The document provides a keynote address on the topic of "Community is the Answer" delivered at a joint conference in Nigeria. The summary is: 1. The address explores the question posed by the conference theme "Community is the Answer" by examining concepts of community, education, and sustainable development. 2. It reviews global and national efforts towards education for all and inclusive education, and questions their success at the community level. 3. The speaker calls the conference to action by strengthening relevant policies and linking research to policymakers to better meet community needs. The goal is to move beyond analysis to practical solutions.

1. ‘COMMUNITY IS THE ANSWER’:
WHAT IS THE QUESTION?
A KEYNOTE ADDRESS
BY
TANKO AHMED fwc
Senior Fellow (Security & Strategic Studies)
National Institute (NIPSS), Kuru
Jos, Nigeria
1

2. Conveyance
This Keynote Address
Delivered at the Joint
International Association for Community
Development (IACD) www.iacdglobal.org
And
Inclusive Community Education and Development
Association (ICEADA) www.iceada.org
National Community Development Practitioners
Consultative Workshop
Aso Motel, Muhammadu Buhari Way, Kaduna
NIGERIA
Thursday, 6 August 2015
2

3. Elaborate Protocols are unique ways Nigerians
employ to ‘read the room’ and ascribe to their
Audience.
So, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I am glad to be here, and;
I feel privileged to be invited to deliver the
Keynote Address of this very important, timely
and obviously ‘August Occasion’
3
Protocol

4.  The ways of Nigerians: A Narrative
 It is popularly held abroad that
Nigerians have tendency to answer
questions with questions.
 A new arrival at the Murtala
Mohammed International Airport,
Lagos put this narrative to the test.
 “Is it true that Nigerians answer
questions with questions?”
 The first Nigerian answered, “Who told
you that”.
4
Prologue

5.  The ICEADA motto of
‘community is the answer’
indeed packs heavy load,
especially in Nigeria where the
natural tendency is to ask, ‘what
is the question’.
 Coming from a background of
intellectual interactions like
NIPSS which upholds the
concept of inclusive and
grassroots sustainable
development in Nigeria, this
Keynote Address attempts to
balance the scale of discourse
5
Prologue

6. INTRODUCTION
6

7. Background
 The ICEADA Conference series focus
on the maxim of ‘community is the
answer’.
 This general rule pursues community
based sustainable development,
particularly in developing societies
where such efforts continuously fail to
bring about desired results to
disconnected grassroots.
7

8. Background
A recent study (Ra-Ah, 2011),
commissioned by the Kaduna
State Government in Nigeria,
established that government
services were disconnected
from grassroots due to absence
of planned functional
administrative structures at
community level.
8

9. The ICEADA Motto, Vision and
Mission
 The ICEADA motto of ‘community is the
answer’ represents a healthy platform.
 It is driven by a vision ‘to have and to create
sustainable communities where people live
and learn to live cooperatively for mutual
benefits and progress.’
and
 Aptly captured in a mission ‘to promote
sustainable development goals and practices
through inclusive education and
development’.9

10. Issues on the Table
 The conference organizers place topical and
relevant issues for innovative dialogue.
 The themes and sub-themes of education and
training, public and local government service,
good governance, volunteerism, and donor
assisted projects are expected to throw
formidable challenges.
and
 The opportunities in the ensuring, but
inspiring, discourse must not to be
overlooked, or burnt out in the ‘heat of
debate’.10

11. ICEADA Conference Series
 ICEADA relentlessly pursues the path of its motto,
vision and mission expressed in all its propositions.
 The Association consistently emphasises on the
need for, and importance of, the Community as basis
for sustainable development.
 Sustainability principles and practices in turn require
‘inclusiveness’, with progressive and non-
discriminative approaches for betterment of society.
 The Conference calls for papers and participation to
address the ideals and goals of ICEADA in Nigeria
and Sub-Saharan Africa, including framework for
active engagement of members.
11

12. The Keynote Address
 It seeks to draw the attention of this gathering of
experts and practitioners to expand the horizon of
discourse on ‘what is the question’ for ICEADA’s
‘community is the answer’.
 It aims at strengthening established foundations, as
well as provides an umbrella for the main conference
theme, sub-themes and expected major contributions.
 It draws on existing ‘global-to-local’ efforts to zero on
challenges and opportunities in ICEADA’s laudable
tasks.
 The Address is structured as follows:
*Education for Sustainable Development.
*Inclusive Education. *Community is the Answer. *What
is the Question.
*A Call for Action. *Conclusion.
12

