CODEP 

Organizational Vision

The Niger River Delta was once the belly of Nigeria. Its lush land and rivers spawned the abundant supply of fish and agriculture that would feed the nation and fertilize Nigeria’s natural treasure: its oil fields. As the world began to harvest these fields, however, profound economic disjunctions appeared between foreign oil producers and the local populations. The Delta became the heart of a corporate-community quagmire that paralyzed both social and economic development.

Environmental pollution became so great that most indigenous livelihoods, such as fishing and farming, are all but extinct in the region. Female prostitution, perpetuated by the multi-national community, is proliferating a culture of sex trading. Looking for retribution, many youths in the region began choosing lives of crime and turning the Delta into a crisis region—making it all but impossible for the oil companies to continue working.

The tides are turning, however, as Dr. Precious Emelue, Ashoka Fellow and founder of Community Development Partners (CODEP), builds bridges between unemployed and alienated youth and the region’s major international investors. His approach trains and assists youth in creating and running businesses. He provides this training through contractual relationships with major foreign investors. This approach fosters community development and mobilizes the resources CODEP needs to continue its work.

Citizen Base Strategy

Approaching his first multinational corporation—Shell—was not easy, and Emelue warns that “CSOs face many obstacles when trying to communicate with the private sector. It is essential that CSOs have the skills necessary to make a corporate presentation, to be professional. Most important to the sell is demonstrating how a project can help the corporation!”

In his first proposal to Shell, Emelue took the idea of a “Starter Park” for young entrepreneurs. The starter park would be an incubator of sorts—offering skills training, materials, tools, and a small stipend. Emelue recognized that in order to have the greatest impact—both for the corporations and the communities—the Starter Park needed to be sustainable with its own source of income. CODEP took a microcredit scheme to Shell—he said ‘Youth are holding you hostage [ through crime]. They just want you to give them your money, and then they say they will go, but others will be back.’ Emelue offered Shell an alternative: “I told them I had a plan for making their donations go farther and I presented a revolving loan scheme that would ‘keep giving’.” Shell funded this first program (which included allocations for start-up capital, a revolving loan, training, and materials) for 7 million Naira (approximately US $70,000). With its success, it was replicated in 7 communities.

When completing a project, CODEP asks a corporation to present them with a “Certificate of Work” that certifies that they ‘got the job done.’ This helps them approach other corporations. “A key lesson in CODEP’s success,” espouses Emelue “is that organizations must market their experience in order to get more funding.”

“Local fundraising requires foresight—projecting ahead of time,” he advises. “Recognizing that to get one project funded, you will probably need to write 6 to 7 proposals. Research is critical—particularly as it pertains to mutual needs.”

“Companies have a lot of money to give,” says Emelue, “but you need to be able to play the game.” According to him, being a publicly registered transparent organization is most important.

Results

Through its partnerships with Shell and AGIP, CODEP’s activities are financed through 7 to 8 contracts per year. Emelue’s financial and budgeting structure extracts enough resources from these contracts to cover core costs of the organization, as well as provide a financial “safety” net that will support the organization in times of financial austerity. As CODEP’s budget expands to N 1.5 million, Emelue is using the success of its other corporate partnerships to explore relationships with Chevron, Mobil, and Elf.

His financial security has led to tremendous success. In over a decade, CODEP has initiated and managed various self-help development projects, organized workshops, seminars, conferences, provided vocational skills training and on-the-job technical assistance to national/international NGOs as well as multi-national corporations in the regions. CODEP has developed and implemented several micro-enterprises programs for grassroots groups in Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra-Leone, and Cameroon. CODEP has provided vocational skills acquisition training to over 1,400 youths from the Niger Delta region. The trainees are spread over 9 technical vocations including: fashion design, baking, soap making, computer applications, woodworks, welding, palm oil processing, and plumbing. CODEP has also worked with over 50 NGOs in southern Nigeria—building their managerial and service delivery capacity, encouraging cooperation, and providing training in resource mobilization.

Read a profile about Precious Emelue, Ashoka Fellow.