International Foundation for the Aged

PROJECT PROPOSAL

ON

BUILDING RESILENCE AND REDUCING VULNERABILITY OF RETIREES THROUGH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

PREPARED BY

INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR THE AGED

SUMMARY

Among the most vulnerable people are the aged most of whom are retirees of government institutions. This category of persons, although referred to as “Senior Citizens” are often abandoned and less concerned about by even the government. Most of them, after spending years of meritorious service, end up becoming sick on retirement and become far less productive. The fear of the unknown and aftermath of retirement have been major sources of concern among retirees. This has led to the development of sense of insecurity and helplessness among about-to-be retired men and women in Nigeria.

As a result of inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the implementation of Retirement Policy in Nigeria, retirement has become something workers dreaded and often as much as possible try to avoid. This situation has contributed to the continued flourishing of corruption in public service as some who are due for retirement continue to manipulate their credential to reflect active age so as to remain in kind of situation has over the years been the bane to productivity in public sector. A fundamental factor that has continued to fuel this practice is, as noted above, the lack of retirement plan on the part of both the government and the retirees. It is in view of this that this project seeks to develop a comprehensive retirement program that will build the resilience of retirees as well as soon-to-be retired workers in Nigeria. This resilience building program is designed to assist retirees in coping with post services challenges such as economic crunch, psychological effect of being out of job and health related problems occasioned by aging.

BACKGROUND

The idea of retirement are seen differently by people. While some are positive and anxiously looking forward to being out of active service, majority dreaded it with great anxiety. In spite of the different disposition toward retirement, it is an eventuality that is staring directly the face of every workers. Not minding every other factor, aging is a critical factor that cannot be dogged by anybody. Retirement comes with age, and the older one gets, the less productive one becomes. Aging therefore becomes the determinant of the continuing engagement in productive service.

While it can be argued that retirement comes with a lot of benefits, the peculiarity of the dire situation of Nigerian workers (retired) after service is a cause for concern among many workers whose retirement age is close. One key reason for this concern is that many Nigerian workers do not have adequate plan for life after service; while many are living a lifestyle that seem extravagant, they fail to recognize the fact that retirement is staring them in the face and that, their income after retirement obviously will not support such lifestyle. As a result of inadequate plan for the future, the thought of retirement is repulsive to many workers. For this reason many deny their authentic age, while many others falsify certain credentials to reflect a much lower age so as to continue to remain in active has been noted that retirement is an awful experience to many workers because of its associated decision change in the matter of life and general survival. It is typically associated with stress for the average civil servant in Nigeria as retirement in Nigerian civil service is guided by Decree 102 of 1979 which deals with pensions and gratuity.

The statutory age of retirement of public officers is 60 years while it is 65 years for judicial officers and 70 for academic staff of universities. However, with the reform of the civil service decree No. 43 of 1988 retirement age has been put at 60 years or 35years in service whichever comes first. It must be stated here that irrespective of the type of retirement, the transition is associated with some stressful situations like economic, social, psychological and occupational. These retirement stress could emanate from different sources which include money, health, ageing, search for meaningful activity, caring for other family members, grandchildren or elderly parents, relocation amongst others.
Hence it presents a worse situation when the retiree is not adequately prepared to face this ultimate phase of life.

Retirement life demands great managerial ability, and this would be best achieved with early preparation. It has been observed that the retiree in order to experience a pleasant post-retirement life style would have to device effective means of managing some challenges inherent in retirement as he will soon be confronted with the challenge of managing insufficient retirement benefits that come at the end of the month to cater for his needs especially if he still requires to securing residential accommodation, the challenge of a new and low social status; difficult health and declining health condition.

In view of the challenges that come with retirement, planning for retirement is a necessity and is an important part of post-service survival. Adequate preparation for retirement thereby would ease incidence of retirement adjustment failure. Therefore, retirement planning should reflect every individual’s dreams, hopes, and aspirations in addition to meeting day to day obligations. It is essential that all prospective retirees begin with a personal goal setting exercise that reflects how the individual wants to spend the last days of his/her life. Besides the financial preparation, there is also need to a comprehensive life plan which will encompass every facet of post-service life such as health, recreation, nutrition, investment plans and entrepreneurial activities.

