Arewa Research Development Project (ARDP) is pioneered by a group of academics drawn from the universities and independent Research Organizations across the North.

We seek to fill the intellectual vacuum in Northern Nigeria for the required strategic thinking, conceive and nurture its political, economic and social transformation by providing a research-based content to the raging debate and reposition it in positive terms as land of Agriculture, mineral resources, and alternative sources of energy, knowledge and stability.

The Northern States of Nigeria have had the worst development indices in the country for the most of the last three decades. The last two decades of democratic governance have not, contrary to expectations, changed much, if anything, poverty deepened and conflicts escalated. Admittedly the North lacked a clear development agenda and has been deficient in veritable civil society platforms to keep leaders on their toes. 

The ARDP is a development platform, which pooled together diverse actors and expertise, which created a development agenda, the STAND document, and started engaging the governors of the Northern States on development.

 The ARDP has forged a working relationship with the seven States of the Northwest in areas of their comparative and competitive advantage, while talking to other governors in the region. The strength of the ARDP is its convening power and the pooling together of diverse expertise and credible voices from the North. The ARDP reflects the heterogeneity, gender and generational diversities in the North.