THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN ANAMBRA STATE IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM:
A STUDY OF EU/UNICEF ACTIVITIES IN NNEWI NORTH AND IDEMILI SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS
ABSTRACT
This work examined the effects of donor agencies on community development in Anambra State with greater emphasis in Nnewi North Local Government and Idemili South Local Government. Being that community development touches every aspect of human life; in view of location specific, this study primarily investigated the provision of water in order to ensure effective sanitation and hygiene in selected communities to ultimately achieve community led total sanitation which will help to improve the socio-economic, cultural and political lives of these communities and Anambra state in general. Due to the nature of this study, descriptive research method was used in order to get the solution for the problems posed by the study. Meanwhile, sources of data were primary and secondary sources. The primary source consist of questionnaire and interview, while the secondary source were gathered from journals, published books, government bills and seminar/workshop materials. Also, random sampling were used to select communities and institutions for this research work; equal number of households were selected in each communities while some teachers and students opinions were sampled to obtain relevant information for this study. Hypotheses were tested with statistical tools. The intervention of EU/UNICEF on WASH projects has improved the participatory capacity of the benefiting communities on development project. Development partners training of selected communities on WASH projects management has relationship with good community project ownership attitude and project sustainability. Finally, the research findings indicated that effective water supply, sanitation and hygiene education programmes have contributed to poverty reduction and community development in Anambra state. In conclusion this work suggested that community development project implementation programme especially in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector be developed and necessary authorization to ensure compliance by our different communities be put in place to ensure effective and sustainable development in Anambra state.
      TABLE OF CONTENTS    
      CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION    
1.1    Background to the Study    
1.2    Statement of the Problem    
1.3    Objectives of the Study    
1.4    Significance of the Study    
1.5    Scope and Limitations of the Study    
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW    
2.1    Literature Review (Critical Review of Relevant Literature)    
2.2    Theoretical Framework    
2.3    Hypotheses    
2.4    Operationalisation of Key Concepts    
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH PROCEDURE AND STUDY AREA    
3.1    Study Area    
3.2    Population Sample Size and Sampling Procedure    
3.3    Sources and Method of Data Collection    
3.4    Reliability and Validity of Instruments    
3.5    Method of Data Presentation and Analysis    
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND    
     FINDINGS    
4.1    Data Presentation    
4.2    Data Analysis    
4.3    Findings    
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION    
5.1    Discussion (of Hypotheses)    
CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND    
     CONCLUSION    
6.1    Summary    
6.2    Recommendations    
6.3    Conclusion    
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1              BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Community development gained utmost popularity in pre-independence Nigeria. It was within this context that the modern conception of the term assumed its definite character. Also, ever since then, the different regions in Nigeria have been saddled with the task of socio-economic transformation. Coombs, et al (1974:66) cited in Rotgak (1999:74) observed that “Community development gained currency in pre-independence British Africa when colonial Social Welfare Officers – later designated Community Development Officers – sought to stimulate self-help actions in selected rural areas to improve health, nutrition, adult education and general community welfare”. Then, social development was the main objective, not economic development.
 However, the term today has come to assume a broader meaning with more encompassing meaning as it embraces both the social and economic objectives of development packaged in various forms of activities as catalysts to the improvement of agriculture, the combating of erosion, the development of water supply…, it is in fact no more than a modern conception of administration (Rotgak 1999:75). He observed that states and local governments are making more efforts to encourage community development by inducing the “rural communities to place more efforts on the promotion of physical projects, community development has come to be equated with the external manifestation of development”.
In Anambra State, community development has taken a multi-sectorial approach in the new millennium. The reason for this is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 as stipulated by the United Nations. According to the Ministry of
Economic Planning and Budget hand bill (2011), “Anambra State is among the sub-national governments in Africa that has adopted the MDGs”. The strategy to achieving this is through a unique approach christened Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), with which all targets of the MDGs are being pursued simultaneously. According to Coleridge (1999:19), the MDGs are:
 Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
Goal 2: Achieving universal primary education.
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.
Goal 5: Improve material health.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.
 Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability.
 Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development.
Being that each goal has targets and indicators, goal 7 (target C: to halve by 2015 the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation) has been adopted for this research.
In view of the above, EU/UNICEF has signed a five-year contribution agreement for rural water and sanitation projects with six states (Anambra, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Osun and Yobe). The aim of the project is to deepen the achievements made in the improvement to access to safe drinking water supply and proper sanitation and hygiene in 1000 rural communities in 39 local government from 2005 – 2011 as the first phase. This programme is expected to contribute to poverty reduction and to achieving the water and health related MDGs. The following are the benefiting Local Government Areas (LGAs)
 otherwise  known  as  the  EU/UNICEF  focal  LGAs,  they  are  Aguata,  Anambra  East,
 Idemili South, Nnewi North and Ogbaru. Meanwhile, this study focused on EU/UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme in Nnewi North and Idemili South Local Government Areas. Historically,  what  led  to  WASH  Programme  started  about  1986  as  part  of
 objectives of Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) on improving the health conditions of the rural people. According to Okoli and Onah (2010:171), this programme is “…to raise the living standard of people and their access to basic infrastructures and services such as… pure water supply, preventive and curative health facilities, environmental sanitation…”. Beside the WASH Programme that is being
 supported by EU/UNICEF, there are small towns water and sanitation projects in all these focal LGAs also in support by the same donor Agency.
