REVITALIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITIES AND SMALL TOWNS

Labode POPOOLA, PhD, FFAN

Professor of Forest Economics & Sustainable Development at the University of Ibadan

Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network-Nigeria

Conceptualising the ‘rural and urban’ in Africa

• Defining what constitutes ‘rural’ or ‘urban’ remains a challenging academic undertaking.

• Traditionally, scholarly and policy discussions have tended to treat rural and urban areas as two distinct spaces of human interactions (see Tacoli, 1998).

• According to Agergaard et al (2010), one approach often used to distinguish rural from urban areas is the livelihood and economy approach prevalent in some geographical literature (e.g.Rigg, 2007).

• In this approach, the rural is dominated by primary production and agriculture livelihoods while the urban is dominated by manufacturing and non-farm occupations.

• Thus in this conceptualisation, the two are treated as distinct spaces of production with different livelihood systems.

• While this position is dominant in literature, there are two fundamental challenges when such binaries are applied to an African context.

• First, the use of these binaries is inconsistent with evidences that show that what may be termed as rural or urban features tend to co-exist within the urban or rural areas (Allen, 2003).

• For example, non-agricultural activities (e.g manufacturing) are a wide spread feature of rural areas (Owuor, 2004) while urban agriculture is a prominent feature of African cities (Hampwaye, 2008; Bar et al, 2003).

• The phenomenon where ‘rural’ features are prevalent in ‘urban’ areas is now being referred to as the ‘ruralisation’ of urban areas, and the reverse being ‘urbanization’ of rural areas.

• Although some literature treats this as a new phenomenon, Kruger (1998) argues that ruralisation has always been a feature of African urbanisation.

• Secondly, the conceptualization of the two, as either an agricultural space or manufacturing space, projects an image of the rural or urban areas as being more or less homogenous and static.

• The reality, however, is that rural and urban settlements are never static and are often changing with changing circumstances.

• Further, they vary considerably in-country and across countries in Africa. For example rural areas in proximity to urban areas vary considerably to rural areas remote to urban areas.

• In analytical terms, the rural-urban dichotomy often proves inadequate for analysing issues in areas that cannot be classified as distinctly rural or urban such as peri-urban areas (Allen, 2003).

• Further, Allen (2003) notes that this artificial distinction misinforms the setting up of institutional arrangements and development planning practice.

• Planning tends to separate rural areas from urban areas.

• As Tacoli (1998) aptly puts it, urban planners tend to concentrate on urban issues and give little attention to agriculture and rural development while rural planners ignore urban issues.

• The result is that many issues that transcend this dichotomy are poorly treated in development planning processes.

• As a departure from literature that emphasizes these binaries, some approaches, particularly social and cultural approaches do not treat the two as distinct spaces of production, but as an ‘idea’ of rural and urban with social and cultural meanings (Agergaard et al, 2010).

• In this treatment, societies are viewed as in a state of flux such that it is difficult to tie either rural or urban areas to a specific economic activity as some rural areas have become defacto urban spaces in terms of production, consumption and social interactions.

• The emphasis here is on the blurring of an urban-rural divide (Tacoli, 2008).

• Thus as Agergaard et al (2010) note, since settlements are difficult to classify as either rural or urban, they are better seen as forming a rural –urban continuum.

• Perhaps, understanding urbanization and “urban” Nigeria may make the conceptualization of “rural” Nigeria a bit clearer.

Urbanization

• Urbanization is a normal feature in the

development process

• Most urban areas were hitherto small, native and rural settlements, which gradually evolved into peri-urban areas and eventually into cosmopolitan and in some cases megalopolitan centres.

• This finds expressions in Yoruba thus: So’gbo di’le, so’gbe di’gboro

Urbanization

Cities evolve in situations when neighbourhood interests will have to yield totally to other forces, when the need is overwhelming for a highway, a park, or a massive re-development project, and no amount of care in design or implementation can preserve the area largely as it had been.

It is estimated that over 50% of the world’s population now lives in cities and urban areas, and this will increase over time.

Contrary to common belief, urban systems can be more environmentally sustainable than rural or suburban living, if properly managed

Urbanization

Cities benefit the economy by locating human

capital in one relatively small geographic area

where ideas can be generated

In the Nigerian situation,

expansions/urbanization have not been due

totally to the exigencies of development as

dictated by authorities governing such areas.

It is often due to massive rural-urban drift

Urbanization

• Such massive movements have resulted in

creation of sub-standard satellite settlements

and slums at the fringes of urban areas in:

– FCT e.g Nyanya, Gwagwalada, Kubuwa, Zuba,

Karu, etc.

– Lagos e.g Maroko, Mile 2, Egbe, Ikotun, Isheri,

Ketu, Alapere, etc.

