By Joy Gadani
The demand for sustainable development calls for a multi-stakeholder commitment and support with a bottom-top approach that ensures transparency, accountability, and responsiveness as core goals of the Open Government Partnership.
Since inception, the Kaduna Local Government Accountability Mechanism (KADLGAM), an accountability mechanism for local government in the state has facilitated the engagement and inclusion of citizens in governance of Kaduna State.
With support from Ministry of Local Government Affairs, Planning and Budget Commission, Local Government Councils and Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn-PERL, KADLGAM has seen to the capacity building of citizens to engage with government and other partners towards ensuring synergy and social inclusion in governance.
Highlighting some successes recorded by KADLGAM, Seth Luke, a member of accountability mechanism said in 2021, the CDC process influenced a total of 776 out of 1491 capital projects representing 52%, and an allocation of 16.1 billion out of 26.7 billion, a budget allocation of about 60% in the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Kaduna State. Also, in 2022, out of 1788 local government capital projects, 685 were CDC needs. “This shows 38% influence in the LG budget, and a total allocation of about 8.8 billion out of 23.38 billion was for capital projects resulting in 40.36% influence on the LG budget. 1804 local government capital project out of which 855 (47%) were CDC; in terms of allocation, 14 billion out of 29.1 billion was for CDC budget (48% influence), in 2023.
For the coming year 2024, 457 projects spreading across 94 wards of the 23 LGAs of Kaduna State have been submitted as CDC projects; 10 out of the projects are federal government, 294 State and 153 Local Government.
These data highlight a three-year achievement and successes recorded by KADLGAM, through the Community Development Charter (CDC) Champions with support from CSOs, government, private sector and development enthusiasts in Kaduna State.
At the validation of the Strategic Plan (document) aimed at enhancing the implementation of community engagement, participants from different sectors comprising government, civil societies, private sector and the academia expressed excitement, noting the level of developments at the grassroots, and affirmed commitment to support future development partnership.
Noting the challenges experienced by some LGAs in budget performance, participants made suggestions on how to ensure sustainable success saying that; advocacy must continue at the community level, with youth inclusion encouraged at all levels of governance, and human capital development prioritized.
According to Dr. Abdulhamid Abdullahi, from the department of local government studies at the Ahmadu Bello University who was at the event, challenges in the implementation of some of the LGAM objectives at certain LGAs can be attributed to personal interest by stakeholders. He however recommended advocacy targeted at traditional and religious leaders saying, “they should be part of the CDC process so they can also influence the CDC projects”.
As an accountability mechanism in Kaduna, successes recorded by KADLGAM remain point of reference in Nigeria and globally, in order to sustain and improve on these achievements, KADLGAM says it is open to financial support, donations, and other partnership that will continue to drive development in Kaduna State and Nigeria in general.
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