REBUILDING BLOCKS FOR EFFECTIVE SOCIALLY ENGINEERED DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: UNPACKING POLICY FAILURES, SOMERSAULTS AND THE CONSEQUENCES FOR SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRESS

Nigeria, as a diverse and culturally rich nation, faces unique challenges in fostering sustainable development while respecting its cultural heritage. This study delves into the multifaceted dimensions of how cultural norms influence workplace dynamics and in turn affect the pursuit of sustainable development goals. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the complex relationship between cultural norms, sustainable development, and workplace politics in Nigeria, specifically its problems and potential solutions. The Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and Institutional theory was adopted to explain the intersection among cultural norms, sustainable development, and workplace in Nigeria. Qualitative data were utilized to explore the depth and shades of these norms, including their origins, evolution, and variations within different Nigerian workplaces. The findings reveal amongst others that the Nigerian workplace culture is deeply rooted in traditional norms and values which influence various aspects of work, including communication styles, hierarchy, and decision-making processes. The study concluded that in order to achieve sustainable development in Nigeria, organizations must be able to navigate through cultural norms at work. By doing so, they can overcome challenges and contribute to the long-term viability of both their businesses and society at large. There is a need for Organizations to implement culturally sensitivity training programs to help employees understand and respect cultural norms while also promoting organizational rules and purposes.

In low-income and middle-income countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial implications for women's wellbeing. Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the gendered aspect of pandemics; however, addressing the gendered implications of the COVID-19 pandemic comprehensively and effectively requires a planetary health perspective that embraces systems thinking to inequalities. This Viewpoint is based on collective reflections from research done by the authors on COVID-19 responses by international and regional organisations, and national governments, in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa between June, 2020, and June, 2021. A range of international and regional actors have made important policy recommendations to address the gendered implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's health and wellbeing since the start of the pandemic. However, national-level policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have been partial and inconsistent with regards to gender in both sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, largely failing to recognise the multiple drivers of gendered health inequalities. This Viewpoint proposes that addressing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in low-income and middle-income countries should adopt a systems thinking approach and be informed by the question of who is affected as opposed to who is infected. In adopting the systems thinking approach, responses will be more able to recognise and address the direct gendered effects of the pandemic and those that emerge indirectly through a combination of long-standing structural inequalities and gendered responses to the pandemic.

This study estimates and analyzes the incidence and determinants of energy poverty in Nigeria based on a simple multidimensional energy poverty index that it constructed. It also highlights the implications of energy poverty for sustainable development in Nigeria. The headcount ratio and the logistic regression technique are used. The study utilizes the Nigeria Living Standard Survey data set of 2004, obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. The estimates show that energy poverty is pervasive in the country; it afflicts over 75 per cent of the population. The determinants of energy poverty in Nigeria include household size; educational level, gender and age of household head; general poverty; region of residence; and proportion of working members in the household. Efforts should be made to adequately tackle the problem of energy poverty in Nigeria. This is a major way to put the country on the path to rapid and sustainable development.

This paper explores the roles of Libraries in achieving Quality Education using digital platforms for Sustainable Development in Nigeria. It is of the view that Librarians have a strong commitment to make towards the realization of the global initiative of Sustainable Development Goals 2030 especially in this digital era. The context of SDGs, Quality Education, roles of libraries towards quality education, and various ways libraries in Nigeria can achieve quality education towards Sustainable Development using various digital platforms in the library were critically outlined. This paper agrees that information providers and managers, as part of their responsibility should ensure that Nigeria achieved the SDGs by 2030 through the provision of Qualitative Education using various digital platforms in the library. This study therefore recommends that libraries in Nigeria should be adequately supported by the parent institutions by providing and making accessible needed/relevant information resources in various formats for the users; encourage and promote information literacy programmes aimed at creating awareness of library and internet resources for the pupils/ student/ teachers/ librarians; and approve staff trainings towards improvement of skills of librarians and library staff locally, nationally and internationally.Keywords: Library, Librarians, Quality Education, Sustainable Development Goals

