13% DERIVATION RIVERS STATE REPORT ABOUT KEBETKACHE WOMEN DEVELOPMENT & RESOURCE CENTRE ebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre is non-governmental organization registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Nigeria Kwith IT/CERT N0.15890. Kebetkache is a community action, education and advocacy women's rights organization working on development and social justice issues that affect women and children in Nigeria and around the world. Kebetkache envisions a just society where women's rights and gender equality are mainstreamed irrespective of status, race, background or diversity. Kebetkache's mission is to achieve gender equality, environmental and climate justice through advocacy for good governance, movement building and capacity strengthening. Kebetkache is committed to supporting women to achieve gender equality. The organization helps women to understand their rights through sensitization, capacity development, research, mentoring, and movement building targeted at increasing their skills and creating opportunities that will help them solve identified problems. The overall change Kebetkache wants to see: · A sustainable, vibrant, healthy community of women with recognized rights, power and opportunity to participate in the decision-making processes. Kebetkache identified the following domains of change. · Implementation of community driven gender equality strategies. · Environmental responsive extractive practices with increased participation of women in all decision making processes. · A sustainable environment with a remediated ecosystem with vibrant rural health and security. · Women's rights supported and protected. · Support peace building processes Kebetkache believes that the following action areas are pathways to bringing about the domains of change. · Build and sustain an active women's environmental justice movement in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. · Contributing to movement building for environmental and climate justice at the African regional and global levels. · Framing and implementation of gender-based, rights-based contextual policies. · Contribute to public policies that will increasingly reflect gender equality. · Continuous advocacy to governments at all levels to promote democratization and inclusive governance. · Build synergy with civil society organizations and social movements. · Replicate and support successful Kebetkache development approaches. · Strengthen partnership with government and international development stakeholders. · Design and develop approaches for community capacity development · Provide tool for engagement and evidence-based advocacy · Design and develop approaches/strategies for engendering peace and security. Mainstream platforms and mechanisms for income generation and alternative livelihood structures in community. REPORT ON THE USE OF 13 PERCENT DERIVATION FUND IN RIVERS STATE | 00 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS his research was conducted with the funding support of Ford Foundation without which it would have been difficult to accomplish the task. Our special Tthanks goes to Ms Eva Kouka for her guidance all through the research process. We also acknowledge the contributions of other key persons who played key roles in the processes of conducting this research and eventual production of this report. First is the Technical Lead Researcher, Dr Sofiri Joab Peterside (Department of Sociology, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria) who framed the research design and led the process of implementation from the consultation workshop, methodology workshop, production of research instrument, report writing workshop, validation workshop and compilation of final report. Special thanks to members of the research team – Tijah Bolton, Princess Victoria Umoh, Saviour Akpan, Morris Alogoa, Godson Jim-Dorgu, Stella Wellington Jaja, Voke Ighorodje, Isioma Adigwe, Dr Ayopo Olotu, Lawrence Dube, and Emmanuel Nwakama. We deeply appreciate Mr Moses Vincent, who analyzed the data generated from the questionnaires and also interpreted the data. We also say thank you to Mr Folahan Johnson, who produced the infographs version of the report. Finally, we want to thank the staff of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre for their contributions towards the entire research processes. @Kebetkache REPORT ON THE USE OF 13 PERCENT DERIVATION FUND IN RIVERS STATE | 00 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH ON IMPLEMENTATION OF 13% DERIVATION FUND he research on the use of the 13% derivation fund is conducted by the Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre to examine the Textent which the 13% derivation fund is deployed to address the problem of poverty and more specifically, how the 13% derivation fund is benefitting the oil bearing communities in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states. Kebetkache's intervention is to build a critical mass of women in the Niger Delta who will advocate for an equitable benefit sharing of oil revenue through building their capacity to demand accountability from the Nigeria government. This is significant to addressing the low level of development in oil bearing communities and also strategically positions women in the processes of natural resource governance. The research reveals the lack of available sustainable social services within the community by highlighting level of availability of power supply, health care delivery services, pipe-borne water, transport services, and educational services. The research aimed to assess the extent of awareness of the existence of the 13% derivation fund. As revealed by the findings a great number of the respondents constituting 94% indicated that they are aware that 13% derivation fund is a percentage from crude oil paid to States in direct proportion to the amount of mineral resources extracted from their communities. The research sought to ascertain the perception of the respondents of how the fund can be managed. However the common opinion among community members is that the Federal Government should stop paying the 13% derivation fund to the state governments. The research further set out to provide necessary responses to the following questions: (I) Do we need to create new governance structures for the use of the derivation fund? (ii) What corpus of data exists on the 13% derivation fund in the proposed core study states? (iii) What is the current state of critical infrastructure, health, economic development and gender relations in the study area? REPORT ON THE USE OF 13 PERCENT DERIVATION FUND IN RIVERS STATE | 00 KEY FINDINGS Infrastructural development is Rivers State is poor and most basic social amenities such potable water, electricity, housing, public transportation, quality road and rail networks, health delivery, employment opportunities are absent, especially in oil bearing communities. The present state administration, although making good efforts, has performed unsatisfactorily in the delivery of quality governance and in the provision of requisite infrastructure and social amenities. Successive administrations in Rivers state appears to have grossly mismanaged the 13% derivation funds as the evidence of proper and productive utilization cannot be seen in concerned communities. Dissatisfaction with the way the funds are managed by the State is a source of most agitations in the State and the challenges of development the oil bearing communities face. There is currently no agency or commission in Rivers State established to oversee the administration of the 13% derivation funds. People of oil bearing communities will prefer the Federal Government to pay affected communities directly in the absence of a commissioned agency that will be held accountable for utilization the derivation funds for proper development of oil bearing communities. REPORT ON THE USE OF 13 PERCENT DERIVATION FUND IN RIVERS STATE | 00 RECOMMENDATIONS One of the functions of the State is to justify its existence and political legitimacy by meeting the needs and aspirations of the people it represents. The effectiveness and quality of public goods and services affects how the citizenry perceive the State as essential, indispensable, useful or otherwise. Thus, concerted efforts should be made by the government at all levels to improve on the provision of infrastructure and social facilities to the citizenry. Following the allegations of misappropriation and poor management of the derivation funds accruable to oil bearing communities and the attendant protests against the State's control of the funds on behalf of the concerned communities, the study suggests that the Federal Government should, as a matter of urgency, reexamine the management of the 13% derivation fund by the State Government and also consider creating a special agency to manage the affairs of oil-developing communities. The agency must work in tandem with the communities in identifying their core needs and fashioning out ways to resolve them. REPORT ON THE USE OF 13 PERCENT DERIVATION FUND IN RIVERS STATE | 00 4.1 Background Information (67.in) in the extreme North. It is usually 4,698 mm (185.in) at Bonny along the coast and 1,862 mm (73.in) at Degema. Some parts of the State receive up to 150 of the 98 respondents mm (6.in) of rainfall even during the dry period. conrmed the availability Relative humidity in the State occasionally dips below o f e l e c t r i c i t y i n t h e i r sixty percent (60%) and fluctuates between ninety communities/ neighbourhood percent (90%) and hundred percent (100%) for most of 51% the year (Jones, 2000; Naluba & Arokoyu, 2015; Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group,