The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is partnering Sokoto and five other states on a five year project to promote transparency, accountability and effectiveness.
The Sokoto State Head of Civil Service, Abubakar Muhammad disclosed this at a USAID supported workshop on the programme on Thursday in Abuja.
Muhammad said that USAID was carrying out the partnership through its State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness(State2State) activity.
The other states benefitting from the project are Gombe, Ebonyi, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa.
Issues of literacy, transparency, public financial management, healthcare, water, dominated discussions at the three- day workshop.
The Sokoto State Transformation Committee, comprising commissioners, heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs), and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) were led to the workshop by Muhammad.
Muhammad, said that the essence of the workshop was to emphasise the need to ensure transparency in government.
He said that Sokoto State had been in the news in recent times for positive reasons, particularly in the area of transparency, accountability and many others.
Muhammad, who is the Chairman of the state transformation committee, said the state government decided to key into the USAID State2State project to further enhance its effectiveness.
“To continue with the good work, we felt we should key into this subnational project under USAID to booster our standing in the area of budget planning, implementation and overall development.
“We also want to use this medium to empower our personnel, to continue with the work we have been doing to achieve the overall goals for the state and the country in general.
“This is a five year project and we hope that at the end of the project we would further strengthen institutions of government.
“As we speak, a lot is being done in the health sector, the education sector, child development, water development, women affairs.”
Mrs Kulu Sifawa, Sokoto State Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs, reiterated the need to enrol more children in school, particularly the girl child.
She said efforts were being put in place, particularly with the aid of the USAID programme, to ensure that women and children in the state had better education and healthcare.
“This programme is a strategic plan for transformation of our budget for transparency and accountability, better education, WASH and health.
“My ministry is dealing with women and children and enrolling girls and boys in school for instance, requires adoption of certain strategies.
“The state is doing it’s best and we are working hard to make our schools conducive for learning.
“Sokoto State has established female centres in all the local governments of the state to deliver skills on numeracy as well as literacy to women and adolescent girls to improve girls education.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief of Party of State2State, Mr John Onyeukwu, noted that the essence of the project was to ensure realistic budgets and proper implementation of such budgets in states.
He said USAID, through the project was only providing technical support, adding that the process was being largely driven by partnering states.
“The Sokoto State Transformation Committee, set up by the Governor, is having its retreat to develop the state annual actual plan.
” This will basically help to ensure that as we implement our work plan, it aligns with state objectives.
“This is the reform document that the state will drive over the next five years with State2State.
“We are only facilitating the discussion they are having and providing additional support by way of information,” he said.
The deputy chief of party stressed that if the various states partnering USAID, actualised their action plans, a lot would be achieved in terms of good governance.
He further said, “it is a game changer for the state and other states partnering State2State.
“This will help them to improve their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), quality of service delivery in primary healthcare, basic education and WASH.”
Onyeukwu gave assurance that State2State would continue to engage with the various states within the period of the project, while being optimistic that more states would key into the project.
