USAID State2State Trains Akwa Ibom LG Officials for Improved Service Delivery at LGAs

...Supports Development of Annual Oversight Plan

Towards improved basic education, primary health care, and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sectors across local government areas of Akwa Ibom State, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity has supported seven select local government councils of Akwa Ibom State to develop an annual oversight plan on key service areas.

The local government areas supported are Uyo, Itu, Ibesikpo-Asutan, Obot Akara, Oron, Ikono and Onna.

The training by State2State in a 3-day intensive residential workshop held from Tuesday December 13 through Thursday December 15, 2022 involved key officials from the priority LGAs and other government officials across basic education, primary health care, and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sectors of Akwa Ibom State.

The workshop witnessed State2State inaugurating an annual oversight committee consisting of Chairmen of the seven Local Government Council, heads/ directors of the service delivery sectors of health, education, WASH, social development, planning, research and statistics among others.

The State Team Lead (STL) of the Activity, Mr. Borve Paago-Imabel in his welcome remarks offered insight to the fact that an Annual Oversight Plan is designed to help the select LGAs develop and set service delivery targets and coverage across Primary Health Care, Basic Education, and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) including the monitoring of programs, plans, policies, and procedures, as well as establish Oversight Committee for effective coordination of service delivery in these areas.

Dr. Iboro Nelson who represented the State Team Lead said the oversight plan will contain service delivery outcomes, targets, indicators, means of verifications and persons responsible, among others to provide strategic monitoring and implementation approaches for policies, plans, processes, and procedures for local governance.

Explaining why the Annual Oversight plan is important, Borve Paago-Imabel explained that due to the high attention given to governance at the national level at the detriment of the subnational, service delivery in key sectors have been neglected whereas governance at the subnational level affects the people most.

He said  "Although people give more attention to the national, research has shown that the government at the subnational is the one that affects the people more. In State2State, our attention is more at the subnational.

" We always try to see how to breach the gap between the citizens and the government. We try to see how we can reduce the barest minimum conflict situations in service delivery."

 Paago-Imabel who said the annual oversight plan is a document that will last for a year urged participants to step down the training for effective implementation.

The State Team Lead used the occasion to note some of the successes of State2State Activity in Akwa Ibom State to include helping the State have a Medium Term Expenditure framework and Budget Calendar.

He noted that already State2State has supported local governments in Akwa Ibom to develop a budget manual that usage will commence in 2023 thus making Akwa Ibom State to be among the few states that will have a budget manual for local government in Nigeria.

Also speaking the Permanent Secretary, Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Ini Ikie thanked State2State for the several technical support they have given the State.

Represented by a Director in the Ministry, Mrs. Ime Akpan, the Permanent Secretary pointed out that the support has improved service delivery in the key areas of basic education, primary health and WASH.

While noting that the annual oversight plan will transform the 31 LGAs of Akwa Ibom State when implemented, the Permanent Secretary assured that the government of Akwa Ibom State is rightly disposed to welcome new ideas and put in effort implement the ideas so as to act in line with global best practice for the development of the grassroots.

State2State Activity is a five-year governance project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It aims to increase the efficiency of subnational government (state and local government) operations by strengthening governance systems, especially public financial management (PFM) and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation to enable the delivery of services in the key sectors of Basic Education, Primary Health Care and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). The core components of the State2State project include budget planning, implementation, and execution; budget transparency, domestic resource mobilization, procurement reforms, internal controls, auditing, monitoring and evaluation, gender, and civil society/community oversight.