As stakeholders meet on MVPF...

Governor Liyel ImokeThe Monitoring Virtual Poverty Fund (MVPF) is a mechanism for tracking and monitoring public expenditure targeted at eradicating poverty. A sensitisation workshop was rently organised in Calabar, Cross River State, to evaluate the monitoring process. Gill Nsa-Abasi gives a report on the event.

A recent sensitisation workshop in Cross River State brought to the fore certain issues concerning the Monitoring Virtual Poverty Fund (MVPF) and attendant results so far baring in mind the Millennium Development Goals and the target date of 2015 to arrest poverty in Africa. A civil society organisation, Coalition for Change (C4C), is collaborating with Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) in Calabar to monitor projects in the state executed under the fund and reports given by different monitoring agents gave a sense of concern and need for urgency and more honesty on the part of government.

One of the facilitators, Mr. Williams Itorok, intimated participants on targeted areas in the eight local government areas of the state that the projects are being implemented. He said some of the projects sited do not have direct bearings to the peoples needs, adding that in some places, very little had been done compared to the amount of money put in the project. He cited the electrification project in Betukwel in Obudu Local Government Area, the health center project in Ishibori in Ogoja Local Government Area, among others, as examples.

He also decried what he said he saw in Bateriko in Boki Local Government Area where, according to him, contractors were exploiting the poverty of the people through the youths who fail to ask questions on the standard of the job due to the little money paid to them by the contractors.

Itorok said though the task had been challenging, the JDPC would still continue to make overnment accountable to the people who elected them through monitoring of the projects. He encouraged the participants and Nigerians as a whole to see themselves as agents of change, working for the enthronement of transparency, due process and accountability in government, business and contracts.

He concluded by cautioning participants against being confrontational, admonishing them to carry out their monitoring duties in an atmosphere of cordiality and respect for constituted authority. Also speaking, the Director JDPC Calabar, Reverend Father Evaristus Bassey, said the goal of MVPF was to achieve the MDGs through accountability of public officers. He said the sectors in which the MVPF was focused on were health, education, water and electrification.

He said the idea of the MDGs, complete with targets and indicators, was a wonderful Action Plan for world’s development. According to him, this year is the mid year, while 2015 is the target year; as such, he said all hands needed to be on deck for the attainment of the MDGs. Another participant, Mrs. Ireti Disu, explained that the JDPC, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, was the main intermediary in the MVPF project with C4C. She acknowledged the wide experience of the JDPC in monitoring elections, budgets and the impact of government policies and programmes on the citizenry. She said at present, that the organisation was monitoring the projects funded by the Paris Club Debt Relief monies across the country. She noted that the JDPC was at the forefront of encouraging people’s participation in government in order to enthrone transparency and accountability in government. According to her, the monitoring of these projects was being done to verify if due process was followed in the award of contracts.

She concluded by asserting that JDPC was working as change agent in partnership with C4C. Mr. Martins Obono of C4C said his organisation was an issue-driven Department for International Development (DFID)-founded initiative and that since the debt relief fund had been put into the budget to execute projects that would cater for the needs of the Nigerians, C4C was monitoring its implementation. He equally remarked that C4C was working hard to enthrone institutional changes that would bring about result-oriented governance in the country.

At the end of the workshop, a seven-point communiqué was issue. Among the resolutions were that participants welcome the MDGs initiative as it provides a framework for development, thereby meeting the basic needs of the most vulnerable populations of the world. It was, therefore, agreed that the allocation of the virtual poverty fund specifically to sectors that should achieve the MDGS was welcome. Consequently, there should be conscious monitoring and evaluation of projects provided for in the budget to ensure that there is value for money.

The participants acknowledge the role of donor agencies in meeting the objective of the MDGS in Sub-Saharan Africa, but lamented the low percentage of overseas direct assistance to Nigeria’s development. They called on donor agencies never to give conditional grants or grants that would end up enhancing their own economies, but genuine grants that would make a difference in the lives of the poor.

The participants agreed that institutional strengthening was important to accessing donor funds and encouraged civil society organisations to strengthen accounting standards, monitoring, evaluation and reporting skills. The participants agreed that to promote ownership and sustainability of projects, community participation was crucial. Consequently, target beneficiaries should be involved from the beginning to the end of the project cycle and that they should not be merely consulted. They also called for the appropriate government agencies and civil society organisations to embark on civic education that would bring about the much-desired value system for the orientation of the citizenry.

Apart from calling for citizens to be selfless in presenting issues to elected representatives at Various levels of government, especially those at the National Assembly, state Houses of Assembly and local government legislatures and calling for accountability and transparency on the part of the government officials, the participants, called for a new way of doing government business that is effective, transparent, accountable, participatory and sustainable.

The sensitisation workshop was a successful one. It had in attendance government officials, civil society organisation and citizens of target communities. Up to 35 registered participants as well as the media attended.