Interview with Hon Darius Dickson Ishaku

In this maiden edition, the editorial team, with National Project Coordinator, met with HON. DARIUS DICKSON ISHAKU HONOURABLE MINISTER OF STATE FOR  MINISTRY of NIGER DELTA  AFFAIRS AND SUPERVISING MINISTER FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, to shed light on THE NIGERIA EROSION AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PROJECT.QUESTION:  Sir, tell us about the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project.?

ANSWER: The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) is designed to support the country’s transformation agenda to achieve greater environmental and economic security.       The Federal Government of Nigeria with support from the International Development Association (IDA) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) is to implement the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP).

Let us know that Nigeria faces severe problems of soil erosion – both sheet and gully erosion – due to both natural and human causes. Over 6,000km² of land are affected by erosion and about 3,400km² are highly exposed. In some areas of southern Nigeria, farmland degradation has caused yield reductions of between 30% and 90%, and as much as a 5% drag on agricultural GDP. Therefore erosion has had a devastating effect on many peoples’ lives and destroys infrastructure essential for economic development and poverty alleviation. Gully erosion contributes to environmental problems and damage estimated at over $100 million annually (mostly in South-Eastern Nigeria).

So, in response to the challenges of massive and rapidly expanding gully erosion and land degradation, with its devastating impact on lives and livelihoods in the south – south and the south east of the Country, a request for assistance was made in 2010 by Mr. President to the World Bank Nigeria office, to support the country in addressing this menace. This therefore propelled the Federal Ministry of Environment in concert with the World Bank and its partner agencies to design the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) to address on a multi-dimensional scale, the menace of gully erosion in the south east as well as land degradation in the North. The NEWMAP project therefore, is in line with Mr. President’s Transformation Agenda.”

Question: What is the significant development objective of the project? And is it in line with the government’s Transformation Agenda?

Answer: The project’s development objective is to reduce Vulnerability to soil erosion in targeted sub-watersheds. Therefore this innovative, multi-sectoral project will finance State-led interventions to prevent and reverse land degradation, initially focusing on gully erosion sites that threaten infrastructure and livelihoods in seven States: Abia, Anambra, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo Enugu and Imo. It will subsequently scale out to other states nationwide.

Investments include a strategic combination of civil engineering, vegetative land management and other watershed protection measures, and community-led adaptive livelihood .initiatives. The sustainability of these investments will be reinforced by strengthening institutions and information services across sectors and States, including support to improve governance, regulatory compliance, environmental monitoring, impact evaluation, watershed and land use planning, and totally strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to promote and implement climate- resilient, low- carbon development.

Like I mentioned earlier, the project is in line with the growth and resilience goals of Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020, under which the World Bank provides financial and non-financial support. And for those that have been following, since the 2010 elections, Nigeria has been putting in place an ambitious “transformation agenda.”  This agenda is expected to prioritize job creation and implementation of strategies for resolving Nigeria’s long-standing infrastructure problems, particularly in power and transportation, and will include reforms in agriculture and the oil and gas industries.  The project has been specifically designed in response to the President of Nigeria’s request to the Bank to support the country to address severe erosion and its impacts in south-eastern Nigeria, and as such is an integral part of Nigeria’s transformation agenda.

Question: How would the project be implemented?

Answer: The project is multi-sectoral, involving many federal and state Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), local governments, communities, and civil society.  As such, effective implementation requires inter-ministerial and inter-state coordination, collaboration, and information sharing. Thus at the Federal level, The Federal Ministry of Environment (FME) is the lead implementing agency. However, given the multi-sectoral nature of the project, it was agreed that overall project coordination will be carried out by an independent and multi-sectoral Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) being hosted by the Ministry.

The Federal PMU is headed by a Federal Coordinator, known as the NEWMAP national Coordinator. The staffing was carried out in line with World Bank standard, with experts’ drawned by secondments/postings from relevant MDAs.

With respect to technical expertise required in developing and implementing the gully control measures, the FPMU will be reinforced by three consultancies at the highest standards available: (i) a civil engineering and design consultancy, (ii) an international project management consultancy, and (iii) a third-party M&E consultancy whose main role will be to collect, analyze and disseminate lessons coming out of the different states during implementation. The strategic direction of the project is overseen by a NEWMAP Federal Steering Committee.

The steering committee is also replicated at the State levels. The Steering Committee at the Federal Level is chaired by my humble self as the environment Minister and it is composed of permanent secretaries, or directors-general from relevant MDAs. There is also a Technical Committee composed of relevant directors from key MDAs providing technical guidance to the PMU.