Hence to avoid the independence and physical challenges associated with seniority, individuals should ensure that in all life expense, they should consider the future financial freedom and independence, the challenge of living alone, retirement home, medication, health and others. So, it is therefore pertinent for everyone, irrespective of income, to plan ahead by.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT

The woes of pensioners and to certain extent those of regular workers appear an unending phenomenon in many states of the federation. Apart from unpaid gratuities which piled up over several years of “democratic” or civil dictatorial rule, the payment of the mandatory monthly pension to bona fide retirees has become a subject of unmitigated disaster and controversy with arrears ranging from a few months to more than one year owed in some instances.

It may appear as nothing that workers and pensioners who have contributed to the growth of the country must continue to suffer untold hardship as a result of complete neglect on the part of the government. Despite of the bailout fund doled out by the federal government to states without any publicly known stringent conditionality attached, living conditions of retired workers continue to worsen as most state government diverted the money from its intending purpose. These senior citizens have been badly treated and disgraced instead of being honoured.

Over the years, the prospect of receiving pension after retirement has become problematic and marked by uncertainty. This degrading situation has worsened the woes of retired civil servants. The failure of government to meet the pension expectation of retirees ends up shattering the plans of many as well as inducing economic trauma, which in some cases have led to fatalities. Indeed, many senior citizens who had no other source of earning a living after service had collapsed and died while on queues waiting for their pensions. Recently, two out of hundreds of pensioners in Benue State slumped while on a peaceful demonstration to the Government House, Makurdi to press their demand for the payment of 10 months pension arrears owed them.[1]Despite the hues and cries, our senior citizens continue to suffer and wallow in abject poverty. The plight of Nigerian pensioners has been a thing of concern for many years now. The picture of haggard-looking pensioners collapsing on queues for their meager pensions during verification exercises is no longer news. What have been the lot of these special people are non-payment of entitlements, omission of pensioners’ names from payroll, under-payment of pensioners, delayed pension payment and non-payment of arrears and gratuities.

Retirement, which ordinarily should be embraced with joy, has become a source of sorrow, frustration, panic and agony, replete with stories of fraud, embezzlement, illegal lodgments of funds and illegal deductions for ghost pensioners. Ironically, the public servant, having put all his life into active service would naturally expect to be rewarded. But, most often than not, they get misery in return.

All these inglorious situations are what make many workers to dread retirement and that has create room for corruption, fraud and inefficiency in the public sector. This account for why many, even when due for retirement, has refuse to retire so as to still be able to make ends meet. This project, therefore see the need to create space for retirees to explore beyond retirement by providing capacity development schemes that will increase their resilience and make them still economically active while on retirement. The project will also address the fear and vulnerability of those who are about to retire without any form of social protection.
 

PROJECT GOAL

The goal of this project is to build resilience of retirees and soon-to-be retired against post-service or retirement challenges. This project will support their capacity to remain economically viable and remain self-reliance during the retirement period.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The project is set to achieve specifically the following objectives:

• Increase understanding of the need for retirement plan among retirees and soon-to retire workers in the civil service.
• Provide platform for retirees to identify opportunities to enhance their resilience during retirement.
• Build retirees resilience through well-developed retirement action plan that will foster their socio-economic status.
• Support federal government social security/investment scheme that tends to improve the lot of the aged in Nigeria.

PROJECT FOCUS

The project will be implemented in five pilot states of the federation, namely, FCT, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi and Kaduna. It will be targeted at public servant retirees and workers.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

In view of the susceptibility of retirees to retirement trauma and life-threatening crisis, there is need for preparatory activities that we enhance their resilience and support economic reliance. To achieve the above objectives, the project will involve the following concrete activities:

