Welcome to the website of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's (HBF) Nigeria Office.

HBF is a non-governmental organisation affiliated to the German Green Party. It operates its Nigeria office in Lagos since 2002.

HBF conducts and supports civic educational activities in the fields of human, social and political rights, gender democracy, conflict resolution, and good governance.

   ISSUES  

In 2005, Switzerland repatriated Nigerian public funds that had been embezzled in the 1990s by the former military dictator Sani Abacha and his family. The funds amounted to 458 million US-Dollars. After negotiations with the Swiss government, the Nigerian Federal Government agreed to use these repatriated funds for specific projects designed to alleviate poverty, especially in the areas of education, health, and road infrastructure.

Due to the special character of these "Abacha loot" funds, their usage has become the object of an innovative monitoring exercise: Civil servants from federal ministries and respresentatives of civil society organisations who had formed the "Nigerian Network on Stolen Assets" jointly monitored projects funded from the repatriated money.

The monitoring exercise - involving on-site evaluation of about 50 capital projects - took place in May and June 2006. It was set within the framework of the World Bank's "Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review" (PEMFAR). HBF Nigeria supported the civil society side of the monitoring process.

As at December 2006, the final reports about the results of the "Abacha loot monitoring" have been published. They should make an exciting reading, because they constitute the first independently-researched evaluation of federal government capital project performance in Nigeria. The report is available here>>>

The world bank report is found here at: http://web.worldbank.org/ WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/NIGERIAEXTN/ 0,,contentMDK:21169888~menuPK:3287725~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:368896,00.html

The SEEDS Benchmarking exercise 2005 was designed by the National Planning Commission to measure governance quality in all states of Nigeria. The exercise did not go without criticism, but in the end, most state governments participated. The report showed that state-level governance quality in Nigeria differs markedly. It also showed that, while many states have problems with regard to the implementation of development policies, the general condemnation of state governors as "non-performers" is not justified.

The summarized outcome of the SEEDS Benchmarking has been widely published in the Nigerian press. But it is not available on the Internet/WWW, not even on the National Planning Commission's website that has a lot of information on the rationale and methodology of the Benchmarking exercise itself - but not the results.

As a service to the general public (and for all of us who don't clip newspapers every day), HBF Nigeria offers the summary report of the SEEDS Benchmarking 2005 for reading and download (with kind permission by the International Co-operation Department of the National Planning Commission).

The Sharia Information and Documentation Project (SIDOP) was established by the Development, Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) in Kano in 2003, with support by HBF Nigeria. SIDOP addresses information and communication gaps regarding Sharia which have compounded the problem of nation building in Nigeria; it focuses especially on issues of social justice in the Sharia-implementing states of Northern Nigeria. SIDOP's work is now documented on this website. [More...]

"Energetic Solutions", a conference on renewable energy in Nigeria, was held in Calabar, Abuja and the Niger Delta on 21-27 Nov 2004, with up to 100 participants from Africa, the Americas and Europe. It aimed at creating awareness and showing political as well as practical perspectives for the development of renewable energy in Nigeria. The conference had three main outcomes: the creation of the Council on Renewable Energy in Nigeria, a multi-stakeholder network hoping to build on the momentum developed at the conference; the passing of the "Calabar Declaration", a political declaration with several proposed solutions and next steps; and the publication of a number of case studies on renewable energy in Nigeria, some of them supported by HBF.
[Go to the "Energetic Solutions" Conference Website]

On October 18, 2004, a dialogue series titled "Pentecostalism in Public Life" took off in Lagos. The dialogue brought together Pentecostal and human rights leaders for frank and interactive discussions on issues of public accountability and governance - especially the question of how the moral influence of the Pentecostal churches can serve to improve the quality of governance in Nigeria. [background...] [Read the Complete Document here...]

LAGOS WATER & PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION

Access to water is a basic human right - but how to manage water supply in practice, and at what cost to ordinary people? Various forms of "private sector participation" (PSP) in the water sector are practiced worldwide. The rationale behind this is to get the much-needed investments for improvement of urban water supply systems. However, PSP in the water sector remains highly contentious. Assisted by the World Bank, Lagos is among the cities experimenting with PSP in the water sector today. [More...]

TONI KAN ON HEINRICH BÖLL

Lagos-based writer Toni Kan Onwordi was on a four-month "artist in residence" scholarship at the Heinrich Böll House in Langenbroich, Germany, in late 2003. The visit provided an opportunity for Toni Kan to work on his next novel "The Doctor, His Wife, and her Lover", which is due for publication in Nigeria in spring 2004. Read Toni Kan's views on Böll's short stories, and about the ubiquity of trains and cigarettes in Böll's work. ["Up in Smoke": More...]

TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT BUDGETING

Transparency and accountability in government spending are fundamental preconditions to achieve democratic reform and economic development in Nigeria. In recent years, civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria have started a good number of initiatives that target issues of transparency and accountability in the government budgeting process. HBF supports a number of these projects and organised a workshop on 5 November 2003 to review experiences and develop concepts for future work in this field. [More...]

ENGAGING PRIVATIZATION POLICY

Privatization of state-owned enterprises is a core issue in the economic policy of the Nigerian government. Privatization intends to improve efficiency and to combat corruption. Privatization remains controversial because of the lack of transparency involved, and because of the social effects it may bring about: from job losses to increased prices for services. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the opportunities and risks of privatization, HBF Nigeria supports projects aiming at strenghtening the capacity of civil society organisations in Nigeria to meaningfully and critically engage government's privatization policy. [More...]

SHARIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Since the return to democracy in 1999 and the introduction of Sharia Penal Codes in twelve states of Northern Nigeria thereafter, political and religious tensions have increased significantly in the country. HBF Nigeria believes that, in the current Nigerian setting, the conflict around the Sharia needs to be de-escalated. Constructive debates about Sharia need to focus on issues of access to justice and human and social rights. [More...]

FIGHTING WOMEN'S DISCRIMINATION - MODERN AND TRADITIONAL

In many areas of Africa, some traditional practices discriminate against the dignity and personality of women and girls. In some parts of South-Eastern Nigeria, for example, girls of very young age are married to wealthy elderly men, against the payment of very high bride price. Frequently, the parents do not dare to refuse, as this would mean shame on their family. With HBF support, the Centre for Women's Studies and Intervention (CWSI) in Abuja conducts training courses for women and men to sensitize them on these issues. [More...]

For more information on issues addressed by HBF Nigeria please visit our Archive.

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