Stakeholders under the Open Government Partnership (OGP) have called for improved budget accountability, increased funding and effective tracking of government expenditure to enhance health and social protection services in Kaduna State.
The stakeholders made the call on Friday in Kaduna at a two-day capacity-strengthening workshop on Budget Advocacy, Accountability and Performance Tracking for OGP and State-LGA Accountability Mechanisms (SLAMs) in Kaduna.
The workshop was aimed at equipping participants with practical skills in health budget analysis, evidence-based advocacy, expenditure tracking and performance monitoring.
The programme was implemented with the participation of key development partners, including the Lafiya Programme, Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF) and EngenderHealth, among others.
Speaking at the opening, Mr Seth Luke, Co-Chair of the Technical Working Group on Strengthening the Participatory Budget Process, OGP, said the initiative was designed to address gaps between government plans, budget allocations and actual releases for health programmes.
Luke said the Annual Operational Plan (AOP) for health usually contains activities, outputs, outcomes and expected impacts, but some of the activities receive little or no budgetary releases.
He said the situation affects critical areas such as health infrastructure, service delivery, human resources, pandemic preparedness, disease outbreaks and emergency interventions.
According to him, the objective is to get citizens and accountability groups involved in reviewing the health budget, assessing its performance and tracking implementation to identify areas requiring government attention.
“Based on these challenges, an advocacy brief will be developed to engage the government so that it can look into these areas.
“As a matter of fact, health is a priority for everybody. If citizens can take it upon themselves to push, lobby or advocate to the government, we can reduce some of these indices,” he said.
Luke expressed concern over the challenges faced by underserved communities in accessing healthcare services, as well as the continued reliance on out-of-pocket expenditure by citizens.
He said people in both the formal and informal sectors still spend significant amounts of money to address their health challenges.
He therefore called on the government to expand its investment in the health sector, noting that the growing population requires greater resources to meet healthcare needs.
Luke said the initiative would help stakeholders identify the most critical gaps in the health sector and develop evidence-based advocacy strategies to encourage the government to prioritise them.
He expressed optimism that the exercise would provide new approaches and innovations for engaging the government and improving health-sector performance and service delivery.
Also speaking, Sumayya Abdullahi, a member of the Technical Working Group on Strengthening Social Protection Systems, said advocacy was essential to achieving accountability in the budget process.
Abdullahi said budget advocacy should not end with demands for increased allocations, but should also involve monitoring the release and utilisation of approved funds.
She urged citizens, civil society organisations and accountability mechanisms to use credible data and evidence when engaging with the government on budget implementation.
According to her, effective advocacy would help stakeholders identify gaps in budget implementation and ensure that relevant authorities are encouraged to take corrective measures.
She stressed the need for stronger collaboration among citizens, civil society organisations and government institutions to ensure that budgetary resources reach programmes designed to support vulnerable and underserved populations.
Abdullahi said continuous monitoring and constructive engagement with the government would promote transparency and accountability while improving service delivery.
The workshop featured interactive sessions, practical exercises and discussions on budget analysis, evidence-based advocacy, expenditure tracking and performance monitoring.
Participants were expected to acquire practical skills to enable them to examine health budgets, track expenditure, monitor government commitments and advocate for improved implementation of health and social protection programmes.
The stakeholders said strengthening the capacity of OGP and SLAM members would enhance citizens’ participation in the budget process and contribute to improved accountability, government performance and service delivery in Kaduna State.