– and others such as Ibadan, Onitsha, Enugu,

Kaduna, Maiduguri etc.

Plate 1: Typical scenes in urban slums

Urbanization

Urban environment in many parts of Nigeria is in a deplorable state

The problems are compounded by uncontrolled rural to urban migration of people

A city selects its vocation whether to be primarily a city of commerce, giving its hearts to banks, office spaces or a habitat city for residence. Over time habitat settlements may yield places to commerce, businesses and offices. E.g. most of Old Bodija, Oke Ado, Itire, Mushin and a number of localities in Lagos Island are no longer residential

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Social Realities of Rurality: Implications for SRD

• SRD revolves around 3 concepts – sustainability, rural people & development.

• Each is significant, but collectively take on a greater importance

• Our first area of focus is the rural dwellers themselves.

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Lives & Livelihoods of Rural Dwellers

• Development needs to look at the producer more than the product

• Majority of Nigerian farming households are small-scale and resource-poor

• Limited capacity to scale-up agricultural enterprises

Fig 2: Typical rural Sahel

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Fig 4: Complexity of Livelihoods: Multiple modes of activities

• F

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Fig 5: De-agrarianization: Shift from agricultural production in rural areas –eg. Sand dredging in Lagos State

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Face of Rural Poverty and Neglect

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Fig 7: Example of Rural Neglect: Niger Delta – Poverty in Midst of Plenty

• 80% of population live in rural areas

• 94% of settlements have less than 5,000 people with low level of infrastructural development.

• HDI of 0.564 is comparatively very low

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Figure 8: Cross-cutting Issues Influencing SRD: Case of Gender and Climate Change

• Climate change not only an environmental or technical concern, also a social concern particularly with gender-specific realities

• Climate change will increase females’ burden of meeting household responsibilities

• Climate change will increase existing inequalities

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Figure 9: Challenges to SRD: Lives & Livelihoods under threat

• Livelihoods under risk while rural poverty levels are alarmingly high

• Risk factors include mineral exploitation, environmental conditions, loss of productivity, lack of security

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Challenges to SRD: Past and Potential Social Conflicts

• Past social conflicts over resources often an indicator for possible new conflict situations

• Tensions in one area can spread to other localities

• Development activities that attract outsiders can bring problems as well

• Lately, there were communal clashed in Benue State in an area said to be crude oil-laden. In fact a school of thought believes that the unrelenting BH is an international conspiracy to appropriate future oil fields in Lake Chad Basin area

• Social Impact Assessments try to anticipate conflicts and other negative consequences of interventions and suggest mitigation measures

Plate 10: Gold prospecting (gallamsey) in Ashanti Region of Ghana

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Fig 11:Challenges to SRD: Improper Interpretation of Local Situation

• Sometimes, researchers misinterpret the meaning of what they observe and draw wrong conclusions

• When asked if these women had phones, most said ‘no’, hoping that they would then be given new ones!

• The reality however, was that many of them had been doing mobile banking for years

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Fig 12: Challenges to SRD: Low Level of Infrastructural Development

• Rural poor live in poor communities with lack of opportunities to move out of poverty.

• Larger towns & cities with more facilities & services attract rural dwellers, leading to more rural –> urban migration

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Challenges to SRD: Lack of Good Baseline Data

• Monitoring and evaluation is crucial to determine impact of development efforts, but baseline data are often lacking.

• Some of conditions assumed to have been result of project may actually have been present before the project or due to some other influences.

• Projects that fail to conduct baseline studies are unable to accurately evaluate the impact of a particular intervention.

• Glad to note that in the context of Iba, a survey had been carried on the status of things. That is a positive development

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Fig 13: Environmental Degradation as a Challenge to Rural Dwellers’ Well-being

• Environmental conditions can be source of shocks or stresses that result in hardships: erosion, flooding, oil pollution, desertification

• These cause many forms of challenges to productivity, shelter, health etc.

• Sadly, rapid response is usually not available.

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Fig 14: Social Exclusion in Development Interventions: A Major Concern

• Socially marginalized persons / groups are often excluded from development benefits.

• Marginalization is the exclusion from meaningful participation in society. Such persons may suffer material deprivation when resources are dispersed or restricted when opportunities are available.

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Figure 15: Rural Persons often Marginalized

• The poor

• Women, especially widows or those from poor households

• Ethnic minorities

• Tenants or migrants

• Fulani herdsmen

• Physically challenged

• PLWAs or other chronically ill persons

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Problem of ‘Elite Capture’

• Projects targeted at the poor or socially marginalized sometimes suffer from ‘elite capture’ where benefits intended for them are taken over or ‘captured’ by better-off and more powerful persons – thereby widening the gap between the poor and the rich.

• There must be safeguards against social exclusion and elite capture.