Each component, sub-component and activity will be implemented through relevant federal and state MDAs, relying upon a robust annual joint work programming process facilitated by the respective Project Management Unit (PMU) – one at federal level and one for each participating state. The various MDAs include those responsible for planning, economy and finance, works, agriculture, water resources, forests, transport, power, emergency response, as well as those focused on climate and hydrological information or watershed/basin regulation.[1] Most of the project’s investments will occur at state level, as states have primary responsibility for land management and land allocations. In general, the federal level project structure will reinforce the state level structures by, for example, providing engineering and watershed management expertise, monitoring tools, and benchmarking performance.

The State level structures are also the same there is one Project Management Unit in each State, headed by a State Coordinator. Each State PMU is hosted by its respective environment ministry and is staffed with a broad range of expertise, supplemented by secondments/postings from relevant MDAs.   Overseeing the PMUs are NEWMAP State Steering and Technical Committees, which is similar to those at federal level, and are composed of policy level and technical level officials, respectively, from relevant MDAs.

As a result of the Multi-sector work programming, working with relevant MDAs, each PMU develops a joint annual work program against which project disbursements will be made by the relevant PMUs at State level and the single Federal PMU. The relevant Steering Committee approves the work program after vetting by the relevant Technical Committee.

Question: What are the implementation components of the project?

Answer: NEWMAP has four components:

1. Erosion and Watershed Management Investments.
2. Erosion and Watershed Management Institutions and Information Services.
3. Climate Change Agenda Support. and,
4. Project Management.  Component 1 (investment) will largely be implemented at State level with the State PMU working closely with specific LGAs and communities organized into Site Committees.

Component 2 will be implemented at Federal and State levels, while Component 3 will be implemented only at federal level. To implement the agreed set of activities, each PMU works closely with relevant MDAs, develops and issues TORs, bidding documents, and calls for Expressions of Interest (EOI), carries out bid reviews, supervises consultancies, develops and implements RAPs and ESIAs, carries out project monitoring and evaluation at the respective level; and develops and participates in impact evaluation and project communications. The execution of certain activities (particularly under component 3) might be outsourced from the Federal PMU to relevant MDAs, under the terms – acceptable to the Bank – of MOUs between the FME and the relevant Sector Ministry.

The project is financed through an 8-year specific investment loan with a total cost of USD 658.59million. It will be funded as follows:

1. IDA credit USD 500million. It should be noted that IDA credits provide long-term loans at zero interest. IDA credits have maturity of 20, 35 or 40 years with a 10-year grace period on repayment of principal.
2. SCCF (Grant) USD 4.63million
3. GEF (Grant) USD 3.96million, and
4. Contribution by participating state governments USD 150milliom (Federal 60% and States 40%).

Question: what are the derivable benefits of this project?

Answer: At the long run the project would have achieved the following:

Improved erosion management and gully rehabilitation which will provide for:

• Reduced loss of infrastructure including roads, houses, markets, and other real estate.
• Reduced loss of agricultural land and productivity from soil loss caused by surface erosion.
• Reduced siltation in rivers leading to less flooding particularly in urban areas and with will also lead to preservation of some of the water systems for improved access to domestic water supply.
• Reduced risks of floods (due to reduced siltation) also in rural areas and reduced impacts on villages and agricultural areas.
• Reduced sedimentation in rivers and in water infrastructure such as canals and dam reservoirs improving their life and productivity.
• Improved water quality downstream;
• Reduced lowering of the water table from the ravines caused by gullies.
• Improved access to economic activities, social services, and communication and road networks.
• Progressively restored vegetative cover. Improve environmental conditions due to increased vegetation cover for wildlife, carbon sequestration, and make local microclimates more humid.
• Environmental improvements because of the land stabilization to preserve the landscape and biodiversity.
• Increased incomes for rural households resulting from improved agricultural and forest practices through the use of conservation agriculture, agro forestry, natural regeneration, etc. Livelihood Enhancement Activities (LEA) will also add to household activities.  Farming households may also diversify their livelihoods by introducing new crops such as cashew which can help stabilize land and also provide increased revenue.
• Efficiency gains in public administration and public spending through improved knowledge base, analytical tools, multi-sectoral coordination and stakeholder dialogue.
• Increased social capital for the participating communities as they gain the experience to get collective or economic results

 

I want to state that, this project is not just like the other Erosion, land remediation projects we have had in the past. Mr. President should be commended for this initiative. This is why as a  category “A” Project, NEWMAP will take a multiscale and a multisector approach over the course of the 8-year programme, with over 50 sites in up to 11 States benefitting. The FM arrangements will be handled by each respective State’s existing Project Financial Management Unit (PFMU) and the existing Federal Project Financial Management Division (FPFMD) at the federal level. The PFMUs and FPFMD are multi-donor and multi-project FM platforms, established in all states and at the federal level respectively through the joint efforts of the Bank and the government. These common FM platforms feature robust systems and controls.