Environmental degradation, social unrest, and uneven development in Nigeria’s Niger Delta have intensified calls for innovative, sustainability-driven strategies that reconcile economic activity with environmental responsibility. Hence, this study aims to critically examine how environmental marketing functions as a strategic instrument for advancing sustainable development in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. Adopting a qualitative content analysis approach, the research analyzed 50 purposively selected documents published between 2013 and 2024, including peer-reviewed articles, corporate sustainability reports, and government policy papers. Findings revealed that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) emerged as the dominant environmental marketing theme, cited in 85% of reviewed materials, followed by eco-friendly product promotion (72%), environmental certifications (60%), and stakeholder engagement (55%). These findings demonstrate a growing awareness of sustainability underscore the limited translation of policy into practice. The study further mapped environmental marketing initiatives against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), identifying the strongest alignments with SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), while SDG 15 (Life on Land) received less emphasis, exposing a gap in biodiversity-centered marketing strategies. Analytical interpretation, grounded in Kotler’s Societal Marketing Concept and Peattie’s Sustainable Marketing Model, suggests that environmental marketing in the Niger Delta often remains surface-level—driven more by branding imperatives than by genuine ecological accountability. Key challenges identified include weak regulatory enforcement, minimal community participation, and insufficient transparency in environmental data reporting. It concludes that environmental marketing must transition from symbolic CSR to a participatory, evidence-based practice grounded in transparency, localized green innovation, and community engagement. While, It recommends stronger policy enforcement, inclusive stakeholder collaboration, and integration of environmental education into corporate and governmental sustainability programs.

This study offers a comparative analysis of Singapore and Lebanon’s progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Singapore, a high-income island city-state, has demonstrated significant advancement due to its stable political environment, strong institutions, long-term strategic planning, and sustained economic prosperity. Ranking 65th globally in the 2024 Sustainable Development Report, Singapore has made good or fair progress in over half of the SDG targets, particularly in Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3), Quality Education (SDG 4), Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), and Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11). However, it still faces challenges in areas such as Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9), and Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12), along with data gaps. In stark contrast, Lebanon, a middle-income nation, faces immense challenges that have significantly hindered its SDG progress. Ranking 110th globally in the 2024 Sustainable Development Report, Lebanon grapples with poverty (SDG 1), hunger (SDG 2), a strained healthcare system (SDG 3), a severe energy crisis (SDG 7), high unemployment (SDG 8), and damaged infrastructure (SDG 9). Persistent political instability, weak governance, recurring economic crises, and the enduring impact of internal and external conflicts, including the Syrian refugee crisis, have severely impeded Lebanon’s ability to achieve the SDGs. To make substantial progress, Lebanon requires fundamental legal and political reforms to address deep-rooted systemic issues hindering its development.

Towards achieving energy for sustainable development in Nigeria

This study investigated the interconnected roles of poverty alleviation programs, education enrollment, and access to healthcare in promoting human development within the context of Nigeria's pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Utilizing secondary data spanning nine years from 2015 to 2023 and employing descriptive and content analyses, findings from the study revealed that the increased government expenditure on poverty alleviation programs, higher education enrollment rates and the improved access to healthcare services contributed positively to the improved human development outcomes. The study concluded that the metrics of achieving sustainable development goals are important in achieving human development in Nigeria. The findings contributed to a deeper understanding of the interplay between economic, social, and health factors in driving sustainable development in Nigeria. This finding emphasizes the need for efficient allocation of resources to ensure maximum impact. The research recommended increasing investments in poverty alleviation programs, expanding social safety nets, and enhancing access to education and healthcare services, particularly in marginalized communities in Nigeria and other developing economies.

Analyzing energy poverty and carbon emissions in a social housing complex due to changes in thermal standards

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) championed by the United Nations (UN) in 2015, are global concerted effort to bring about positive change in all member countries by 2030. Achieving the SDGs in Nigeria faces numerous challenges, this paper explores the potential of the development communication paradigm as a strategic approach to overcome these challenges. Development communication paradigm offers a pathway to mobilise development recipients, development communicators as well as stakeholders to foster inclusive, hence sustainable development by leveraging both modern communication technologies and traditional media. The study examines strategies to leverage the mass media as a tool for communicating development as well as facilitating public discourse to address development challenges. Undoubtedly, a robust development communication framework can significantly contribute to achieving the SDGs in Nigeria by fostering a better informed, actively engaged, and resilient communities. The paper concludes with recommendations for utilising the mass media in driving sustainable development in Nigeria.

