From the Executive Director
The challenges in Nigeria’s Niger Delta are complex – but not insurmountable. We know that, often, traditional aid and development tactics don’t work in the Delta, typically because they don’t prioritize local collaboration or develop market-driven solutions that reach the community level where action is needed most.
NDPI’s approach is different. We start locally. We work to provide people with the information, tools and opportunities needed to become agents of their own change – deconstructing the systems that have long held them back.
Because when a farmer is equipped to increase her productivity, yields and income, she is able to expand her business, hire more workers and train them in the best practices that have helped her succeed. This is the practice and the philosophy behind NDPI’s work.
Each year we reach more farmers, fishers and peace advocates – nearly 55,000 and growing.
We don’t do it alone.
When taking on big challenges, like what we are seeing in the Niger Delta, communities matter and so does a collaborative, coordinated approach. When programs and projects are locally-owned and implemented, they can better respond to the needs of the community they are rooted in, while also empowering individuals to create the change they seek. This is the most direct path to lasting impact.
Progress is possible. It requires collaboration with partners on-the-ground and around the world, and an appetite to take on risk. It is hard work, but we do it because systemic change is possible and achievable when we work together.
We focus on a small geographic area but have big aspirations. What’s good for the Delta is good for Nigeria and the world. Stability and opportunity here are good for people everywhere.
It’s a movement we started and one we welcome you to join, so that a stable Niger Delta can emerge and give rise to social, political and economic good.
Heather Kulp, Executive Director,
Niger Delta Partnership Initiative (NDPI)
About
NDPI
NDPI’s mission is to harness the power of the private and public sectors to help alleviate poverty and instability in Nigeria’s Niger Delta through collaborative, market-based solutions that are community owned and implemented. Our vision is to achieve lasting prosperity and peace for communities in the Niger Delta.
At NDPI, we believe the path to prosperity is built on opportunity. When regional economies are strong and secure, farmers, fishers and families are able to thrive and live up to their full potential. Despite an abundance of natural resources, far too many people living in the Niger Delta lack the opportunity to run the kinds of businesses that drive economic development and bring stability.
The Niger Delta Partnership Initiative (NDPI) Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit established by the Chevron Corporation, works with market-based, community-owned programs to mitigate conflicts and boost opportunities for local businesses. We coordinate on-the-ground action through the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) by listening for and responding to community needs as they arise. Generations of poverty and conflict can neither be changed overnight, nor by any one organization. Therefore, our approach is based on a combination of many perspectives, coordination as a team and action on multiple problems at once.
To make a real impact, people living in the Niger Delta must be able to champion and continue their own successes. So, NDPI invested in new palm fruit processors that enabled millers to increase their profits by 40 percent while reducing processing times from hours to minutes. We created the Partners for Peace (P4P) Network — with nearly 5,000 peace actors targeting pockets of instability by using regional monitors to diffuse disagreements through hundreds of interventions and more than 5,000 town hall meetings. We brought leaders together through NDLink, an online community tracking projects and sharing lessons learned to consistently improve the way we and others work. Through programs focused on economic development and peace building, we solve the problems that need to be solved. Since 2010, we have worked with more than 500 organizations. We provided thousands with training, access to new technologies and economic development centers, and brought nearly USD $100 million in additional investments into the region.
Together, by working across sectors, industries and geographies, we are empowering people to create and keep jobs, end conflict and ensure a more prosperous future. When the Niger Delta thrives, Nigeria thrives.
Our Approach
PIND
The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) is NDPI’s Nigerian-based, locally-led implementing partner comprised of more than 40 development professionals. NDPI and PIND support communities throughout the Niger Delta by empowering them to create and keep jobs, end conflict and build a better future.
The NDPI-PIND partnership model was influenced by Chevron’s development initiatives in Papua New Guinea, Angola and the company’s other social investment activities near its operations in the Niger Delta.
