A Civil Society Organisation, Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), has tasked Kwara Government to key into Open Government Partnership (OGP), to attract sponsorship of international organisations to the state.
Chief Ezecutive Officer CCEPPE, Mr Abdulrahman Ayuba, made the call on Tuesday at the Local Right Programme (LRP) endline impact assessment validation meeting.
Ayuba said the government could not carry out interventions alone but to get funds from donor agencies, it must show commitment.
”Government can not do it alone, but donor agencies need to be convinced that whatever money they are putting on ground is going to serve the people and be accounted for.
”OGP is a global initiative to ensure citizens’ participation in government and what the state government needs to do is to show interest by writing to the National secretariat of the OGP.
”Secondly, the government needs to identify quality areas where it wants to work on and drive, for example, governance, women/gender or health.
”After outlining the priority areas, the state governments have to come out with the State Action Plan (SAP).
”After the SAP, government will identify the key ministries and MDAs that will drive what has been identified, then CSOs of equal numbers will sit at a table and map out how to go about it,” Ayuba said.
The CCEPE executive, however called on the state government to ensure that there should be a democratic system in place at the local governments as they were the closest to the people.
”We are imploring the state government, though it has done well in terms of projects and others, we can do better as a state.
”So, we urge the government to look beyond whatever hurdle on ground and have a democratically elected personality in places at the LG level, instead of running a Transmission Implementation Committee (TIC) system,” he said.
The Partnership and Local Right Manager, Action Aid Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Arowosegbe, urged the government to be friendly to CSOs in the state and see them as partners in progress.
”This is because any government that is proactive and a friend to CSOs, donors will be happy to invest in such.
”Once the organisations see the government’s commitment, and sustaining the things done in the state, it will attract more donors to the state.
”When Action Aid came to KWARA 15 years ago, if we have not had support from the government, we won’t still be here,” Mr Arowosegbe said.
He, however, commended CCEPPE for its interventions in the communities.
”In all honesty, CCEPPE has done well. I have gone to the field and heard what people have said and we have seen physically what they include in their reports,” Mr Arowosegbe said.
One of the representatives of the communities, Rashida Dauda from Ipetu community, commended Action Aid for its support to the community through CCEPPE but asked for electricity supply in the community.
”A lot of things have been done for us; we have been trained and we are also training people.
”We want electricity in our community, we have made a move already and government representatives have come to check our community and we are waiting for the next thing to be done,” Mrs Dauda said.
Reports have it that LRP is an initiative of Action Aid Nigeria which works around different countries.
The LRP is ensuring that communities are able to identify their rights, advocate for their rights and achieve their rights.
In partnership with CCEPPE, Action Aid has worked in 18 communities, by building several classrooms, health centres, several boreholes, constructed labour saving equipment, supported women with seedlings and several empowerment programmes.
There were representatives from Gbago, Igboroko, Sholu, Ipetu communities in Asa Local Government and Gatte and Tenebo communities in Kiama Local Government, and different Ministries, Departments and Agencies at the meeting.