By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Bauchi State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Local Government Administration and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in Health, Education and WASH sectors have resolved to monitor and track citizen’s needs captured in the 2024 Bauchi State Budget, under the newly introduced Community Charter of Demand (CCD) initiative.
Towards actualizing this resolve, an action plan was developed by the MDAs, LGAs and CSOs at the just concluded 2 days workshop on tracking of CCD projects in Bauchi State organized by USAID funded State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity Bauchi field office.
Speaking to our correspondent on the sidelines, a Deputy Director in the Bauchi State Ministry of Budget, Economic Planing and Multilateral Coordination, Mallam Babaji Garba Rauta said that the mainstreaming of the CCD initiative in the State Budget process and implementation has further given credence to the fact that the Budget has assumed bottom-up approach and citizens driven, capturing their needs and aspirations.
For Abigail Hardo, the Executive Director of a Bauchi based CSO known as AidConnect for Development, the CCD initiative has given citizens, particularly those in the rural areas, an opportunity to table their priority needs with a view to having it incorporated in Budget. She applauded Bauchi State Government and USAID State2State for the CCD initiative.
Mr. Mainas Ayuba, acting chairman of Bauchi State Network of Persons with Disabilities shared his thoughts saying that the CCD initiative will enable stakeholders to see whether their needs have actually been captured in the 2024 budget and also see if there is adequate budget releases to implement the CCD Projects in the budget during tracking.
For Comrade Ladan Isa Dalhatu of Bauchi State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (BaSAM), a CSO known for it’s evidence based advocacy, said the workshop has further broaden his knowledge on budget monitoring and tracking using the CCD document as evidence to see whether or not Community Projects have been implemented. He described the CCD initiative as innovative.
Zainab Isa Yahaya is the Deputy Director, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Bauchi State Ministry of Budget, Economic Planning and Multilateral Coordination. She expressed her excitement with the CCD initiative especially as it captures Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) component that gives opportunity to all segments of the society in participating during budget preparations and implementation.
For Jibrin Muhammad Inuwa, Director Primary Health Care Department of Katagum LGA, the workshop has provided an avenue for both State, Local Government and the Community to form an alliance with a view to keeping watchful eyes in the implementation of citizen’s projects and programs in the 2024 Bauchi State Budget. He said that at the LG level, they will develop a work plan on tracking and monitoring of citizen’s projects in line with what they proposed in their CCD documents.
Mr. Nichol Kankani, the program officer of a CSO coalition known as Society for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN) Bauchi said the workshop has taught them on how to track implementation of CCD projects in the State and that such invaluable knowledge can be applied to other projects and programs with view to supporting Government and Communities to have value for their investments.
Sule Abubakar Gar is Ward Development Committees (WDCs) Forum Chairman of Alkaleri LG , who also spoke to our correspondent on his assessment of the CCD training workshop.
Gar said that the workshop content has further strengthen his perception of what CCD entails at the community level. He that he is conversant with the CCD document because they have administer at community levels of his local government during the 2024 budget preparation.
He said he hopes what they entered in the CCD document will reflect in the budget and that the training workshop has equipped them to exactly that.
He expressed his gratitude to USAID State2State for recognizing the importance of WDCs at the community level.
Suleiman Ahmed of Civil Society Action Coalition for Education for All (CSACEFA) also shared his view saying that the workshop has equip participants with the necessary tools to monitor and track CCD projects and that it is coming just when the Bauchi State Government is about to start the implementation of the 2024 budget. He also commended USAID State2State for developing the CCD document and the State Government for adopting it in the budget preparation and implementation.
The Workshop attracted participants from relevant State MDAs and Departments in the focused LGAs of Bauchi, Katagum, Alkaleri and Misau. Other participants were drawn from CSOs working in the Health, Education and WASH sectors in Bauchi State and some Ward Development Committee (WDC) Chairpersons.
Our correspondent reports that one of the major outcome of the Workshop was the development of action plan by the participants on tracking implementation of CCD projects and programs in the State 2024 budget.