No single organization can solve the complex and interconnected challenges in the Niger Delta alone. So, NDPI and PIND combine partnership resources, capabilities and expertise for collective impact.
Learn more about PIND here.
What We Do Together
NDPI and PIND work in all nine states in the Niger Delta in an array of mutually reinforcing economic development and peace building capacities. For more information, see the Initiative for Global Development’s impact assessment of NDPI and PIND here.
NDPI is willing to listen to new ideas, and support dynamic and pragmatic implementation that permit innovation and risk-taking.
Progress Achieved
2016 impact
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Helped nearly 7,000 fish, cassava and palm oil farmers adopt improved practices, including techniques to increase yields, increase productivity and reach markets
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Engaged almost 6 million people with peace and advocacy messaging through mass media campaigns
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Trained nearly 30,000 workers in the most promising sectors in the Niger Delta, helping to increase their incomes by 92% and grow their work
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Drove over USD $800,000 of outside investments into the Niger Delta, promoting economic growth in the region
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Helped create over 2,000 jobs in the Niger Delta’s cassava, palm oil and aquaculture industries
Key accomplishments since 2010
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Drove nearly USD $100 million of outside investments into the Niger Delta
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Established key convening opportunities for economic and peace actors to come together to address the region’s issues
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Reached over 50,000 people in the Delta’s most promising industries (cassava, palm oil and aquaculture) and helped them build their businesses and increase incomes
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Created a peace building network of nearly 5,000 members across all nine states in the region
We see our partnership as instrumental in testing and refining global best practices that are being validated through impressive results in the field.
Partnership
We can achieve more together. Our approach focuses on building networks and linking organizations to broader alliances so that resources can be spent smarter and efforts can be better coordinated.
We work day-to-day with our Nigeria-based implementing partner, PIND, and engage over 500 organizations across geographies and sectors, focusing not just on establishing our own project partnerships but on connecting donors – including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and investors with government agencies, local businesses, civil society organizations and communities in ways they haven’t been before.
Learn more about our partners here.
Impact
Stability in the Niger Delta has broad benefits – not just for its communities and businesses, but for Nigeria, for Africa, for countries and for partners – both in the public and private sectors – across the globe.
When violence disrupts business operations in the Delta, the consequences can be widespread. And as unrest mounts, terrorist organizations more easily recruit and build influence, generating real threats within Nigeria and internationally. A more stable, conflict-free Delta could help foster the kinds of economic growth that would also reduce Nigeria’s reliance on foreign aid.
This work not only mitigates violence and unrest, but also makes good economic sense. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, and its population is growing by 4 to 5 million people per year.
Security and economics are only becoming more interconnected and the Niger Delta is situated to dramatically impact both. So, by investing in the future of the people in the Niger Delta, NDPI is making a global investment in peace and prosperity.
Economic stability and peace are interconnected. You cannot have one without the other. We know peace is possible.
Strategic Focus: 2017 and Beyond
We have ambitious targets for the year ahead and plan to continue to build on the impact already achieved:
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40%
increase in income for 30,000 poor households
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20,000
jobs created in the most promising industries
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10,000
people from all nine states trained in conflict mitigation
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$40M
put towards new activities that reflect conflict and development approaches
From the Chairman of the Board
Each year, the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative (NDPI) works to advance its vision of a stable Niger Delta region, rich with economic diversity and strong with a dense web of peace champions. The beauty of NDPI’s model is that it lays the foundation for economic growth and stability that is owned by those living there at the community level.
Over the years, NDPI has kept track of what has and hasn’t worked, adjusting and recommitting to tactics as appropriate. While there are many lessons, four stand out to me:
- You need to understand the problems at hand before you can find a solution. NDPI works to analyze – and learn from – the challenges the Delta faces. Having taken the time to deconstruct the issues at play, we’ve worked to eliminate bottlenecks and obstacles to both peace building and economic growth. From continuous analysis of conflict in the region to market assessment of the strongest industries, data underpins everything we do.