National Water Supply Policy Document (2000) Section (32-34) stated that:
In order to meet the objectives on water supply, it is estimated that 404 billion Naira will be required to address the absolute demand gap on water and will increase annually by an average of about 25 billion Naira per year to meet up with the additional increase in capacity of the existing water supply system and establishment of additional ones. Consequently, the following funding principles shall apply for capital projects:
 (A)    The federal, state, local government and beneficiary communities shall share the cost of capital investment in water supply and waste water projects:
 (B)   The funds shall be raised through budgetary allocation, loans from financial institutions, raising bonds, contribution from communities by rates and levies, and external loans…
With respect to the above statement, the cost of water supply facilities (either motorized boreholes or solar) and sanitation facilities are shared among the stakeholders: the donor agency, the state government, local government and the benefiting communities.
      Urban/Rural    Small Towns    Public Schools
     Communities Water    Water Supply    Water/Sanitation
     Supply         Projects
Donor Agency    70%    70%    100%
State Government    15%    25%    NIL
Local Government    10%    NIL    NIL
Communities/Small    5%    5%    NIL
Towns/School(s)              
Source: National Water and Sanitation Programme Strategic Framework (2004:45).
The principle of sustainability ensures that little or no subvention from government is required to support operation and maintenance of these projects being that the 5% benefiting communities contributions in some cases is for ownership mindset among them.
For Rural water/sanitation facilities, the WASHCOM oversee(s) the management and operation of the facilities after formal handover of the facilities to them.
In small Towns water/sanitation projects, the CBOs (Traditional Institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations, village unions (executives) should maintain the facilities through tariff paid by the benefiting town while using the facilities.
In terms of school water supply/sanitation facilities, Parents Teachers Association (PTA) do fashion out modalities to maintaining the facilities.
 According to National Water Supply Policy Document (2000) section (39) sub-section (a), “… benefiting communities in association with NGOs would provide the distribution network. The communities would also collect water fee for operation and maintenance of the facilities”.
 Logically therefore, community development efforts by the donor agencies should ensure that rural communities are not only benefiting on developmental projects; they should be deeply involved in every efforts and steps made in their community in terms of capacity building, resource mobilization and full project implementation in order to ensure sustainability. Also government for communities and other collaborators to implement their plans successfully.
1.2              STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Community participation in development projects meant for their benefits had been widely acclaimed by scholars on community development as a veritable means of improving the economic, social and cultural conditions of rural/urban communities by the development partners (Agalamanyi 2007:33). He stated that development supports to rural communities must be in a way that will “encourage initiative, self-help and mutual assistance” instead of the rural communities being passive recipient of development projects and services. However, community development projects recently have been facing multi-dimensional challenges which this research work is poised to identify and proffer lasting solutions to the problems.
Meanwhile, community participation on development projects has been a great problem due to non inclusion of detailed participatory framework on the part of government or community leaders at the formulation level of projects that will help to improve the conditions of the rural communities. Also, poor economic conditions, and socially inhibiting cultural practices had made popular participation a problem in most rural/urban communities making it impossible for effective and result oriented community participation for development projects in our communities to really take place.
Basu (2010:472) observed that “corruption and unhelpful attitude of the bureaucrats (the governments), inordinate delay in getting the wheels of development machinery in motion and poor local population involvements on procedures and formal rules of development projects” has created a lot of hindrance to successful project implementation in the rural areas. According to her, most development agencies had not articulated the citizen’s view points on development project while planning the projects at the initial instance. In the view of Todaro and Smith (2011:549), the problem of community development has been linked to low participation. According to them, participatory development has been discussed for decades by the United Nations and the World Bank since 1970s and 1980s respectively. They further observed that “the goal of economic growth is human development, then without participation, we could have economic growth without development”.
Similarly, development project ownership and sustainability has been a problem in Nigeria. Also, project implementation in the project initiation, planning and designing, execution, monitoring and controlling has not received adequate attention in our communities.
Okoye  (1997:112)  citing  Cleland  and  King  (1988)  noted  that  the  problem  of project  sustainability has  been  a  result  of  “…projects  whose  funding  level  could  not reasonably  be  justified  in  terms  of  the  expected  benefits  to  be  produced…”  thereby discouraging governments (agencies) to put a machinery in place that should continue to support  the  end  users  (the  communities)  in  order  to  ensure  project  maintenance  and sustainability.
