In its efforts to provide members with budget tracking and analysis skills for effective tracking and monitoring of education budgets, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All, CSACEFA has organized a one day step down training to members on budget tracking and analysis tool.
Delivering a lecture entitled, “Community Score Cards in a workshop held in the Grassroots Community Development Initiative (GRACODEV) office in Umuahia, Abia State, Mrs Eunice Egbuna, the CSACEFA South East Zonal Coordinator said as education focused Nongovernmental Organization, the CSACEFA is looking at how to increase funding in education and also to track and ensure that whatever fund that have been attracted to the sector would be effectively and efficiently utilized.
“We want to educate ourselves on how to go about tracking budgetory allocation for education and to encourage a working synergy with the government.
“We are not here to attack the government but to find out leakages that have been going on in the previous administrations and to be able to give a better information and work with them to make sure that whatever allocation that is given to the education sector is perfectly used”, Egbuna pointed out.
Egbuna, who is also the CSACEFA Abia State Coordinator who disclosed that the project was part of “Achieving Social Accountability Project” being funded by the Education OutLoud, further disclosed that the workshop was meant to increase the knowledge of the participating Civil Society Organizations in the state on tracking education budget and ensure proper implementation at all levels of education.
In a lecture titled: “Budget Monitoring and Public Expenditure Tracking Survey”, the resource person and the Executive Director of Community Alliance Against Poverty, CAAP, Mr. Godson Ibekwe-Umelo who harped on the need for the participants to develop good skills that would give them access to relevant information to engage government on the implementation of budgets, encouraged the civil society actors to fashion out means of identifying stakeholders of various sectors to enable them influence policies that will breed and promote good governance.
Ibekwe-Umelo who urged the CSOs to partner the media in the area of projects tracking, disclosed that active civil society organisations have ways of engaging the government against tampering with budgeted funds.
Describing a budget as a financial plan with outlines targeted to achieve a purpose, Ibekwe-Umelo who outlined ways a budget cycle operates from formulation, approval, implementation and the oversight, described the concept “Community Score Cards” as a robust tool the CSOs and communities could use to know what government is doing in terms of project implementation.
He appreciated the Abia State Government for keying into the Open Government Partnership and encouraged Governor Alex Otti, to sustain the efforts and overshoot what has been done in the past.
The workshop also captured a lecture tagged: “Community Score Cards, operational guide for CSOs by Mr Boney Akaeze, programs coordinator foundation for Non-violent Social Change, Asaba, Delta State, stepped down by Okoye Chuka Peter, Executive Director, Centre for Human Rights Advocacy and Wholesome Society.