- Networks foster long-term success. Whether it’s building a peace network like P4P or convening economic development leaders at the Niger Delta Development Forum, networks are the lynchpin of sustained impact, supporting knowledge exchange and the diffusion of best practices.
- Partnerships and collaboration can be challenging, but they are worth the investment. As an African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” A partnership that stands out is NDPI and PIND’s collaboration with UNICEF to improve local government’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs. In working together, we grew our project to not only secure good WASH facilities in schools, but improve responses to conflicts that threaten access to them through conflict sensitivity training. Because we worked together, we not only identified problems, but were able to better learn how to solve them.
- Listen to the market. A solution may be perfect in theory, but if it isn’t embraced by the community where it’s introduced, it won’t affect change. We learned this when we developed a palm oil harvesting tool to help farmers more safely and efficiently harvest palm fruit. The tool was effective, but it was too expensive for the average farmer. After learning this, we, with our partners, introduced a new, less-expensive tool that was just as effective as the original one. And the market embraced it.
To be sure, there are more lessons to be learned and more change to be affected. But with NDPI’s unwavering commitment to do good, the future of the Delta, Nigeria, the region and beyond is brighter.
Mamadou Marcel Blondin Beye
Chairman of the Board of Directors, NDPI
Financials: NDPI Q1-Q4 2016
Assets
Total assets: $26,924,884
Liabilities & Net Assets
Total liabilities: $21,672,496
Total liabilities and net assets: $26,924,884
Statements of activities and changes in net assets for the year ended December 31, 2016:
| Revenue | Unrestricted | Temporarily Restricted | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate grant (Note 5) | - | $846,247 | $846,247 |
| Other Revenue | - | - | - |
| Net Assets released from donor restrictions (Note 3) | $1,391,627 | ($1,391,627) | - |
| Total Revenue | $1,391,627 | ($545,425) | $846,247 |
| Expenses | |||
| Program services | $911,497 | - | $911,497 |
| Supporting services | $480,175 | - | $480,175 |
| Total Expenses | $1,391,627 | - | $1,391,627 |
| Changes in net assets | |||
| - | ($545,425) | ($545,425) | |
| Net assets at beginning of year | |||
| $3,057 | $5,794,756 | $5,794,756 | |
| Net Assets at the End of Year | |||
| $3,057 | $5,249,331 | $5,252,388 |
- Grants Receivable
- 67.89% ($8,000,000)
- Prepaid Expenses
- .11% ($13,439)
- Cash & Equivalents
- 32% ($3,770,761)
- Current Assets
- $11,784,200
- Accumulated Depreciation & Amortization
- -159.51% (-$67,632)
- Equipment
- 124.35% ($52,724)
- Leasehold Improvements
- 11.65% ($4,940)
- Computer Equipment
- 123.51% ($52,367)
- Fixed Assets
- $42,399
- Grants Receivable, Net of Current Portion
- 99.96% ($15,091,781)
- Security Deposit
- 0.04% ($6,504)
- Other Assets
- $15,098,285
- Grants Payable
- 99.01% ($12,708,334)
- Accounts Payable & Accrued Liabilities
- 0.91% ($117,407)
- Accrued Salaries & Related Benefits
- 0.03% ($4,026)
- Deferred Rent Abatement
- 0.04% ($5,436)
- Current Liabilities
- $12,835,203
- Grants Payable, Net of Current Portion
- 99.77% ($8,837,293)
- Deferred Rent Abatement
- 0.23% ($20,626)
- Long-term Liabilities
- $8,837,293
- Temporarily Restricted
- 99.94% ($5,249,331)
- Unrestricted
- 0.06% ($3,057)
- Net Assets
- $5,252,388
By empowering local leaders, we are powering change.
Get Involved
Our partners are committed to peace, stability and equitable economic growth in the Niger Delta. Learn more about our partnership criteria here.
If you would like to get involved and join us, please contact us.