Meanwhile, Hanachor (2012:33-35) observed that community development project(s) abandonment has sky-rocketed recently due to choice of project site,
embarking on projects without need analysis, lack of social analysis of projects, project imposition, improper financial analysis, under bidding of projects and lack of effective technical analysis have resulted in abandon projects spotting everywhere in most rural communities ‘showcasing’ governments and international development agencies as false and unserious institutions. He cited a rural water project in Ibaa/Obele communities in Rivers State noting that:
 When actions and activities on development projects are suspended without any stated time of resumption the projects are said to be abandoned. Ibaa/Obele water projects was aimed at improving the lives of the members of the community… most of the materials used for the projects are already out of use due to delay in completion and time lag between suspension and resumption is so much to attract loss and weakening of materials.
Finally,  Henachor  (2012:34)  quoting  Goodenough  (1963)  pointed  out  that
“development projects undertaken in the spirit of imposing our will on others and getting
them  see  the  folly of  their  way…  invariably  meets  with  resistance”.  In  other  words,
excessive politicization of project site and deliberate lowering of quotations in order to
 win project contract by contractors together with poor community input has deeply affected benefiting community mindset on project acceptance and ownership.
In line with the above stated problems, the following research questions will guide this work:
i.              What are the level of local communities participation in projects meant for their benefit?
ii.            Do most community development projects achieve their targeted results?
iii.          What are the level of community project ownership and sustainability in most communities?
iv.          Is corruption, unrealistic assumptions and project abandonment part of community development project challenges?
1.3              OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
 General Objective
The general objective of this study is to ascertain the contributions of EU/Unicef in promoting improved hygiene and sanitation practice by developing and applying appropriate participatory and social techniques that will lead to demand for household and communal sanitary facilities. Being that EU and Unicef have pooled their resources together to better the lots of some selected communities in urban and rural areas of Nigeria, they are partnering in order to increase the capacity of local, state and federal governments to assist communities to obtain the basic water supply and sanitation services especially those that may experience the out break of endemic diseases.
The aim of EU/Unicef through their intervention is to ensure behavioural change among their idea of WASH project ownership in order to improve development project sustainability. Furthermore, study will help to examine the support from the effort of these development partners towards poverty reduction and development through their efforts in water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in Anambra State.
In line with above general objectives, the following are the specific objectives of the study:
i.              To investigate the level of local community participation on development projects designed for their benefit after the intervention of EU/UNICEF.
 ii.            To determine the relationship between community development project ownership attitude and project sustainability among the selected communities.
 iii.          To identify the impact of water, sanitation and hygiene education programmes on poverty reduction and development.
 1.4              SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The significance of this study are categorized into theoretical, empirical and practical significance.
Theoretical Significance:
Theoretically, this study has the potential of contributing greatly to the growth of existing theories in social science particularly in Local Government Administration and Community Development Studies by helping to enrich the bank of knowledge through its reliable findings on the efforts of donor agencies toward improving the living conditions of rural dwellers especially in Nnewi rural-urban of Anambra State of Nigeria. This is to say that this study would assist in improving the frontiers of knowledge especially in the area of community development (enabling people to develop their capacity to identify their problems and plan of solving them) thereby improving the living standard and social status of the people through hygiene promotion and education. The study will help Development Administrators, Community Leaders and Public Administrators improve on their knowledge, it will also help to reshape the local community mind set on development project ownership which directly determines project sustainability. The reason for this is that if development project especially on the area of water supply and sanitation jointly provided by different stakeholders are adequately maintained, it will serve the purpose of its provision.
This study also has the potential of contribution to the income of local communities, increase their access to safe drinking water and indirectly help top improve their productivity.
Empirical Significance:
Empirically, this study will serve as a foundation for future researchers who may in due course wish to embark on research on the importance of water supply, sanitation and hygiene education on community development in Anambra State. It will also support the solution through which the campaign against poverty reduction, health education, environmental sanitation and increase in human productivity.
Practical Significance
Practically, this study is considered significance because community development is a product of many elements, including changes in thinking, social status, cultural beliefs, traditions etc with the following indicators that can generally be used to show the level of development and welfare in rural –urban communities: an increase in social services such as good housing, health, education, nutrition, clean environment and sufficient clean and safe water. Others are increase in income that enable families in a community to meet their needs and set aside savings, a decrease in infant and maternal mortality, a demand for modern technology, sustainable use of the environment and the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty in the communities and the nation in general.
1.5              SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study focuses on the effects of Donor Agencies on Community Development in Anambra State which special interest in EU/UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programmes in Nnewi North and Idemili South Local Government Areas in the new millennium. It covers in detail the structures by which these agencies utilize in putting in place this life-saving facilities in selected communities and schools within the council area with the aim of impacting positively on the socio-economic development of the studied area.
Nevertheless, a study of this magnitude cannot be completed successfully without the researcher encountering some constraints or limitations. Also, considered as limitation in this study is near absence of community development and water, sanitation and hygiene education texts and journals. Another aspect of limitation to this study in relevant attitude of government officials and community leaders toward furnishing the researcher with vital information on WASH matters together with the unfriendly attitude of some respondents.
However, the researcher ensured that the limitations/constraints did not affect the outcome of the study by frequenting on government officials, community leaders, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and respondents in order to illicit vital information and response from them. Also, journals were sourced from the internet together with other materials and government publications/reports on water and sanitation reform sector.