Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in partnership with Macarthur has intensified training of civil Society organizations on how to track budget to enhance effective utilization of funds meant for maternal and child health.
The end result is to reduce the risk of maternal deaths amongst pregnant Women in Kaduna, northern Nigeria. “The aim of the Budget tracking training for CSOs is to see how beneficiaries can track budget allocated for maternal health and ensure it is judiciously utilised, said Chioma Kanu, Programme Manager of CISLAC, while addressing participants.
According to her, “appropriate budget tracking improves service delivery, exposes corruption and mismanagement, empowers civil society to demand accountability, and builds constructive Executive-Legislative-CSOs working relationship on maternal health service delivery.
“The bench mark for UN allocated for maternal health is 15 percent but 10 percent of that money has never been executed only 2-3 percent. We don’t have enough money to tackle our health challenges.
she added,” If those who are given the mandate to manage the resources for maternal health understands they are been monitored by CSOs and media organizations they will ensure judicious utilization of the funds allocated for any projects.”
Mr. Iliya Kure, a media specialist In a paper entitled, “Understanding the Role of CSOs in Monitoring and Tracking Maternal Health Budget” charged CSOs to always engage relevant agencies to compare the actual spending to what was budgeted at the beginning of the period.
He maintained that,” budget tracking strengthens service delivery, as budgets are implemented, it reduces corruption and crime,” he added.
“CSOs should look at the entire budget document to see whether money intended for certain sector (eg health, education) is allocated to the relevant departments and spent as intended.”
He called on CSOs to always look at a specific area of interests in state’s budget and try to follow it to a meaningful conclusion in the interest of the common man.
“Ensure to obtain the budget and expenditure breakdown. Observe how spending is broken down into sectors for each budget line/item,” he said.
