The United States Agency for International Development State2State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness Activity has called for increased collaboration among Implementation Partners in its core sectors.
The core sectors include Health, Education and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
State Team Lead, Muhammad Abubakar, in his welcome remarks during a two-day ‘Governance orientation workshop for Implementation Partners in Priority Sectors’, reiterated the importance of all programmes being implemented by USAID to work together through collaboration, coordination, and cooperation to maximise the impact of all the various intervention.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA reports that the workshop participants include USAID Learn to Read Activity, Mercy Corps’ Rural Resilience Activity, and the activity being implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. Also representation of CSOs funded by USAID’s Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement among others.
23 participants learned about State2State interventions from inception in 2020 to date, and approaches. The training our correspondent gathered deepened their understanding of Governance, Political economy analysis, Public Financial Management, Gender and Social Inclusion, and the Conflict Assessment Framework.
Abubakar noted that the objective was to strengthen and leverage existing relationship with state government, and civil society, as well as align interventions with other USAID programmes in each of the respective six partner states of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, and Sokoto.
He said, “The intervention is crucial to ensure alignment of the activities of IPs with the State2State’s purpose and objectives, enhance collaboration, and promote effective service delivery across State2State partner states. Failure to conduct governance orientation for IPs may lead to avoidable duplication, miscommunication, misaligned priorities, and inefficiencies, thus threatening the success of the development initiatives of State2State. In addition, the orientation will expose the IPs to the governance intricacies and power-play at state and local government levels among the key governance stakeholders that can affect the implementation of IPs interventions across State2State states.
“Furthermore, it is crucial to sensitize IPs on public financial management (PFM) elements of broad-based governance, particularly the roles of the IPs in promoting accountability, transparency and effectiveness in MDAs’ budget preparation and implementation as the activities and expenses of IPs constitute part of the capital receipts of the states, and should be in alignment with the development plans, Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks and the Medium Term Sector Strategies of the states. Failure of the IPs to ensure this alignment will undermine the budget reforms promoted by State2State. The orientation for IPs will further enrich partners’ capacity to engage Ministries, Departments, and Agencies on issues related to effective quarterly fiscal performance, quality public procurement reforms, and more importantly, adequate report of annual budget results in outputs, outcomes, and impact statements that are relevant to improve subsequent years’ budget planning and preparation process and policy review initiatives.”
Abubakar who also made presentation on ‘Overview of Good Governance: Principles and Applications: Implications for USAID Partners’, added, “It is imperative for each partner to design and implement their initiatives such that the methodology and targeted results of all initiatives complement the efforts and results of other partners rather than contradict and or duplicate them. Achieving this complementarity and synergy is highly dependent on the accurate understanding and joined-up efforts of the IPs in the local and state governance context of State2State’s partner states.”
Also speaking, Special Adviser to the Gombe State Governor on Development Partner Coordination, Ishiyaku Babayo, who declared the workshop open called for effective coordination, integration, and alignment of Implementing Partner’s activities.
USAID’s Public Financial Management Specialist Oluwatosin Oke, while presenting on ‘Findings from the Gombe State 2023 midline PFM assessment, Understanding Public Financial Management cycle and fiscal planning tools, Citizens engagement in governance and improving collaboration and partnership amongst IPs’, said “Civil Society Organisations are the door to inclusive citizen engagement/participation for citizens in the community, and it is important they ensure that no one is left behind.”
According to him, Public Financial Management simply refers to how government manages revenue generation and expenditure, adding “how a government organises
revenue generation and spending, as well as debt within a sustainable
threshold to deliver public services that improve the welfare of the people.”
