Stakeholders laud USAID S2S Activity in Gombe
….says intervention aiding better performance of governance
By Chima Azubuike
Some participants from Civil Society Organisations, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies have lauded United States Agency for International Development State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness, State2State Activity for its efforts in ensuring the optimum performance of governance in Gombe State.
Our correspondent reports that Gombe is one of the six states in Nigeria benefitting from the five-year, State2State Activity.
Recall that S2S supports states to plan and budget, raise revenues, increase civil society participation, and oversee service delivery in the Health; Education; and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene sectors by building relevant capacities. It’s implemented by Development Alternatives Incorporated.
In an interview with our correspondent at the end of a two-day workshop organised by State2State which held between Thursday to Friday on Outcome Harvesting, Deputy Auditor-General of the state Wilson Yahaya, said prior to the intervention of State2State there wasn’t an audit law, adding that the law has ensured autonomy especially in the succession of state Auditor-General.
According Yahaya, the audit law provides for the succession of the Auditor-General, noting that unlike before where it was the most senior in the office, the law now allows for the most suitable with the requisite know-how.
He disclosed that its was following the engagement of the Activity that relevant stakeholders saw the need to support the state’s audit law, stressing that another positive aspect of the law is the fact that the Auditor-General doesn’t have to retire like any other civil servant, who is bound by time of service but 60 years of age.
Yahaya said, “Before now the Auditor-General retires as a normal civil servant but after the expiration of the time of service, with the audit law, which emphasised the fact that after his appointment he must have to retire by age and by age means he must have to reach the age of 60 before he/she retires. Unlike before where it is only based on years of service even if you are not 35 years in service you may be retired.
“However, the audit law has now changed the modality for the appointment of the Auditor-General as it’s not about seniority but the one who is qualified, the system has been strengthened.”
He noted that Outcome Harvesting was different and unique from previous workshops, “Actually, we’ve been having trainings since 2021. We’ve been attending USAID programmes but this one looks a little different, because the previous one we had something like Pause and Reflect; but this time around we have been taught about harvesting the outcome, the outcome of the trainings we had earlier. So that they can now go back with a feedback on what they had impacted in us, whether we have learnt, what was taught and used it. It will enable them see how it is practised in our organisations,” Yahaya added.
Also speaking, Chairman, Association of Non-Governmental Organisations in Gombe State, Ibrahim Yusuf, said the intervention of State2State has widened the scope of his group, thereby increasing their knowledge base.
He said, “It has opened our eyes, before the coming of S2S, the level of engagement we used to have was below average but with their coming and intervention especially in the three areas or sectors that they are working on our level of engagement has increased to the level of theirs and it something to take home. In the MDAs they are working with our level of engagement has increased and we have become citizens’ ambassadors.”
Yusuf who doubles as Team Lead Advocacy Centre for Development, while noting the importance of the workshop to some of his members said, “Outcome Harvesting is something new to us, even though is Monitoring and Evaluation like. But the Outcome Harvesting is a new concept to us but it has come with a simplified version of M&E because one can rate himself, rate what he is doing and also rate somebody, so the techniques and also the engagement identified in that concept of outcome harvesting is something new to us but is a simplified version of M&E tools.”
On his part, State Team Lead Mohammed Abubakar, explained that the essence of the workshop was to take stock of its interventions, adding that, “In every project management we need to take time to look at the achievements so far, and one of the ways of looking at it is to look at what we did to get it right and wrong, and what do we need to do to improve on our intervention.In every project circle management there are milestones where you change to find out how far you have gone. There is input, output, and there is outcome.”
Speaking further on the importance of the workshop, Abubakar added “We are doing it today, just to find out the outcome that our stakeholders recognise, then the gaps that we need to fill in the next coming two years. As you know, S2S is a five years project and we have almost reached end of third year now. we are planning for year four that is the reason we are doing the outcome meeting now.”
Speaking on his expectation from stakeholders Abubakar noted that stakeholders must have been adequately briefed on S2S Activity, “So they will have a better understanding of what we have done and also recognise some of the achievements that we have realised in the last three years of our programme. This is a software programme so good to say in the sense that we want to see very good Education, but we don’t buy chalk, rather we train people or government to improve the system. We want to see very good health facilities at the rural areas without buying drugs. We are into strengthening the system by training staff and also to encourage government to put more money into the sectors that we are working, like Education, Water and Sanitation, Hygiene and Primary Healthcare through effective and efficient public financial management, timely preparation of the budget, timely funds release for government to actualise its lofty ideal as contained in the budget by ensuring that yes, the government achieves what it set out to,” Abubakar added.
On her part, Local Governance Manager, Zariyatu Abubakar-Hasidu, said “We’ve impacted alot especially in the lives of public servants in Gombe State but not just them but it includes the citizens and the Civil Society Organisations. Before the coming of State2State Activity, the relationship between the government, CSO and the citizens was a bit distant but now there is a close relationship and each sees the other as partner in development.”
She lauded Gombe State Government for engaging in reforms in public financial management, urging that it translates to effective and efficient service delivery for residents.
“Ultimately, we hope to see changes in service delivery to be more effective and efficient but at the moment there are a lot of reforms in the Public Financial Management of the government and we hope that it would translate to a more effective service delivery.
“I will say that there are alot of changes that happened, the government is now more open to the citizens’ engagement and open to citizens’ need, even in the way the budget is been done, the amount of engagement between the citizens’ and government in order to formulate the budget, S2S has really brought about a lot of changes in Gombe State,” Abubakar-Hasidu added.
Also, Dr Awuor Ponge, from African Policy Centre, Think-tank based in Nairobi, Kenya, while explaining the reason for Outcome Harvesting process noted that previously traditional methods were used for monitoring and evaluation approaches, adding that Outcome Harvesting provides substantial results in evaluation.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA reports that facilitators Ponge and Abubakar-Hasidu, shared participants across relevant sector groups, which include WASH &Health, Education, Public Finance Management.
No fewer than 48 participants which comprised two newly elevated Permanent Secretaries, Directors, Executive Directors, Programme Officers of relevant establishments in Gombe presented on description, significance and contribution.
Each group made presentations based on their sector and topics selected with consideration to What happened, when, who was involved, how were they involved?
On significance, why is the change important?
While for contribution; how did State2State project contribute to the change?
