USAID commits to entrenchment of good governance in Gombe
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
United States Agency for International Development [USAID], says it is interested in the entrenchment of dividends of good governance in Gombe State.
Speaking at the end of a two day workshop on Rapid Assessment of State Communication Mechanisms Strategy Development, Muhammad Abubakar, State team lead for the Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness [State2State], project said the activity was geared towards assisting Non profit organizations, Ministries, Department and Agencies develop communication strategy which would help facilitate relationship between government and the citizens.
Recall that State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness activity [State2State or S2S] is a USAID funded project implemented by DAI Global in six (6) states of Nigeria including Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Sokoto and Gombe.
Abubakar noted that the collaboration would to a great extent ensure good governance, adding that Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness would necessarily entrench development.
He said, “This training is on rapid assessment of communication mechanisms and development of communication strategy. We want to assist the state government and partners; stakeholders like NGO’s, CSO’s, private sector and people living with disability etc.
“To have a collaborative communication strategy document which will help in facilitating relationship between Government, private sector, local government etc, towards good governance in the state. We want to be recognized as partners in the development of the State, to ensure social inclusion; women, people with disability so that women will be brought to the process of development without any exclusion leaving no one behind as enshrined in the spirit of Sustainable Development Goal.
“The government has started implementing aspects of good governance and our project is supporting them as our government supports them there are some thematic areas that we have looked at principally Public financial management; to ensure Transparency, Accountability, through the lens of social strategy like primary health care, basic education and WASH [Water, Sanitation and Hygiene].”
While assessing the state, as it relates to the project’s thematic areas the Team leader stressed that it is in order but would achieve more with the support
“Since this government came on board in 2019, it has embarked on certain reforms. Let me refer you to the campaign document of the present governor, he specifically mentioned education, health, water, sanitation and hygiene as a priority area for his reforms when he wins elections.
“Eventually he won the election and he has the document and we will look at the part relevant to our work and we are ready to support him.
“You find that primary health care is supposed to cater for the majority of our population living in the rural areas but you find that some of the primary health care facilities are not in shape to the extent that people run to secondary or even tertiary like the Federal Teaching Hospital that we have. We realised that Government is embarking on renovating, building each of the centres in 114 wards. This will serve as model so that subsequent years the Government will continue to not only renovate more but equip them
“Already he has started making some initiative in those areas. Our own is to ensure that good governance is entrenched at both the state and grassroot level to bring about economic development and poor reduction among citizens,” Abubakar added.
He further said, “We want to see how we can mobilize civil society to enlighten citizens to go about paying for water. There are areas with sufficient water supply but the fact that payment has been challenging and problematic we want to see how we can build the capacities of government officials to reach out to those who benefit water services as government makes more water available to citizens.”
