As part of efforts to hold government accountable to its promises through enhanced inclusiveness, transparency and accountability in governance, the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) in partnership with the Women in Media (WIM) under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health At Scale, PACFaH@Scale is organized a two day retreat for the Open Government Partnership, Kano as a way of improving engagement in governance.
The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family at Scale, PACFaH@Scale, (PAS) is a social accountability project which aims to strengthen the capacity of Nigerian Civil Society Organizations, (CSOs) at national and state levels to hold decision-makers (in the executive and legislature) to account on Health policies/laws, Financial commitments, and to bring down regulatory barriers related to child and family health.
PAS is anchored by the development Research and Project Center, (dRPC), and implemented by a coalition of 12 indigenous health NGOs/professional associations and supported by 2 government think tanks(NIPSS and NILDS), working to develop champions within the executive and legislature.
The Kano state OGP retreat, which aims to find solutions bedeviling the various sectors of governance in the state, and especially in the health sector, is geared towards developing an implementation plan for the realization of the goals of the Kano state action plan of the Open Government Partnership (OGP)
In a statement signed by the Co-Chair of the OGP, Hajiya Halima Ben Umar and made available to newsmen, the retreat will develop mechanism for inclusiveness in the health and other sectors of the state.
‘This retreat is a partnership between the Kano state open government partnership and the Women in Media, under the PACFaH@Scale project and it is organized to look at the operationalization of the OGP action plan which aims to bring solutions to social challenges in the state’
She added that the relationship between OGP and the PAS project is a welcome development that will not only improve the social accountability framework in Kano state but will go a long way in improving the public engagement in some identified areas for socio-economic development of the state.
‘By the end of the two-day retreat, it is hoped that we will come out with strategies that will galvanize citizens participation in governance in Kano state’ she added.
The two-day retreat also offers opportunities to the participants to look at the partnership in line with the state action plan and to agree to the strategies that will be adopted in resolving the missing links in the structure of state’s steering committee.
Recent health indices released by the NDHIS and MCS 2017 for Kano state, shows high child and family health burden for children under 5 girls and women of reproductive age in particular.