cover that means we must go outside the forest reserves,’’ he said.
He, nonetheless, stressed the need for governments and other stakeholders to go and acquire agricultural land, park land and bush fallow land to achieve 25 per cent forests cover.
