The National Commission for Nomadic Education says on Thursday it intends generating quality data on farmers-herders conflict for evidence-based solution to the problem across the country.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Bashir Usman, stated this at the opening of a three-day training of enumerators, supervisors and coordinators on generation of the data, holding in Zaria.
Usman, who was represented by the Director, Quality Assurance, Mr Akin Akinyosoye, said that the data collection would be piloted in Kalama and Baruten Federal Constituency of Kwara State.
He explained that the exercise would be funded under the 2019 Zonal Intervention and Constituency projects, adding that the exercise would be extended to other parts of the country as soon as more funding was secured.
He said that the step was crucial following the continued challenges posed by farmer-pastoralists conflicts to the implementation of the Nomadic Education Programme (NEP).
“Our target groups are enmeshed in the conflict with the resultant loss of lives and destruction of school facilities, which worsened the rate of teacher attendance, pupils’ enrolment, attendance, retention, completion and transition.
“The heightened insecurity and displacement of our target groups resulted in complete abandonment of schools.
“The capacity of local institutions in addressing these problems has continued to reduce because of the complexities and sophistication of the conflicts being witnessed.
“Considering the far-reaching implications of these conflicts in the delivery of NEP, this training aimed at generating evidence-based data to expose the root causes of these conflicts and proffer solutions,” he said.
The executive secretary said that the findings would be used to improve the capacities of local communities on strategies to adopt in handling such conflicts and other emerging challenges.
He also said that the initiative would equally support communities to take a leading role towards addressing the emerging challenges relating to the farmer-pastoralists conflicts.
Also speaking, the Director, Special Duties, Mr Hassan Jibo, said that the training would develop the capacity of data collectors on the use of KoboCollect software and Geo Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development.
According to him, the evidence-based data that will be generated will be used to improve the level of implementation and delivery of nomadic education in the country.(NAN)