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Opportunities for SRD: Building upon local Social Capital

• Local social support networks or ‘safety nets’ and coping mechanisms help survive harsh social and economic environments.

• These are often ignored as new institutions or groups are formed. Rural dwellers may then end up without anticipated improvements and without their safety nets as well – leaving them worse off.

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Opportunities for SRD: Shift to Private Partnerships and Local Participation

• Need to shift from over-dependence upon Government – led initiatives

• Give more authority and ‘ownership’ to the local population

• Involvement of private sector and NGOs

• More effective interventions begin with bottom-up approach and greater involvement of local population

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Fig 16: Ultimately, achieving SRD comes down to people

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Fig 17: Opportunities for SRD: Learn what works & Scale up successful activities

• Example of the First National Fadama Development Project

• Importance of keeping some control in hands of people

• Compare to problems from large-scale dam and irrigation projects

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Fig 18: Approaches to Achieve SRD: Consider

Development Challenges Holistically

• Development planning sometimes tackles one problem without consideration of other issues that are closely related & may affect success or failure.

• Example of rural transport sector: Not just about no roads

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Fig 19: Rural Transport Sector is not just about poor roads

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Fig 20: Rural Transport is not just about roads and bridges

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Fig 22: Rural Transport should also be about Safety of Passengers

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Approach Development Issues Holistically

• It is important to see the whole picture of opportunities and constraints, activities and values, personal characteristics of age, education, status and so on to plan a strategy that will truly be beneficial for both the society at large, but also the individuals at the grassroots.

• There are dangers in supporting projects that only address practical needs (those that relate to the condition and immediate needs), for instance, income, in ways which do not take strategic needs into account (related to person’s position, access to resources or decision-making, etc.).

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Ten “Don’ts” To Avoid for SRD

1. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver / Don’t start what you can’t finish

2. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it

3. Don’t try to make ‘one size fits all’

4. Don’t expect social changes to occur overnight

5. Don’t assume development benefits will eventually ‘trickle-down” to the poor

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Fig 23: Don’t under-estimate the importance of social identity and cultural heritage

• Development projects that disturb or destroy sites of social significance should make provision for relocation or other social obligations

• Socio-cultural sites – or cultural heritage – are important not only for current, but future generations.

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Fig 24: Show Respect for local Cultural Elements

• Essential part of successful community entrance and local engagement is showing respect for social norms, values & beliefs. Disregarding their culture is sure way of alienating local residents and creating suspicions of one’s motives

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Fig 25: Don’t ignore the Role of Local Leaders

Oba (king)

‘White Cap’ High Chiefs

Zangan (security agents for each quarter)

Market Heads (Oloja & Otun Baba Oja)

Honourary Chiefs

Family / Quarter Heads

Community Representatives (6 members)

Clan / Ward Heads (2 in Community)

Village Head

Chiefs

Compound Heads

Ward Commanders (2)

Head of Village Security

Household Heads

Male Children

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More “Don’ts”

8. Don’t impose outsiders’ view of what the local people need

9. Don’t aggravate the often poor relationship between rural dwellers and government officials or corporations

10. Don’t allow development programmes to be politicized

The Sustainable Development Goals and the future of Small towns and Rural Areas

• All the 17 Goals are interconnected and inseparable

• They come with a new ideology of Shared-responsibilities, Inclusiveness and Partnerships

• They come with BAU Change and Prioritization

• And with growth in Economy, Decent Work, Accountability

• The SDGs will all impact or be impacted by events in small towns and rural areas

• Decisive actions by change agents on the SDGs are bound to make small towns and rural areas more livable with enhancement in productivity.

Fig 26: Sustainable Development Goals

Fig 27: Cardinal Issues of The SDGs

Source: Godwell Ihamo,2015

SDG 16: Peace and Justice is Crosscutting

Fig 28: Pillars of The SDGs

People

Planet

Peace

Partnership

Prosperity

Value Reorientation and

Awareness Creation (VRAC)

• Catching them young • Education and training • Debates and group discussions • Role models • Rewarding excellence and sanctioning

infractions • Ethical use of the media/social media

Sustainable Cities

Development Schemes

(SCDS)

Education: A Driving Force

for the SDGs (EDF-SDGs)

Sustainable Food Systems

(SFS)

Sustainable Water

Intervention Schemes (SWIS)

Adaptation to Climate Change

- Innovative Tree Planting

Schemes (ITPS)

• SDGs curricula • Catch them young/ Primary School/

rhymes • Clubs for teachers and learners • Instructional materials (books,

handbills, etc.) • Music, media and social media • Promoting creativity and innovations

• Guaranteed minimum price • Employment • Irrigation • Access roads • Storage facilities • Processing and packaging • Subsidies

• Water harvesting • Boreholes • Reticulation • Water for agriculture • Water for health

• Innovative seedling production and tree planting project

• Greening the environment • Green employment generation

• Energy • Green terrain • Infrastructure • Waste management

Fig 29: SDG Priority Schemes for Nigeria and the Challenge to the Academia

Challenge to the Academia

• In the conceptualization of the SDGs, the academia was perceived to be pivotal in their achievement

• The academia is expected as change agent is expected to advance knowledge, creativity, innovation and wisdom to ensure prosperity

Knowledge Model Knowledge, innovation and wisdom are critical to a nation’s advancement.

