An Assessment of Needs, Access to Public Services and Vulnerabilities among Internally Displaced Persons in Hadejia and Kafin Hausa Communities, Nigeria

Abstract

 As a result of the insurgency in the north-east part of Nigeria, Hadejia and Kafin Hausa as Neighbouring communities, received about 30,000 internally displaced persons the study is an ex post- facto survey which investigated the priority of basic needs and extent of deprivation, as a determinant factor for vulnerability among internally displaced in the communities. The study also investigated the availability of public services and access to them by the IDPs Three research questions were raised to investigate basic needs according to Maslow's need gratification theory, vulnerabilities arising from deprivation of the needs and thirdly access to public services like health education, security by the IDPs. A sample size of 90 households consisting of four respondents per household i.e.360IDPs was chosen from an estimated population of 9000 IDPs. The researchers developed a 39-item structured four-part questionnaire to elicit demographic, food, health, clothing, shelter and security needs or vulnerability information among the IDPs. Most of the questions were checklist or a-Likert type three-point scale. The data was analyzed using percentages. The findings of the study indicated that, food, employment, shelter and clothing are the major needs among the subjects, there is also a high level of vulnerability due to absence or inadequacy of these basic needs. There is an indication of high exposure to violence and abuse, as they mostly live in non-camp settings devoid of adequate protection. Due to the large number of IDPs in the study area, it is recommended that the federal government and international organizations come to the aid of the IDPs and host communities in providing basic needs and psychological support in order to rehabilitate them and ameliorate their condition of high vulnerability.