UNICEF’s Harmonized Procurement Guidelines and Development of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector in Nigeria

• In Event: Multiple Dimensions of Human Security

Abstract

The harmonized procurement guidelines (HPG) encapsulate principles and procedures fashioned by the UNICEF’s to provide specific and general specifications to the acquisition of works, goods and services financed by the contributory stakeholders in the Nigeria’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector. Despite this regulatory measure, available data indicate that between 6% and 26% of total WASH expenditure is lost to corruption annually, while unethical practices account for poor, delayed, or dearth of WASH services. These realities have negatively impacted WASH outcomes and deepened health crisis in Nigeria. This study specifically examines how the lowest evaluated cost clause in the HPG is undermining the delivery of high-quality works and goods in the Nigeria’s WASH sector. Utilizing the mixed method approach, secondary data, as well as the Marxist theory of the postcolonial state, this study argues that privileged class which thrives on primitive capital accumulation leverages the lowest evaluated cost criterion to engage in sharp practices which results in delivery of poor WASH facilities. As a result, 5 out of every 7 awarded projects under the WASH intervention programmes were either abandoned, completed but non-functional or rehabilitation cases. This possibly explains the prevalence of WASH insecurity in Nigeria – 70% of the people in Nigeria population are living without adequate and basic WASH services while an absolute number are practicing open defecation. Indeed, this study suggests reviewing the HPG with a view to adopting the most economically advantageous tender as basis for awarding contract in the WASH sector.

Keywords: UNICEF, harmonized procurement guidelines, WASH, primitive accumulation, privileged class

Authors

• Aloysius-Michaels Okolie, Enugu State University of Science & Technology, Agbani, Enugu State

• Kelechi Elijah Nnamani, University of Nigeria, Nsukka