Prosperity

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Innovation

Skills

Will Visit Next

What is Prosperity • A state of stable, reliable & secure growth, with rising employment, income & overall quality of life, that ensures transcendental success.

Prosperity

Per capita income

Employment Rate Amenities Matrix

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Prosperity in the New Global Economy •Industrial economy model is waning in Industrialized nations, as Africa is experiencing its best sustained period of growth, despite………….. • With nearly 60 years of chasing shadows, Nigeria must pursue its own notion of prosperity. •The role of the University in the current environment is: (1) Practical Education, (2) Innovation-focused Research , and (3) Harbiter of Entrepreneurship and Knowledge Transfer. •The industrial machinery never kicked in in Nigeria and where it did, the university probably had little to do with it.

So much to do, yet left undone…

• Where are fishing, agriculture, our waterways, our electricity, our roads, our core values, developing the skills of the youth, food preservation and value addition to agricultural produce that can turn our small towns and rural areas into productive habitable communities?

• The academia in Nigeria has left all these unattended • What do we see in our universities now:

– The presence of many easy avenues to defraud the system – Check out contract sums for projects in our public universities and research institutes as

example – We now hide under the cover of “faith” to commit unimaginable atrocities – Inability to be creative and innovate to unleash sustainable development – Politics of destruction having trumped Scholarship and Integrity

• Lecturers including professors (with a few exceptions) have turned Vice-Chancellors to demagogue largely because of their (lecturers) insatiable longing after positions and materialism at the expense of idealism. Where a Vice- Chancellor is unyielding they make the system ungovernable. They do not care a hoot about the fact that idealism is the main pillar of profound intellectualism

Litmus Test for a Nation The prosperity of states and nations is a reflection of the quality of their knowledge infrastructure, the most prominent of which are their universities. If the math does not add up, it is probably due to 1 or more of 3 things.

Education and Research Inadequate. Limited Resources.

Education and Research Pointed in the Wrong Direction.

Wrong Product Mix. Problem Past the University Gate.

System Problem.

System Problem

Product Mix

Limited Resources

Building Resilience to revitalize our rural and small towns

From the foregoing, our rural and small towns are indeed troubled and resilience becomes an issue.

Why build resilience?

Resilience becomes an issue when sustainability is challenged by change. Resilient systems deal with the disturbance or stress, the tendency to depart from normal, caused by change, by adapting in such a way that their basic structures and ways of functioning are retained. This is achieved through the possession of a capacity for learning and adjusting, and a capacity for self-organization ( Okali, 2012).

• Building resilience requires us to have a working

understanding of sustainability, the nature of change,

vulnerability of systems to change, the meaning and

desirable features of adaptation and the main

attributes or characteristics of resilience

• Three main attributes characterize resilience:

(a) Buffer capacity

• Diversity of livelihood options;

• Raised human capital endowments

• Improved rights and access to livelihood resources

• Improved incomes

• Enhanced site specific knowledge;

• Policies that serve as incentives;

• A tendency towards stewardship, rather than just exploitation;

• Enhanced environmental benefits.

(b) Self Organization

• Dependence on local resources;

• Cooperation and networking among components of

the system;

• Ownership of resources;

• Degree of dependence on indigenous knowledge;

• Flexibility in decision making.

c. Increasing Adaptive Capacity:

• Opportunities for knowledge combination, promoted by existence of a variety of learning platforms

• Functioning feedback mechanisms: especially among stakeholders – farmers, extension officers, researchers, policymakers,

• Narrowing of power differentials

• Reliance on indigenous knowledge.

Concluding remarks

Rural communities and small towns are integral part of any Society and should be factored into any development plans and processes. Infrastructure gaps that are critical for reducing inequalities should be addressed. Addressing institutional failure in urbanization dynamics and in rural stagnation should be addressed. Reforming governance and planning systems to allow for structures that build bonds between urban and rural areas becomes and existential imperative. We need to enhance access to information through communication technology to enhance connectivity within rural communities and between them and urban settlements. It is important to give high priority to hunger and poverty as according to Mahatma Gandhi said: Even God does not Dare to appear before A hungry person In any form Other than food

Thank you