Sustainable Development

What would young Nigerians do if they had enough electricity…? They would work. A youth research commissioned by hbs Nigeria quotes a young man from Enugu, “If there is steady light in the country, that means there will be lots of competition in manufacturing of goods and so many products”. Nigeria’s 4,000 mega watt of power are under-serving the population massively, as electricity demand is expected to rise to 192,000 mega watt in the next twenty years. Tinyan Ogiehor is a solar entrepreneur in Abuja who went into his renewable energy business because he saw how crippling the constant power black-outs were for the IT industry. Watch Video

Mallam Musa Ali, a farmer from Chifatake community in northern Kaduna State , is deeply concerned about how shifting weather patterns are impacting on the community members’ ability to feed themselves.

Nigeria’s food security situation is characterised by the threat of hunger and poverty, which confronts the 69 percent of the population that lives on less than Naira 100 (US$ 0.7) per day.Smallholder farmers account for 80 percent of all farm holdings, but crop yields are far below potentials. This is due to inadequate access to and low uptake of high quality seeds and inefficient production systems, leading to regular shortfalls in production.

Climate change is a major threat to the  sustainable development in Nigeria. Responding to Climate change from both mitigation and adaptation angles require strategic approaches from policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks and capacities. In this scoping study, we examined the extent to which adaptive capacities of Nigeria have been utilized to influence sectoral policies that have influence in enhancing the national climate change adaptation response. Download Study (PDF, 44 pages, 453Kb)

As women and men have different adaptive and mitigative capabilities, the financing instruments and mechanisms committed to climate change activities in mitigation and adaption need to take these gender-differentiated impacts into account in funds design and operationalization as well as concrete project financing.

Climate change is one of the most urgent issues of our time with widespread implications for the earth’s ecosystems and human development across sectors. Although gender equality and women’s empowerment are acknowledged pre-requisites for sustainable development, climate change policies neglect these important issues. The Heinrich Böll Foundation commissioned this study to assess the impact of climate change on local communities from a gender perspective as well as make recommendation on how to combat the local consequences (adaptation measures) using the relevant local institutions/agents which also needed to be identified. Download publication (PDF, 71 pages, 2.9 MB)

The Heinrich Böll Foundation is a catalyst for green visions and projects, a think tank for policy reform, and an international network We work with 160 project partners in over 60 countries and currently maintain 30 international offices. Read more

How will Nigeria look like when the oil is finished? How can millions of Nigerians access growth with green jobs and a fairer distribution of wealth? Nigeria's ambition to become one of the world’s top 20 economies by the year 2020 means that the country must grow its economy, create jobs and promote social cohesion without destroying its natural resources and thus harming the well-being of future generations. The Green Deal Nigeria study provides an overview and practical examples of how to green Nigeria before 2020 and explains the long-term measures that Nigeria needs to take today to make the economy grow beyond oil, which is expected to finish for all practical purposes in 15 to 20 years’ time. The study explains how to stem corruption in the oil industry, stop gas flaring and how to launch a clean energy economy that provides jobs for millions of ordinary Nigerians, especially the young. The study looks at how a shared vision of sustainable growth can reduce tension and conflict. What is Green Deal Nigeria?  

Floods, storms and ocean surges are becoming more frequent in the megacity of Lagos, but the 15 million citizens have no adequate climate change adaptation and emergency measures in place. The project “Mobilising Local Governments for Climate Action” by Community Conservation and Development Initiatives (CCDI) encourages local governments to develop the necessary adaptation projects for their specific communities. Although local governments should be in the best position to tailor the appropriate strategies, the project report points at institutional, technical and financial shortcomings which currently hinder efficient implementation.

This study looks at the Oil Commissions in some Niger Delta states, which were set up 10 years ago in order to ensure that the oil wealth trickles down to the communities living in oil producing areas. How is the Commissions’ work impacting on the lives of these communities? Do they work in a transparent manner? What is their self-perception? Uwafiokun Idemudia is Assistant Professor of Development Studies and Director of the African Studies Programme at the York University in Toronto, Canada. He visited the states of Delta, Edo and Ondo in 2011 for this study.