By Haruna Abdulrashid.
Gombe Field Office of State2State DAI-USAID has conducted quarterly Civil Society Organisations Forum meeting for October – December 2023 quarterly meeting.
Periscope Nigeria reports that the main objective of the meeting was to review the implementation of the last quarter’s from July – September 2023 planned CSO’s advocacy interventions, harvest outcomes, discuss issues related to the ongoing state and LGA 2024 budget, and plan for the current quarter’s interventions.
State Team Lead of State2State, Muhammad Bello Abubakar, stressed the importance of holding the quarterly meeting, adding that it would ensure effective coordination, regular tracking of implementation process of good governance reform and Public Finance Management.
Also speaking, Citizen Engagement and Capacity Building Specialist covering Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa, Mr Habila Salem, stated that if states and Local Government Areas improve their Public Finance Management and increase citizens’ participation, adding that “it mitigate potential sources of conflict, then subnational government will be more accountable, transparent and effective.”
He noted that government would be able to provide services that addresses the priorities of their citizens.
Our correspondent reports that the meeting adopted a participatory and highly interactive approach involving the provision of updates and highly interactive discussion sessions.
On his part, State Chairman, Association of Non-Governmental Organisations, Yusuf Ibrahim, gave reports of key outcomes of CSOs’ advocacy in the last quarter.
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The CSOs through the chairman gave reports of key outcomes of CSOs’ advocacy in the last quarter.
Also, key updates discussed at the meeting include the successful conduct of state and LGA budget consultations, the use of community charter of demands to collect citizens’ requests for inclusion in the 2024 state and LGA budget, and advocacy for peaceful coexistence, which led to the issuance of an order by the state for delayed free movement of herders until January to March 2024 to enable farmers to complete their harvest. This is to prevent the perennial farmer-herder clashes that happen in the state around the harvest season.
The Director of Budget, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Mohammed Landis, who was represented by Gideon Alim Maisamari, informed the Forum that the 2024 State budget formulation was at the consolidation stage and would be submitted to the State Executive Council for review and onward submission to the State House of Assembly by the first week of December 2023.
The meeting deliberated extensively on issues, and made recommendations, including recommendations for the recruitment of teachers, and increased allocation to State2State priority sectors.
At the end of the event, the participants revised the CSOs’ advocacy plan to reflect current realities. The next steps were identified and agreed upon including cleaning up and sharing the action plan with participants and following up on the implementation of the action plan.
State2State will continue to follow up to ensure the implementation of the action plan to include the successful conduct of state and LGA budget consultations, the use of community charter of demands to collect citizens’ requests for inclusion in the 2024 state and LGA budget, and advocacy for peaceful co-existence, which led to the actual issuance of an order by the state for delayed free movement of herders until January to March 2024 to enable farmers to complete their harvest.
