Conflict deepening poverty in North – Report

A new report has revealed that insecurity across Northern Nigeria is not only worsening poverty but also weakening the ability of households to recover from economic shocks.

The report, titled “Insecurity, Livelihoods and Welfare in Northern Nigeria,” found that violent conflicts in the region are driving poverty through different pathways, including loss of income, destruction of assets, disruption of markets and increased vulnerability.

The findings were unveiled during a high-level webinar organised by the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) of the Institute of Development Studies, United Kingdom, the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), and the Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRiNG) project supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Presenting the report, CPAN Deputy Director, Dr. Vidya Diwakar, said the study identified three major forms of insecurity affecting Northern Nigeria: Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgency in the North East, farmer-herder conflicts in the North Central and banditry and kidnapping in the North West.

According to her, Boko Haram and ISWAP violence had the most severe impact on household welfare, with affected households recording “8 per cent to 14 per cent lower expenditure per adult equivalent where events occurred in the two years before the survey,” while conflict-related debt accumulated since 2009 resulted in an additional “8 per cent to 13 per cent loss.”

The report further showed that farmer-herder clashes had the greatest effect on near-poor households in the North Central, causing a “14 per cent expenditure drop at the 60th percentile,” while banditry and kidnapping in the North West led to expenditure losses of between “4 per cent and 11 per cent,” mainly among moderately poor households.

Despite the grim findings, the report identified livelihood diversification as a key pathway out of poverty.

It stated that “livelihood diversification, including farm, off-farm and enterprise income generation activities, is the single most consistent protective factor across all three conflict types.”

However, the study noted that only 13 per cent of household heads in Northern Nigeria were currently diversifying their sources of income.

The report also found that education strengthens households’ capacity to diversify incomes, although women- and youth-headed households, which account for 28.9 per cent of households in the region, benefit less from such opportunities.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Bernard Doro, pledged continued collaboration with stakeholders and urged researchers to generate more evidence on “targeting, sequencing and graduation pathways” under the government’s One Humanitarian-One Poverty Response System, particularly for women and youth who are often left behind.

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