13. EDUCATION FOR
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
13

14. Education
 The act of giving knowledge to, or developing the
abilities of people by teaching, training or
schooling.
 The process of acquiring knowledge, skills,
attitudes, interests, abilities, competence and
norms of society by people to enhance perpetual
development (Lawal, 2013).14

15. Education
 A more educated society translates into higher
rates of innovation, higher overall productivity,
faster growth and progressive institutional
change (EFA, 2005).
15

16. Sustainable Development
A development process that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs (UN,
1987; Smith and Rees, 1998).
It signifies the optimization and impact of
development process at all levels in a
continuous manner.
It is a “… new path for development which would
sustain human progress, not just in few years,
but for the entire planet into a more distant
future …” (Adeniyi, 1999 p. 6).
16

17. INCLUSIVE
EDUCATION
17

18. Inclusive Education
 Inclusiveness denotes wholesomeness and
indiscriminate proposition defined in logical
outlook.
 Inclusive education imparts and uses knowledge
and skills in a matrix of formal and informal
human interactions at all levels.
 It strengthens the capacity of existing
educational system to reach out to all learners
and places involving reforms of culture, policies
and practices to accommodate diversity as well
as connect to the remotest localities (Kohama,
2012).
18

19. The Enabling Education Network
Concept
 The Enabling Education Network (EENET)
organized a participatory seminar with
educators from around the world in 1998 in
Agra, India to structure an adaptable concept
of inclusive education for organizations and
governments.
 The seminar produced descriptions of
inclusive education befitting the direction
taken by the ICEADA Conference series.
19

20. EENET’s Prescription for Inclusive
Education
 The EENET concept demands for constant change
and improvement in formal and informal methods
and contents for widening and deepening inclusive
education at all levels, targeting the grassroots or
community.
 It calls for the incorporation of culture for adaptation
and flexibility, as well as removal of hindrances
amongst stakeholders and benefaction.
 The EENET therefore provides an adequate
conceptual and operational platform for ICEADA’s
motto of ‘community is the answer’ to inclusive
education process.
http://www.eenet.uk/what_is_ie_php20

21. ‘COMMUNITY IS THE
ANSWER’
21

22. What is Community?
 Community is a system or the totality of
interactions among subsystems (Garcia, et el,
1999).
 Communities are categorized into three main
inclinations based on geography, culture or
organization, as proposed by Tropman, et el.
(2006).
 The concept of community generally stands
for a ‘fractal’ or ‘grassroots’ unit of a larger
entity decentralized for easy and effective
development process (Ahmed & Olumodeji,
2013).
22

23. Reflections on Community
 For effective sustainable development, the
existing larger ‘entity’ of Nigeria needs to be
re-defined into basic units for ease and
efficiency of service delivery at grassroots or
community level (NIPSS, 2002).
 These reflections are in support of ICEADA’s
motto of ‘community is the answer’ raising the
issue of ‘what is the question’.
23

24. ‘WHAT IS THE
QUESTION?’
24

25. Questions Arising
 Questions arising from ICEADA’s motto of
‘community is the answer’ aim to assess
relevance and success of inclusive education for
sustainable development at community level.
 Major global-to-local institutional interventions
are undertaken by agencies of the United Nations
(UN); regional bodies; and national governmental
agencies, and non-governmental organizations,
including the private sector.
 These efforts form the frontline for raising
questions.
25

26. Global and Regional Efforts
 The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), the United Nations Educational and
Scientific Organization (UNESCO), the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) I and II are examples
of UN interventions.
 What is generally referred to as ‘MDGs II’ is
actually called ‘Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) regarded as a stronger global policy
framework transcending the UN through national
to local efforts to communities.
Question 1: ‘How much ‘glocalization’ (the process
of localizing global trends) of inclusive education
has manifests at community levels in Nigeria and
Sub-Saharan Africa?’26

27. Points to Note
 It is pertinent to know here, that a Nigerian,
Mohammed Sani Abdullahi is former Adviser to
the UN Secretary-General on Sustainable
Development Goals.
 The same person is presently nominated as
Kaduna State Commissioner for Budget and
Planning.
 Ultimately, much needed capable hands are
being invested in aid of sustainable
development at national to local level in
Nigeria.27

28. National to Local Efforts
 The Education for All (EFA) programme has
fundamental objectives aiming at revitalizing Adult
and Youth Literacy Programme, outside the formal
school system.
 In Nigeria, the Abuja Declarations, June 2010 called on
the E-9 Forum members consisting of India,
Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Egypt, China,
Indonesia and Nigeria to pursue the EFA objectives
(Ejenavwo, 2012).
 E-9 Forum consists of countries considered by EFA as
the most populous developing nations with high
illiteracy rates across the world.
Question 2: What the achievements recorded in adult
and youth literacy programme in the past five to ten
(5-10) years?
28

