By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
As the United States Agency for International Development (USAID Nigeria) funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (USAID State2State) Activity is about to enter its last year of intervention in Bauchi State, USAID State2State’s Chief of Party (CoP) Irene Karimi has tasked Bauchi State Government to take lead in implementing the reform initiatives the intervention had supported the State with over the last four years.
The CoP said that with the policies, manuals developed handed over to the State by USAID State2State and the support provided in capacity building training, Bauchi State is ripe to sustain the reform in effective service delivery in the State’s critical sectors of Primary Healthcare, Basic Education and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
Karimi stated these on Tuesday 23rd July, 2024 at the commencement of Three Days Year 5 Work Plan State Level Consultative Workshop organised by USAID State2State in Kano.
Speaking on the sidelines with our correspondent, Karimi said that the Workshop provides an avenue for the Activity to get clarity on what to focus on in the last year of the intervention in Bauchi State.
“USAID State2State had supported the State in the past Four Years to develop Policies, Manuals and strengthened the capacities of not only State partners and CSOs, but also the State Legislators. Now we want to see the reform continue beyond the life span of the project”.
“We are in our final year and so we want to agree with our partners on how do we entrech the reforms in our day to day running of our respective MDAs for an effective, efficient and sustainable service delivery in the focused areas of health, education and WASH. The ability to apply what was learned in the last four years and putting it into practice is what sustainability is all about. That is what USAID State2State hopes to see.
“We should not forget that Citizens put leaders in office. We should not get too comfortable to overstep citizen’s mandate. There should be openness and transparency in Governance. That is why we have Legislators and CSOs who hold Government accountable. Citizens become comfortable when there is openess and transparency in running the affairs of the State”, said Irene Karimi.
The CoP also commended the Bauchi State field office of USAID State2State for the milestones achieved in four years of the project.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, USAID State2State Bauchi State Team Lead (STL) Rabi Ekele thanked both the State partners, Legislators and Non State actors for the tremendous support the field office is getting from them in the last four years.
Ekele said that the milestones achieved by USAID State2State could have been possible without the support of the partners.
“The last year of the USAID State2State intervention is critical to us. We have laid the foundation and now we want to see how Bauchi State is going to sustain it beyond the project timeframe. You are the major drivers of the reforms and for the few months remaining, USAID State2State would be in the background providing technical support where necessary”, the STL said.
In a goodwill message, the Bauchi State Commissioner of Budget, Economic Planning and Multilateral Coordination, Aminu Hammayo expressed his gratitude to USAID State2State for the support in the development of some policies and operational manuals that would assist the State in driving the reform process.
Represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Mohammed Jibrin Yusuf, the Commissioner assured that the State would do all that is humanly possible to implement the processes captured in the documents developed.
The workshop attracted participants that cut across the three key sectors of Primary Healthcare, Basic Education and WASH whom were drawn from relevant state MDAs and the three focused Local Government Areas of Alkaleri, Bauchi, Katagum and Misau.
Our correspondent reports that Five (5) documents were presented to the relevant State MDAs by the USAID State2State CoP. The manuals include: Bauchi State Budget Operations Manual, Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, Standard Operations Manual for Budget and Consultation, Local Government Budget Operations Manual and Guide to the Bauchi State Fiscal Responsibility Law.
A communique is expected at the end of the Three Days intensive Year 5 Work Plan Bauchi State Level Consultative Workshop.