NEAZDP AT A GLANCE; ACTIVITIES OVER THE YEARS.

NEAZDP AT A GLANCE:

NEAZDP is an Integrated Rural Development Programme initiated in 1990 by European Economic Community (EEC) now European Union (EU), in collaboration with Federal Government of Nigeria and the then Borno State Government. When Yobe State was created in 1991, the Headquarters of NEAZDP felt entirely under the boundaries of Yobe State. Presently, NEAZDP is being financed by Yobe State Government.

OBJECTIVES OF NEAZDP:

To assist the rural populace in improving their standard of living by proper use and management of their natural resources.

To increase the technical expertise of the communities, State and Local Government Organizations.

To improve the education and health of the rural population for sustainable development of the communities within the programme area.

To change attitude of the environment.

To increase agricultural productivity through improved ecologically and technically appropriate farming techniques.

COMPONENTS AND DEPARTMENTS:

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT UNIT (PMU)

This is the Central Administrative Department with some units under it. The Programme Manager is the Head of the entire Organization. These units are;

Administrative Unit

Finance Unit

Manpower Development and Training

Engineering Services

Workshop

Guest house, catering and Club services.

THE THREE MAJOR COMPONENTS AND THEIR UNITS:

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION COMPONENT:

This component has;

Natural resources Planning

Crop Production

Livestock Production

Agro-forestry and Desertification control

Fisheries and Appropriate Technology unit.

VILLAGE WATER SUPPLY COMPONENT:

This component covers;

Construction of tube well water points

Rehabilitation of water points

Drilling and installation of Solar Boreholes

Drilling and rehabilitation of cement wells

Water quality assessment.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMPONENT:

This Component covers the following activities;

Adult education, Primary education and junior secondary schools (supplying them with instructional materials, Textbooks, Teaching aid and furniture)

Primary Health Care; Trained Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and Village Health Workers (VHWs), supplying Medical equipments to Maternity clinics, Comprehensive Health Centres and assisting them with power generator for lightening.

Women Development – Assisting with sewing machines, knitting and other quasi ventures.

In line with its objectives, NEAZDP has embarked and achieved its activities annually, among which are Health care delivery, Education, Agriculture, Desertification control, and also assisting/support to vulnerable groups; (Blinds, Leapers, Cripples, and Widows). Such support covers the supply of clothing materials and millet grains to each identified beneficiary.

HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SERVICES:

In the Health sector, NEAZDP has impacted positively in health service delivery. In this regard, the following has been achieved;

18 maternity/health centres have benefitted from either 8HP generating set, essential hospital equipments like Trolleys, delivery Bed or Ambuy bags.

Two hundred and seventy (270) Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and Village Health Workers (VHWs) were trained and been provided with the practicing kits to curtail menace of infant maternal and mortality rates.

Considering 100 beneficiaries per health centre and 50 delivery support service per annum for every trained TBAs and VHWs, this implies that a total of 15,300 persons has enjoyed these facilities.

WATER SUPPLY:

NEAZDP has constructed and rehabilitated a considerable number of Hand Pumps, and Cement Wells in various communities.

A total of 185 Village communities benefitted from this project. Considering 500 to 1000 persons per village. This implies that a total of 92,000 to 1,850,000 inhabitants plus flora and fauna benefitted from portable drinking water.

EDUCATION:

Equally, a total of 117 primary schools, junior secondary schools and Islamiyya schools had benefitted from this support services. Considering 40 pupils per class, a total of 9,360 pupils had benefitted from conducive learning centres, instructional materials, seaters and textbooks.

AGRICULTURE:

NEAZDP has demonstrated a Pilot Irrigation Scheme and Land Reclamation Trials on different crops such as; Millet, Sorghum, Sesame and Cassava to boost Agriculture.

SUPPORT TO VULNERABLE GROUPS:

In order to support less privilege and disable persons among the society, 1,800 persons (Leapers, Blinds, Cripples, Widows, and Deaf people) were carefully selected and benefitted from food stuff and clothing materials free of charge including transportation of beneficiaries from the collection centre to their respective villages.

Each beneficiary received 1 bag of millet grain (100kg) and bundle of 10 yards of clothing materials. Taking into account that each beneficiary has 5 dependants in his household. This implies that a total of 9,000 persons has benefitted from this support services, and these people will lay their hands in terms of food on the table. This has drastically reduced lingering in street for begging and clothing during critical period.

NEAZDP APPROACH ON FOOD SECURITY MEASURE (FSM):

To cushion the effect of price of stable food stuff in the market, curtail the activities of middlemen/hoarders, ensure readily food stuff and ease the burden of high cost of transportation (total value chain), 4,500 bags of millet have been procured and sold to farmers at critical period.

This scheme together with grains recovered from ox-team recovery has addressed the aforementioned problems in 300 selected villages every year. Within the years under review, about 1,000 villages benefitted from these projects.

COMBATING DESERTIFICATION:

Within the year under review, NEAZDP has raised 350,000 assorted seedlings, viz; Neem trees, Prosopis, Acacia Albida (Gum Arabic) and has already distributed to extension service workers in development areas, interested groups on request and plantation activities. This has been since the inception of NEAZDP in 1990.

Within the years under review, 1km shelterbelt has been established at Bayamari. Similarly, 12.5 hectares of Gum Arabic was also established adjacent to the shelterbelt along Dapchi road. The earlier 4 hectares of woodlots at Jawa/Garin Alkali and 6 hectares of sandune fixation at Bukartin Gabas were maintained/nutured over the years. Twenty (20) primary schools were equally planted with Neem trees.

Scientific analysis shows that fuel wood will generate from these plantations to the community thereby reducing desertification process. Oxygen will be emitted to the atmosphere thereby also neutralizing carbon monoxide that affects the ozone layer for excessive heat transfer to the earth that leads to climate change.