U.S. Foreign Assistance Priorities

U.S. Foreign Assistance PrioritiesDemocratic and economic progress in Nigeria is challenged by poor governance, entrenched corruption, internal conflict, ineffective service delivery, and pervasive poverty. Nigeria remains mired near the bottom of the United National Development Program (UNDP) human development index. While there has been notable progress in macroeconomic policy reform over the past few years, these reforms have yet to bring measurable improvements to the lives of the people. U.S. assistance is trying to help Nigeria address these challenges by fostering transparent and accountable governance; engaging civil society and government partners to battle corruption; increasing professionalism of the military and law enforcement agencies; strengthening health and education systems to deliver quality services; growing the non-oil economy; and improving the environment for regional and international trade. With national and local elections scheduled for mid-2011, efforts are also focused on creating an environment for transparent and credible elections.

Peace and Security: Prior decades of military rule had a negative effect on the professional development of the Nigerian armed forces. The Nigerian military is still in need of reform efforts to professionalize the officer and noncommissioned officer corps to include a focus on promoting effective civilian oversight and respect for human rights and the rule of law. U. S. assistance continues to provide equipment and training for Nigerian peacekeeping forces, which are deployed to peacekeeping missions throughout the continent. Funding assists in developing the capacity of government institutions and civil society to prevent, manage, and mitigate conflict. The U.S. program also builds Nigeria's capability to address threats to maritime security, including narcotics trafficking, and attempts to improve Nigeria's human rights record and enhance public trust in the security services.

Governing Justly and Democratically: U.S. funding advances the rule of law by strengthening the capacity and transparency of the justice system and building judicial independence at the federal level. Good governance and anti-corruption reform is enhanced by creating more responsive governance structures at the national and local levels, improving service delivery, and strengthening budget management capacity and fiscal oversight. The United States works directly with a diverse cross-section of Nigerian civil society organizations, building their internal management capacity and strengthening their ability to engage with the government on issues of fiscal accountability, budget monitoring, and extractive industries transparency. To lay the groundwork for credible elections in 2011, the United States will help to build local capacity in managing and coordinating elections infrastructure, and to promote civil society input into electoral and constitutional reform dialogue and oversight of the electoral process.

Investing in People: Helping Nigeria address the fundamental health and education needs of its citizens directly impacts governance, stability, and economic growth. Nigeria ranked 70 out of 71 countries in the 2008 Report on the State of the World's Mothers. The national average maternal mortality is about 800 per 100,000 live births, but the rate is at least three times higher in the northern states. Health-care consumers often opt to forego treatment, or to pay for treatment from unskilled providers.

Almost one-third of women receive no antenatal care. Sixty-six percent of deliveries take place in the home, with only 35% assisted by trained health care personnel. The United States supports increased access to quality family planning and reproductive health services, focusing efforts in selected states with high unmet demand. Maternal and child health efforts target routine immunization, polio eradication, birth preparedness, and maternity services, seeking to reduce catastrophic rates of maternal and young child mortality. With Nigeria's child malaria mortality burden of over 300,000 preventable deaths per year, U.S. assistance increases access to proven preventive and curative interventions, including insecticide treated nets, net retreatment kits, and artemisinin combination therapy treatment for children and pregnant women. Nigeria has the largest tuberculosis (TB) burden in Africa. To reduce death and disability, especially in the vulnerable co-infected HIV/AIDS population, U.S. assistance aims to double the case detection rate and halve the incidence of TB over the next 10 years.

Funding supports equitable access to quality basic education through teacher training, infrastructure improvement, and community involvement, focusing on public schools as well as Islamiyyah schools that provide both secular and religious education. U.S. assistance fosters higher education partnerships between American and Nigerian universities, focusing on institutions in the north. Through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Nigeria receives significant support to build partnerships with the host country to provide integrated prevention, care, and treatment programs throughout the country and support orphans and vulnerable children. As a result, in 2007 the World Bank noted that HIV-positive seroprevalence rates decreased to 3.1%.

Economic Growth: Funding will build trade and investment capacity and improve the enabling environment for agriculture and microfinance. The United States will continue to implement activities under the Global Food Security Response that will accelerate the uptake of proven production, processing, and marketing technologies, significantly increase the productivity of selected staple food crops, foster agricultural value chain development, and stimulate job creation through the growth of agribusiness enterprises.

Customs regulation and policy reform will enhance regional trade, transport linkages, and smooth supply to regional markets, ensuring adherence to international standards. U.S. assistance will also focus on expanding investment opportunities, which are hampered by limited access to market-driven commercial financial services, including microfinance. U.S. assistance will also help expand access to credit through partnerships with commercial banks and increased capacity of microfinance institutions. The U.S. will partner with Nigeria's Central Bank to improve the policy environment for micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises.

Ongoing presidential initiatives with Nigeria include the African Growth and Competitiveness Initiative, fighting avian flu, the Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, and the Trans-Sahel Counter-Terrorism Program. Nigeria's eligibility for other regional activities include the Famine Early Warning System; Anti-Corruption Initiative; trafficking in persons; and the Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Fund. Nigeria is a premier participant in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), for which about $467 million was committed in FY 2008.