For years, many communities in Oyo State suffered various challenges, such as poor electricity, lack of access to potable water, bad roads and terrible health facilities. Efforts of the residents to help themselves have also been futile in the face of scare resources. But the intervention of the Oyo State Community and Social Development Agency (CSDA), an agency funded by the World bank, is saving lives in no small way, Yinka Adeniran writes:
For the people of Irese-pa, Surulere South LCDA, Ogbomosho axis of Oyo state just like some others across the state, the best of health facility available was a small shop equipped with a bench and a plastic chair. The wooden bench serves as table for any ‘official’ paper work during the day, as well as ‘delivery bed’ for pregnant women who needed to be attended to, especially at night.
Despite the poor condition of both the small shop-like-office named ‘Ilupeju Health Post’ and unavailability of any known medical tools, the expertise of the Community health officer from the local government would not stop many of the poor rural dwellers from approaching the health post for medical attention.
The situation remained so for a long time and the number of babies delivered on the wooden bench with makeshift headlamp, especially at midnight keeps increasing.
The community knew they deserved better. Efforts at getting the attention of the local authourities ended up in promises upon promises. Political office holders and aspirants were also not helpful as all their promises remained promises till date. But it was not to be so forever. The story changed when the Community and Social Development Agency (CSDA), Oyo state intervened. Projects executed by the CSDA are christened Community and Social Development Projects (CSDP).
The story of the people living in Idi-Emi communities, Sepeteri, Saki East LG area of Oyo state was even more worrisome. For many years, the only known source of water was the famous Akindi river. The river which stretches about 300meters did not only serve the people. Animals including cows, rams, goats, pigs etc also drink directly from the source.
Cholera, diarrhea and such other diseases were common place among the people. The people were not only fully aware of their dilemma but they were just helpless.
The situation gets funnier during the dry season when getting water becomes a serious issue. While human contends to beat one another to the river to quickly fetch the small available quantity, grazers and herders are also aware of the need to beat resident to it by leading the animals including cows, goats among others to get enough water for the day.
The nearby bushes around the river also serve as venue for open defecation and refuse dump which makes contamination of the water easier.
Fighting, bickering, malice, disagreement among others is the order of the day in frequent occurrences. But with the intervention of CSDA, the people are learning to live more happily together without fear of sickness from water contamination.
Residents in Ogo-Oluwa LG, Ajaawa and Oosu Ayigbiri, Surulere South LCDA, Ogbomosho are not only challenged in terms of poor educational facilities for the children, they have also been sanctioned by the regional and national examination bodies for secondary school leavers due to lack of facilities to allow for easy conduct of final examinations for secondary school leavers.
Pupils had to be relocated to other schools many kilometres away to sit for WAEC and NECO examinations. For many years, the makeshift building used for conducting examination was not only an eyesore but an embarrassment for the entire community. The situation got worse during the rainy season when examination had to be suspended as a result of lack of conducive examination hall.
But with the intervention of the World Bank and Oyo State government through the CSDP, which provided the fund to build a 1,500 capacity examination hall, the school authority’s newest challenge is now how to cope with the massive enrolment of students for terminal examinations including WAEC and NECO.
In Isale Odo community, Irepo, business survival has been on the decline for more than 10 years. Many people who settled into the environment had issue surviving in the face of grounded electricity.
Many small scale business, enterprises, artisans and those whose means of occupational engagement survive on electricity had closed shops and the inflow of people into the adjourning and neigbouring communities nosedive. Before long, the entire community became a shadow of itself as the people had no access to electricity, yet pleas and appeals to authourities had not yielded any meaningful result.
The intervention of CSDA through the funding of a 500kva transformer and electricity poles and cables made extension of electricity into the community possible. The communities have not only come back to life, property owners, landlords and people who rent out apartments to residents are now reaping good from the investment while cost of doing business has also crashed, especially for barbers, welders, tailors etc.
Tentacles across the communities
Since the awareness of the agency in the communities, requests for support have not stopped hitting the desk of the agency beyond what they seem to bargain for. The development necessitated the need for a means of scrutinising each requests and then deciding on where the needs are more urgent.
Some of the areas of impact include Community High School, Oosu Ayigbiri, Surulere South LCDA, Ogbomosho; Baptist Grammar School Examination Hall, Ogo-Oluwa LG, Ajaawa; Surulere Community, Sakilap, Saki West LG, Ogbere and Anuoluwapo communities in Ona-Ara LG; Ajelanwa, Ogo Oluwa LG; Emiloju Biti Biti, Saki East LG; Gbodiko, Ibarapa North LG and Holliness Estate, Akinyele.
Other areas are: Ibere, Ogo Oluwa LG; Idi -Ori/Aba-Opa, Akinyele; Ifedun Oke Ayo, Saki East; Ifeloju Idere, Ibarapa Central; Ifesowapo Igangan, Ibarapa North; Ifesowapo Igboora, Ibarapa Central; Iresapa, Surulere; and Irewole, Saki-East among others.
