USAID State2State: Bequeathing Legacies of Good Governance in Bauchi State

By Bashir Hassan Abubakar

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Program, “State Accountability, Transparency and, Effectiveness (USAID State2State) Activity is one program that seeks to increase the accountability, transparency, and effectiveness in targeted states and local governments in Nigeria. This will be achieved through:

Objective 1: Increased Efficiency of Sub-National Government Operations: strengthening governance systems (with a focus on public financial management [PFM] and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation) related to the delivery of services in the key sectors of basic education, primary health care, and water, sanitation, and hygiene [WASH].

Objective 2: Improved Sub-National Government Responsiveness to Citizen Needs/ Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Engagement: by increasing government’s ability to respond to citizen needs and priorities.

Without a doubt, these priority sectors provide social services to citizens and are prerequisites to human capital development at both national and sub national levels.

In Bauchi State, the current administration seems to be doing fairly well in providing these social services to citizens, but available statistics are still poor in these areas, and thus need significant improvement. Perhaps the choice of USAID State2State’s Activity in the Bauchi State’s health, education and WASH sectors may not be unconnected with the disturbing statistics associated with the State and some indices that gave credence to the validity of the statistics.

It has become imperative to take a sneak view of some of these statistics to appreciate the support of USAID State2State in these critical social sectors of Bauchi State as follows:

Health

The burden of maternal and child mortality and morbidity is quite huge in Bauchi State, based on the 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) and 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). According to the 2021 MICS, birth delivery at health facility assisted by any skilled attendant in Bauchi State is only 17.4 percent, while antenatal care (ANC) (at least 4 visits by any provider) is 43.3 percent and ANC (at least 1 visit by skilled provider) is 42.5 percent. The MICS 2021 also indicated that post-natal health care check for mothers is 40.4 percent. The survey also revealed that women aged 15-49 years who received appropriate care in Bauchi State are less than that of the Northeast region and national average.

The survey indicated that early childhood death rates are higher in Bauchi State compared to the Northeast and national rates. As contained in the 2021 MICS, under-five mortality per 1,000 live birth is 153, which is above the national average of 102, and the entire Northeast that stands at 114. Child mortality rate in Bauchi State stands at 70 per 1,000 live births and the infant mortality rate is 89 per 1,000 live births. Post neonatal and neonatal mortality rates in Bauchi State are 43 and 45 per 1000 live births.

Also, the percentage of immunization coverage is lower in Bauchi State with children aged 12-23 months standing at 24.4 percent, while that of children aged 24-35 months stands at only 7.9 percent.

From the above statistics, perinatal and early childhood death rates are higher in Bauchi State compared to the rates for the Northeast and the national rate of children dying.

Education

The MICS 2021 indicates that school attendance among children of primary school age is lower in Bauchi State with only 38 percent enrollment. Also, school attendance among children of lower secondary age is less than 15 percent in Bauchi State. According to the 2021 MICS , the number of out-of-school children among children of primary school age is nearly two-third of children in Bauchi State. Also, the number of out -of- school among children of lower secondary school age is close to two-third of Bauchi State children.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

The WASH sector in the State is equally not faring well. While open defecation is lowest in Bauchi State, it is lagging in other WASH indicators. As captured in the 2021 MICS report, the use of basic drinking water services is 55 percent and improved sanitation facility is only 33.8 percent.

Also, improved sources of drinking water and hand washing facilities is put at 55 and 21 percent which is also lower than the entire Northeast region and the national Average.

It is instructive to note that the above statistics are just an abridged version of what obtained in Bauchi State. The five-year (2020–2025) State2State Activity is implemented in the partner states of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, and Sokoto. The Activity focuses on increasing the state government’s ability to plan and budget, raise revenues, responsiveness to citizens and increase civil society participation,  towards improved service delivery in the education, health, and WASH sectors. Critical basic services, including education, healthcare, and WASH, are the responsibility of state and local governments (LGs). These sub-national units often face challenges in meeting the needs of their citizens due to three types of constraints: governance capacity, financial resources, and sectoral technical capacity.

Through the Activity’s governance reforms and interventions, State2State strengthens the structures and capacity necessary to improve service delivery performance. State2State implementation is currently in the fourth year out its five years.

Being implemented by the globally recognized Development Alternatives, Inc (DAI), USAID State2State commenced implementation of the Five (5) Year Activity in Bauchi State in 2020 with zeal and enthusiasm. One of the first major interventions conducted by State2State in Bauchi State was the stakeholders ’mapping. During the intervention, it was emphasized that State2State would be working with key stakeholders cutting across state and none State actors to achieve the Activity’s overall goal and its objectives.

At the inception phase, USAID State2State convened a multi -sectoral engagement workshop where stakeholders discussed challenges and gaps in public financial management (PFM) and how they affect service delivery in the key priority sectors of health, education and WASH. These issues were identified to establish a baseline that will usher in the activity’s interventions, in line with the State Development Plan, and to identify key priority needs in the health, education and WASH social service sectors.

