Objective:
A major initiative in this regard is the Local Empowerment and Environmental Management Project (LEEMP), a five year partnership between the Nigerian Government and World Bank, which is the result of Nigeria obtaining assistance from the International Development Association (IDA) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) to assist (i) beneficiary communities in participating states to have planned, co-financed and implementable environmental sustainable and socially inclusive multi-sectoral micro-projects; and in (ii) strengthening the institutional framework at the Federal, State and particularly local government level to support environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive development. LEEMP is being implemented in nine participating states- Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Enugu, Katsina, Imo, Niger and Oyo.

The LEEMP has five main components: (a) Multi-Sectoral Community Driven Investment; (b) the Local Government Assessment and Capacity Building; (c) Protected Areas and Biodiversity Management; (d) Strengthening the Environmental Institutional Framework; and (e) Programme Management. This report is concerned only with the Local Government Assessment and Capacity Building sub-project. It is concerned more specifically with the application of the Scorecard Assessment instrument to identify those rural local governments in participating states whose level of commitment to effective service delivery and responsiveness to rural communities justify their inclusion in the LEEMP as beneficiaries. The essence is to use good governance as instrument for selection of participating LGAs, through, inter alia, ascertaining the level of performance of the assessed local governments along key governance criteria, improvement on which will enhance their overall governance capability. However, the choice of LGAs in participating states, based on competitive governance assessment criteria aims also to identify the weakness of other LGAs, encouraging enviable LGAs and ginger up poorly performing ones to redefine their service delivery standards, through offering them opportunities for improvement, with a view to bringing them on board good governance practices.

The relevance of this study to the issue of service delivery assumes meaning in the framework that relates LEEMP implementation and the critical role of LGAs to the Community- Driven (CDD) approach. The CDD approach to local development directly relies on poor people to drive development activities. The approach treats poor people and their institutions as assets and partners, rather than simply as targets, in the development process. The approach, hence, gives control of decisions and resources to community groups, while allowing scope for participation of demand-responsive support organisations and service providers, including elected local governments, the private sector, NGOs, and central government agencies. By its known capacity to achieve immediate and sustainable results at grassroots, CDD is positioned to play critical roles in strategies for poverty reduction.

See also:
     Identification and Prioritisation of Critical Fadama Ecosystems (2005)
     Scorecard Assessment of Rural Local Governments in Nine States of Nigeria (2005)
     Score Card Assessment (2005)