Some of the areas of funding intervention include: drilling of motorized boreholes; construction of culvert and retaining wall; construction of community hall; procurement and installation of transformer and electricity extension; roads rehabilitation, construction of examination hall; renovation of blocks of classrooms and equipping with furniture; drilling of mono pump boreholes and construction of Police station and Boys Quarters.
Others areas are installation of 500KVA transformer and extension of electricity at different places, rehabilitation of existing borehole in rural communities, and construction of Corp members Lodge.
How it works (Community joint funding)
No doubt, the approach to project award and execution under the CSDA beats all known political approaches to awarding and executing projects. Open governance partnership approach that allows for cost of funding of project to be open to people as well as how the projects are executed is a norm with the CSDA in that funds are only released in tranches to the community through the Community Project Management Committee (CPMC), selected and or elected from among the residents by the residents but coordinated by the agency.
The cost of each project is also proposed by the beneficiary community who monitor and supervise the disbursement and how funds are expended on projects.
According to the scheme, beneficiary communities are expected to commit ten percent of total project cost as counterpart funding and which is a pre-requisite for the CSDA to release the remaining needed fund.
Efforts of CSDA
From the issue of electricity, infrastructures, health, social amenities among such others, the World bank in collaboration with the Oyo state through the CSDA has no doubt impacted on lives without the usual jamboree, noise and political make-up that follows such efforts in this clime. In all, no fewer than 106 communities across all the 33 LGAs across the state have registered at least two or three completed projects of varying degree.
Subtly, quietly and progressively, the touch of development is moving from one parts of the state to another. From Ibadan to Oyo town, to Oke Ogun axis to Ogbomosho area and such other places too far for politicians to ‘deliver goodies of democracy’, the government has reached out to residents and communities who expressed readiness to collaborate with the government in terms of co-funding, implementing, monitoring and sustaining projects based on approved requests of such communities.
Aside from providing amenities to the communities that requested for help, the testimonies of the beneficiary communities remained same in that, the effort of the agency has not only helped the people improved in the communal lifestyle, it has also helped in their interaction and interrelations.
The funding of the projects are assisted by the World Bank and co-financed by the Federal Government and the participating states.
Benefits to residents beyond amenities
Additionally, the various projects implemented have helped to put food on the table of many residents of the project host communities as ‘contractors’, ‘vendors’ and those to execute the projects, as a matter of principle were been sourced from the residents in the local host communities, thereby helping to improve the cash flow in the community. The monies for executing projects are not only been given to the communities, it is also spent within the communities by the residents and members of the community.
It has also helped create a sense of ownership and sense of responsibility which was a feature lacking in most government projects executed in the communities in time past.
Under the CSDA project implemented by the CPMC, projects are owned by the community and the responsibilities of managing, service and running solely falls on the community as an entity and not any arm of the government or individual. This has also helped in the leadership and self-governance of the people at the community level especially in the areas of fund management and generation to ensure sustainability and functionality of the projects.
The fact that the cost of executing the projects is a collaborative effort between the CSDA and the community also gives some sense of pride and belonging to the community and sense of responsibility to ensure improvement and progress.
A major benefit to the community is the regular leadership and community management leadership training offered the benefitting community leaders on how to sustain and maintain the facilities which no doubt is helping proper interaction and interrelations among the residents of the beneficiary communities.
CSDA in action
The General Manager, CSDA, Mr Babatunde Adewole explained that CSDP is a poverty reduction intervention project targeted at both rural and urban communities in Oyo state, noting that the project development objective is to sustainably increase the access of the poor to social infrastructure.
He said “CSDP is a World bank assisted project in Nigeria and Oyo state is one of the 28 participating states. CSDP is follow up of the similar World Bank assisted project called Local Empowerment and Environmental Management Project (LEEMP) which ended in 2009. A Community Driven Development (CDD) Approach to development is being used where communities are the drivers, who take charge of their development agenda.
“CDD concept empowers the communities to plan, execute and monitor their own development micro projects. It empowers the excluded group and hence give them both voice and relevance. It is designed to be socially inclusive-give voice and decision making responsibility to women, elderly, youths, religious and cultural minorities, indigenous and other ethnic groups, those with HIV/AIDS and physically challenged.
“Ownership of community micro-projects is the foundation of project sustainability. Crucial to the realisation of any community development work is the sustainability and maintenance of such projects. Communities are to contribute both in cash and kind. Kind contributions may include: land, labour, sand, gravel, water, store etc. cash contributions requires a sum of money kept in the community’s bank account opened for the project.
“CDP is a basket of projects where any group from the community picks their own. Community prepares the community development plan (CDP) by themselves. The community implement the project themselves but source for service provider only on technical projects that need experts. CSDP additional finance started in 2016 after the six year duration of the first phase of the project.”