In the past four years, State2State has had a series of engagements with these key stakeholders, intimating the stakeholders on the overview of the various interventions and what they seek to achieve, that is, supporting the state’s PFM for improved service delivery. State2State immediately hit the ground running, leaving no one in doubt of what it set out to do, that is, setting the phase for the entrenchment of good governance in the three focused areas of health, education and WASH through prudent management of scarce resources for effective service delivery in the three focused sectors.

State2State engagement with relevant stakeholders was carefully planned with the first level of engagement between the State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, his Principal Officer, and the USAID management team where the governor launched the program/activity and gave his total support for the implementation of the Activity in the State.

Thereafter the activity created a working relationship with State Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Directors, and other high -ranking officials from the Ministries of Budget and Planning, Health, Education, and Water Resources.
The State legislators were another segment of the State actors that USAID State2State visited and formed partnerships with at the inception of the Activity in Bauchi State. Knowing the key role that the legislators play in passing the state annual budget and the oversight functions they carry out to ensure implementation of the budget, the State2State created a cordial partnership with the House leadership. The relationship was cultivated and it saw the leadership of the House under the Speaker, Right Honorable Abubakar Y. Sulaiman, and members keying to the support USAID State2State good governance interventions. USAID State2State further identified non state actors that include CSOs working in the three focused sectors mentioned above, community-based organizations (CBOs), and the media.

With the mapping of the partners (state and no-state) identified, State2State commenced the meticulous implementation of interventions that enabled both State and non state stakeholders to grasp the overall goal of the interventions which centered on prudent PFM in the provision of effective, efficient and quality social services in line with citizen’s needs.

All the categories of stakeholders were painstakingly taken through the rudiments of good governance anchored on fiscal responsibility aimed at providing quality service to the public. State2State organized capacity and system strengthening workshops for all the categories of stakeholders from the State Executives, civil servants, CSOs, CBOs, faith based organizations (FBOs), media and community/ religious leaders.

Key Milestones Accomplished

Some of the major interventions of USAID State2State in Bauchi aside from capacity building and systems strengthening, include: supporting the State in the development of its development plan, developing the Community Charter of Demands (CCD) document that enables communities to list their priority needs with a view to having them captured in the budget, supporting budget public hearing in the preparation of the state annual budget, strengthening legislature for enhanced oversight functions and, the interface between the executives, legislators, and CSOs through interventions like the budget performance review engagement in the three focused sectors of health, education and WASH. The engagement aimed at identifying challenges and weaknesses with a view to bridging such gaps.
State2State also supported Bauchi State in strengthening the Steering Committee (SC) and Technical Working Group (TWG)on Open Government Partnership (OGP) capacity for more citizen engagement in governance. Other successes recorded by State2State was the CSOs’ and Community’s capacity strengthening to keep track of budget performance in the three (3) sectors enumerated above.

In the area of PFM, USAID State2State, since inception, has been consistent in strengthening the capacity of treasury personnel to block leakages and exploring avenues to improve the State’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) drive. It can be said without any fear of contradiction that it is only USAID State2State Activity that can bring together Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries from A-Grade MDAs for a three or more days activity without having to worry about absenteeism due to demands of their offices. This may not be unconnected with the rich contents of their training materials, the high caliber of resource persons and innovative approach to delivering contents in their engagements.

The same reasons can be attributed to the state legislator’s favorable disposition to the interventions of State2State. At several forums, these high -caliber stakeholders commended USAID State2State for their innovation and skills in strengthening governance systems and improving government responsiveness to citizen needs and CSOs’ engagement.

One of the front -row cheerleaders besides the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed , is the State Commissioner of Budget, Economic Planning, and Multilateral Coordination, Aminu Hammayo who, coincidentally, has been manning the Ministry since the inception of USAID State2State Activity in Bauchi State. At any given opportunity, the Commissioner showers commendation to USAID State2State for their efforts in supporting the State to strengthen its governance in line with global best practices.

Another staunch supporter of the activity is the speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, the Right Honorable Abubakar Y. Sulaiman, and most of the legislators of the House, especially the House Committee Chairmen on Appropriation, Health , Education and Water Resources.

The story is the same with non- State partners like women groups, CSOs, CBOs, FBOs, persons with disabilities , and CSOs’ network in the state, called Bauchi State Network of Civil Society (BASNEC).

With the knowledge acquired from the USAID State2States’ several interventions on system strengthening, and the commitment of the Bauchi State government to applying the approaches, the State can be said to be on the path toward reversing the worrisome indices highlighted above which will, in turn, usher in an effective, efficient, value for money spent and quality service delivery in primary healthcare, basic education and WASH in Bauchi State.

It is also hoped that the State may wish to consider applying the knowledge gained to all the other sectors that forms the Government. End

Abubakar is a Bauchi-based freelance development journalist

bashirhassan3788@gmail.com 

(Photo Credit: Bashir and Dee-Why Pumpy Photography)