An NGO,
Connecting Gender for Development (COGEN), has trained 774 School-Based
Management Committees (SBMCs) and community members for effective monitoring of
the Federal Government’s School Feeding Programme in Kaduna State.
COGEN Head of
Programmes, Mr Ebenezer Omolekun, disclosed this yesterday at the opening of a
Town Hall meeting and training of SBMCs and community members in Kaura, Kaura
Local Government Area of the state.
Omolekun said
that 257 were trained in Jema’a, 202 in Zangon Kataf and 315 in Kaura local
government arrears, where the NGO, with support from MacArthur Foundation, was
tracking the programme.
He said that
the meeting/training with the theme, “Citizens Actively Engaging Government for
Development” was designed to get everyone on board for the success of the
programme.
He explained
that the essence was to ensure the success of the programme in Kaduna state by
ensuring that every stakeholder do what needs to be done as and when due.
“We equally
hope that the meeting will enable us share experiences and what improvements
recorded from the challenges affecting the implementation of the programme,
“the official said.
Mr Titus
Mann, a resource person, explained that the goal was to ensure that the state
government successfully implemented the programme in order to promote learning,
enrolment, retention and completion of primary school by pupils.
According to
him, the effort will also ensure transparency, accountability and
responsiveness by all stakeholders involved in the project.
“Not much
will be achieved without the active participation of community members and
relevant stakeholders in the school feeding programme and other development
projects.
“This
stressed the need for effective mobilisation of community members and equipping
them with necessary skills not only to monitor government projects, but how to
mobilise resources to champion development efforts.”
Mann, a legal
practitioner, enlightened the participants on how to track and monitor
government projects as well as how to attract development programmes from
government and NGOs.
Also, Mr
Ephraim Yayock, one of the SBMC members, explained that the SBMCs could not
properly monitor the programme because they were not carried along in the
planning process of the programme.
Yayock said
that the vendors antagonised them whenever they go out for monitoring, on the
ground that they are not SBMCS employees and as such not answerable to them.
Earlier, one
of the NGO Field Monitors, Miss Kaliat Waje said that there was improvement in
the implementation of the programme in the LGA.
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