Report: Nigeria Needs Comprehensive Strategy to Address Social Exclusion

Dike Onwuamaeze

The federal government has been advised to develop and implement a comprehensive national social inclusion strategy (NSIS) that would prioritise the welfare of its citizen in order to address social exclusion.

The advice was given by analysts at FDSH Research, in a report titled: “Nigeria’s Macroeconomic Report: Why Social Inclusion Matters for Development,” which stated that the NSIS would ensure that all social interventions are aligned with the broader developmental goal of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the medium term.

The report identified four key elements of a social inclusion strategy as alignment of social inclusion with national plans and goals; widening coverage of social interventions; effective partnerships to improve implementation and effective monitoring and evaluation.

The report also stated that a social inclusion strategy should aim at facilitating economic inclusion, political inclusion and social support and investment. 

The report added that a good starting point for the development of the NSIS was the revised National Social Protection Policy (NSPP), which represents the policy framework for social interventions in the country.

It emphasised that, “an effective social inclusion strategy that is well implemented can improve income, build citizens trusts, expand the reach of government, drive financial inclusion and reduce conflict.

“The revised National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) aims to establish a National Social Protection Council (NSPC) to be domiciled in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning (MBNP) to coordinate the NSPP.

“We believe that part of the functions of the council should be to spearhead the creation of an inclusion strategy and follow-through on its implementation. A monitoring and evaluation framework also needs to be developed.”

It added that beyond social inclusion strategy, “a sound macroeconomic environment was important to limit the impact of both domestic and external shocks on citizens. Ensuring foreign exchange policy clarity, taming inflation and addressing crude oil theft are among key actions that should be implemented.”

It recommended that social programmes and interventions should be aligned with existing national or regional plans to ensure optimal use of scarce resources and increase their impact, adding that interestingly, the revised NSPP was created in the context of the current Medium Term Development Plan.

It also recommended the need for a wider coverage of social support programmes both in terms of scope and scale, adding that, “conscious efforts must be made by policymakers and legislators to ensure these interventions are spread across the country and reach the target Nigerians, across age groups, religion, gender, etc.”

It further recommended that, “collaboration of stakeholders is essential in the success of any intervention. Partnerships must be strengthened across government agencies and between the federal and state governments to improve implementation of social interventions and initiatives.”

The report identified conducting monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of these social programmes as one major missing ingredient in Nigeria’s social policy and intervention design.

It stated that “M&E is critical in ensuring projects and programmes meet their specified objectives and in highlighting lessons learned during the implementation phase.”

It added: “social supports for the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens as well as increased social participation are required to ensure inclusion. Target groups should include rural dwellers, women, physically challenged, aged, etc.

“Economic inclusion will emphasise the need for citizens to be productively engaged in economic activities as well as the creation of opportunities for all, regardless of status, gender, religion, location etc,” while “political participation will seek to ensure increased participation of citizens in the critical decision making process of the country. Barriers to political participation will be removed.”

The report further stated that social exclusion manifests in Nigeria across the two dimensions, which are one, exclusion from the economy and production, and exclusion from social participation especially through marginalisation of women and young people to compete for political offices as a result of systemic norms such as godfatherism, cost of running a campaign, among others and lack of adequate support for the underprivileged and aged citizens.

It observed that social exclusion persists in Nigeria despite the interventions that were aimed at ameliorating it because of limited scope and scale of social programmes and limited cooperation among government agencies and across the different levels of government.

In addition, it stated that, “programmes, initiatives and agendas are often not synced with existing national and thematic plans and are not viewed as components towards achieving the overarching goals; and lack of effective monitoring and evaluation: Little is known about the impact of these social programmes on broader macroeconomic indicators such as poverty, unemployment and overall living standard. The scorecard for the NSPP is yet to be operational.”