Case Study of Community Participation in Monitoring Systems in Nigeria: Studies of Farman and Kapil Communities

Most communities in Nigeria are poverty stricken. Over the years, development efforts aimed at reducing the poverty level have not included local people at the conception, implementation and monitoring stages of such programs. This has often resulted in non-sustainability of many development efforts.

The involvement of local people in conception, execution, monitoring and evaluation of development projects has become very central to attaining sustainable development. However, community participation in project monitoring and evaluation is a relatively new approach that many development agencies, including NGOs, are still learning.

The Nigerian Integrated Rural Accelerated Development Organisation (NIRADO) is a national NGO involved in rural development in Nigeria. NIRADO’s Integrated Rural Development Programme is aimed at building the capacity of local people to realize their potential and, collectively, become more self-confident and self-reliant so that they can take a lead in developing their own communities. This paper presents a case study of two communities in which local people were actively involved in monitoring development projects.