BackgroundMajority of the countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region are not on track to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals, yet even more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 3 on heath, have been adopted. This paper highlights the challenges - amplified by the recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa - that require WHO and other partners’ dialogue in support of the countries, and debate on how WHO can leverage the existing space and place to foster health development dialogues in the Region.DiscussionTo realise SDG 3 on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, the African Region needs to tackle the persistent weaknesses in its health systems, systems that address the social determinants of health and national health research systems. The performance of the third item is crucial for the development and innovation of systems, products and tools for promoting, maintaining and restoring health in an equitable manner.Under its new leadership, the WHO Regional Office for Africa is transforming itself to galvanise existing partnerships, as well as forging new ones, with a view to accelerating the provision of timely and quality support to the countries in pursuit of SDG 3. WHO in the African Region engages in dialogues with various stakeholders in the process of health development. The EVD outbreak in West Africa accentuated the necessity for optimally exploiting currently available space and place for health development discourse. There is urgent need for the WHO Regional Office for Africa to fully leverage the space and place arenas of the World Health Assembly, WHO Regional Committee for Africa, African Union, Regional economic communities, Harmonization for Health in Africa, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Development Bank, professional associations, and WHO African Health Forum, when it is created, for dialogues to mobilise the required resources to give the African Region the thrust it needs to attain SDG 3.ConclusionsThe pursuit of SDG 3 amidst multiple challenges related to political leadership and governance, weak health systems, sub-optimal systems for addressing the socioeconomic determinants of health, and weak national health research systems calls for optimum use of all the space and place available for regional health development dialogues to supplement Member States’ efforts.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1452-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Energy poverty remains a formidable obstacle to sustainable and inclusive growth, significantly hindering progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially within developing nations. As an important manifestation of multidimensional and relative poverty, alleviating household energy poverty is essential for promoting energy justice, enhancing household resilience, and advancing inclusive development pathways in China’s new development stage. Utilizing panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) spanning 2014–2022, alongside the Peking University Digital Inclusive Finance Index, this study empirically investigates the role of digital inclusive finance in mitigating household energy poverty and explores the underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that digital inclusive finance significantly alleviates household energy poverty. Mechanism analysis reveals that this effect operates primarily through enhancing household income diversification via non-agricultural employment opportunities (facilitated by mobile payment platforms and e-commerce financing) and strengthening financial resilience by easing liquidity constraints (via online micro-credit products and digital insurance services). Heterogeneity tests reveal that DIF is most effective for households in eastern and western provinces, rural communities, and low-income groups, underscoring its potential to improve equity and those with lower levels of digitalization, highlighting its inclusive and equity-enhancing characteristics. Overall, this study provides micro-level evidence on how digital financial development can be embedded within broader sustainability and energy poverty governance agendas. The findings suggest that strengthening digital financial infrastructure, optimizing inclusive financial product design, and improving financial risk prevention and institutional safeguards are crucial for building a sustainable, trinity-based energy poverty governance framework characterized by technological empowerment, financial innovation, and institutional support.. Keywords: Household energy poverty; Digital inclusive finance; Financial resilience; Income diversification; Sustainable development

Artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) is a critical means of livelihood for many, particularly in Ghana's rural mining communities, providing substantial financial support for households. However, illegal ASM activities have engendered pervasive apprehensions due to their adverse environmental repercussions and sustainability impediments. This review examines the positive benefits as well as the negative implications of illegal ASM on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), drawing on empirical evidence from primary research articles and grey literature. This review paper used a systematic approach to gather and analyse relevant literature. An extensive literature search was conducted across databases, including Web of Science Core Collection, EMBASE, GEOBASE, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, focusing on peer-reviewed journal publications and relevant grey literature. The inclusion criteria focused on key themes relevant to the topic, while the exclusion criteria eliminated content that did not meet standards, including doubtful or predatory sources. The data extraction summarised findings and conclusions to highlight trends and gaps. A qualitative synthesis provided an overview and a potential guide for future research. The findings reveal that illegal ASM has resulted in significant contamination of freshwater resources. Analysis of water samples found concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits, with values of 0.28, 0.13, 0.30, and 0.03mg/l, respectively. Similarly, sediment analysis demonstrated concentrations of these heavy metals above sediment quality guidelines, with 22.92mg/kg for arsenic, 5.41mg/kg for cadmium, 98.01mg/kg for lead, and 0.81mg/kg for mercury. Furthermore, specific river sediment concentrations surpassed guideline values, particularly in the Birim River and others. Over the period from April 2013 to June 2024, approximately 377 artisanal small-scale miners perished due to mine pit collapses. Additionally, a 25% reduction in forest cover has occurred in Southwestern Ghana within the last decade, with artisanal mining activities impacting an estimated 2,700 hectares of land and encroaching on 800 hectares of protected areas. Notwithstanding the beneficial contributions of ASM to SDG 1 and 2, namely job creation and income generation for rural mining communities, the detrimental impacts of ASM appear to surpass the benefits. Illegal ASM disrupts progress towards numerous SDGs, including SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13: Climate Action, SDG 14: Life Below Water, and SDG 15: Life on Land. This review calls for stakeholders, especially governments, to address small-scale mining's problems. ASM offers economic benefits, but its adverse impact on health, environment, and sustainability requires balanced regulation and support for sustainable practices. Responsible policymaking is crucial as ASM grows globally, with major impacts on local communities and the environment. Policymakers must work with ASM operators, civil society, and experts to develop and implement a plan that promotes responsible mining, protects the environment, and secures the long-term viability of this key economic activity.

Global warming is a multifaceted challenge triggered by greenhouse gas emissions attributable to carbon-intensive industrial expansion for economic growth incentives. Therefore, the departure from carbon-intensive to carbon-efficient production process has become compulsory to maintain ecological preservation. In this context, the present study examines how ecological efficiency of affluence, biocapacity, fiscal decentralization, renewable energy expansion, population, financialization, and economic globalization influence carbon intensity in seven emerging and developing countries (EGDVCs) between 2000 and 2019. The outcomes of the Method of Moments Quantile Regression postulated that fiscal decentralization, population, financialization, and economic globalization give rise to carbon intensity. At the same time, ecological efficiency of affluence, renewable energy expansion, and biocapacity support the carbon-neutral objectives of EGDVCs and contribute to ecological preservation. The negative coefficient of the moderator portrays that fiscal decentralization encourages environmental preservation through the biocapacity channel. In other words, fiscally decentralized authorities of countries with substantially high capacity to regenerate materials from nature and absorb waste may bring about energy transition initiatives to tackle carbon intensity and instigate environmental preservation. Keeping in mind these outcomes, EGDVCs are advised to build fiscal decentralization on a more responsive sub-national administrative setup to ensure policy harmony between advancing carbon efficiency and preserving the regenerative capacity of Earth's ecosystem to maintain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on clean energy (SDG-7) and climate action (SDG-13).

The precise identification of energy poor households is a critical step towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 1 (No Poverty), while also intersecting with climate action (SDG 13). As the world’s largest developing country, China faces unique energy poverty challenges characterized by significant regional disparities and uneven access to modern energy services. To support targeted interventions and equitable policy-making, this study proposes an explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) framework for predicting and interpreting energy poverty. Utilizing nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014 to 2020, we developed a predictive model that integrates a Convolutional Neural Network with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). Our model, EPPE-FCS, demonstrated exceptional predictive performance, achieving an average accuracy of 98.23%, outperforming several mainstream benchmarks. Crucially, the SHAP interpretability analysis revealed that annual per capita household expenditure is the most influential driver, while the contribution of energy burden indicators (electricity and gas expenses) exhibited a significant decreasing trend. This trend likely reflects the positive impact of China’s national policies, such as the “Clean Heating Initiative” and “Targeted Poverty Alleviation,” on improving energy infrastructure and affordability. The findings underscore the necessity of a dual-track policy that combines immediate energy cost subsidies with long-term strategies for income enhancement and clean energy transition. This research provides policymakers with a robust tool to alleviate energy poverty, thereby advancing a just, sustainable, and climate-resilient energy future in China and other developing regions.