29. Declarations on Education for All
 The world has witnessed series of
declarations on education for all, with
colorful titles adopted by most
countries including Nigeria.
 The Dakar Forum, in particular, projects
the banner on Education for All 2015
goals.
Question 3: Would this Conference focus on
the EFA 2015 goals as defined by The Dakar29

30. The Dakar Framework of Action
(DFA)
 “… education for all goals and targets for every citizen and
for every society … through broad-based partnerships
within countries, supported by cooperation with regional
and international agencies and institutions” (WEF, 2000).
 The weight and relevance of this pledge upheld by the ‘EFA
2015 goals’ include the expansion of early childhood care
and education; provision of free and compulsory primary
education to all; and promotion of learning and life skills for
young people and adults.
 Other EFA 2015 goals aim at increasing adult literacy by
50%, achieving gender parity by 2015, and general
improvement in the quality of education (EFA, 2009).
Question 4: How far are these clearly spelt-out goals good
for ICEADA’s action on inclusive education?30

31. A CALL TO ACTION
31

32. Local Meanings of Education for
All
 A comparative study by Yamada (2007), on the
EFA goals’ local success in Kenya, Tanzania and
Ethiopia, points to problem of over-
standardization hindering substantial changes at
grassroots or community level.
 Nigeria is described as having no specific well
formulated clear regional development policy or
framework with implications for over-
standardization (Jelili, Adedibu & Egunjobi, 2008).
The clarion call for ICEADA in general and this
conference in particular, is to treat this structural
defect in Nigeria’s policy framework.
32

33. Strengthening Relevant Policies
 Another study, at Nigeria’s National Institute for Policy and
Strategic Studies (NIPSS), (Danjuma, 2010), cited inadequate
funding and infrastructure; lack of enough technical and
vocational schools and centres; and failure of Nigerian
universities in turning out needed human resource base.
 According to Danjuma (2010), Nigeria erroneously assesses
educational development in terms of gross enrolment rates
in schools, ignoring the conceptual framework laid by the
World Conference on Education series.
 Education within this realm is held as vital element in
combating poverty, gender parity, human rights abuse,
environmental degradation, insecurity, and bad governance.
This August gathering should employ ‘innovative dialogue’ to translate,
remedy and delivery these issues to the door-steps of policy makers and
implementors in Nigeria.
33

34. Linking with Policy Makers
 Hugh Lander (Tue. 11 Nov. 2014) discussed the
pressures faced by academicians on impact of
their research in the real world.
 Suggestions on remedies include co-working of
academicians and policy makers; use of think
tanks like NIPSS; and clear translation of core
ideas into applicable objectives.
The onus is therefore on this Conference to make
sure that whatever comes out of its proceedings is
understandable, acceptable, and applicable real
world situation.34

35. CONCLUSION
35

36. Summary
o The ICEADA Conference Series has relentlessly
pursued the path of its motto, vision and mission
and consistently emphasises on the need for, and
importance of the Community as basis for
sustainable development.
o This keynote attempts to strengthen established
foundations and provides an umbrella for the
main conference theme and sub-themes.
o It threads on existing ‘global-to-local’ efforts and
zeroes on challenges and opportunities
concerning ICEADA’s laudable task for inclusive
education for sustainable development.
36

37. Conclusion
 The ICEADA’s approach to inclusive education is very
much compatible with concepts and practices seen in
the works of other contributors or agencies locally and
globally.
 There is emphasis on constant change and
improvement in both formal and informal methods for
vertical and horizontal expansion of inclusive
education at all levels, targeting the grassroots or
community.
 Key questions seek to validate ICEAD’s motto of
‘community is the answer’ and invite innovative
dialogue.
 Calls to action cite serious observations and findings
on local meanings of inclusive education; the need to
strengthen relevant policies; and responsibility to
37

38. Recommendations
It is highly recommended to this Conference
to come up with more effective ways and
means in meeting the needs for better society,
particularly at the grassroots or community
level.
As this meeting of experts and practitioners
ventures into its proceedings, focus must
move beyond closed-door scholarly analysis,
to drive empirical policy for solution to issues
raised.
In the final analysis if ‘community is the
answer’, we must ponder and provide for
38

39. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
WE HAVE WORK TO DO
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
39

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