• Retirement and post-service Sensitization Workshops:Post-service and retirement sensitization workshops will be held bi-annually in each of the piloted states of the federation on how to reduce trauma and stress that accompany retirement. This workshops will bring together all retirees from 2013 till date as well as soon-to retire workers in public service in each state. It will be a day sensitization workshop and will be facilitated by seasoned stress managers and renowned academics. A bi- monthly radio program will be carried out to sensitize retirees and soon-to retire workers on post service life. It will be tagged “After Service, what next?”  This will be a phone-in program that will also allow for retirees to voice their concerns.
• Continuous Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurial Training Program: A special skill acquisition and entrepreneurial program will be developed to meet the need of the aging retirees. This program will provide them opportunities to be economically reliant and active. This program will provide training on profitable micro business activities such as agro farming, home productions, industrial productions etc. this activities are less stressful and have the capacity to keep them active while reducing their susceptibility to age related sicknesses. Training Centre will be set up each of the project states to make for accessibility.
• Continuous Post-service Interventions: This will be done through collaboration with relevant government agencies, ministries and departments that are responsible for supporting aging men and women who have meritoriously served the nations. Issues relating to retirees will be look into and presented before relevant agency to quick intervention. This will also include advocacy for the development of effective aging/retirement policy, beyond the Pension Reform Act and any other existing laws, which will bring the aged/retirees under an exclusive government social protection program.
• Development of a Post Service/Retirement Action Plan: To support our advocacy effort, International Foundation for the Aged (INFA) in collaboration with other partners will develop a comprehensive post-service policy plan with which the government will be engaged to bring about new life to all retired Nigerian workers.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

In order to effectively implement the above listed activities, the following strategies will be adopted in driving the process:

Awareness Creation: to achieve the project goal, the project will embark on massive sensitization to create awareness of the impending realization of retirement and the need for concrete planning. Information on reducing post-service trauma will be disseminated among the rank and file of Nigerian workers to alley the fear and anxiety brought about by the thought of retirement. This will be done through workshops, rally and radio programs.

Alliance Building: the goal of this project cannot be achieved without effective collaboration, particularly with relevant government agencies that can contribute toward the success of the project. INFA will therefore partner with relevant bodies to ensure better life for retirees in Nigeria.

Inclusive Advocacy: this implies that the advocacy for the adoption of an effective retirement policy will be inclusive of the retirees. In other word, the project will create a platform to mobilize retired citizens to lend their voices to the campaign for a social protection policy for the aged in Nigeria.

EXPECTED OUTPUT

• 100 persons trained and counseled on preparation for retirement and livelihood opportunities in each state of the federation.
• Ten (10) sensitization workshops will be held in the course of the project.
• 500 post retirement handbooks and leaflets will be produced and distributed to the trained retirees and workers.
• Skills Acquisition Centre in each of the piloted states to train workers on various economic skills that will support their livelihood.

EXPECTED OUTCOME

The following results are expected to be achieved in the course of the project:

• Increased knowledge of post-service trauma management among Nigerian workers, particularly, the retirees.
• Improved self-confidence of retirees to look into the future with optimism and less dependent on government.
• Increased self-reliance of retirees through the development of self-sustained economic activities.
• Reduced incidences of post-retirement trauma which often lead to sicknesses and ultimately sudden death among retirees.
• Improved healthy life of retirees as a result of carefully engaged retirement plan.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION PLAN

The project will maintain a comprehensive progress report log book stating what interventions have been made and what has resulted from it, as well as unintended setbacks. The log book will help to identify challenges encountered in the cause of project implementation and steps taken to address such. This will help to monitors the impact, effect as well as the output of the project intervention/activities. An evidence-based monitoring and evaluation process will be mainstreamed into all the project activities to allow for easy tracking and evaluation of all outcomes. This process will be mainstreamed into all project activities with verifiable evidence of performance.

A Performance Monitoring Plan will be designed with indicators which will include the number of participants, number of states expected to be covered or; number of retirees trained and quality of engagements retirement policy campaign etc to measure activities results or outcome in line with pre-determined Result Framework. These indicators will be measured against expected results to determine both the qualitative and quantitative impact of project interventions/activities.

Where the expected indicators were not achieved, then, the desired result(s) have not been achieved and there will be a need for review of the activities to determine what went wrong or why expected result(s) were not achieved. Periodic project review will be carried out to determine the level of progress. Both the progress and the setbacks/challenges will be recorded in order to strategically plan for the achievement of expected project results.

[1] The Plight of Pensioners.