Written by Olu Benjamin (Nasarawa)
Abuja, Oct. 19, 2023. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) participants from five states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja have received cluster coaching on advocating inclusion of budgetary allocation for Adolescent Youth Health and Nutrition services (AYH+N) in the respective states and the FCT.
Dr Francis Eremutha, Executive Director, Women Friendly Initiative (WFI) a Non-Govermental Organization (NGO) made this known to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the second day of the cluster coaching exercise held in Kuje Area Council of Abuja on Wednesday.
Our reporter reports that CSOs participants of the AYH+N include Heal the Youth Foundation (HTYF) from Plateau state, Focused Parenting and Youth Initiative for Development (FOPAYID) from Benue state.
Others are Civil Resource Development and and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC) in Ebonyi state, Family Health Care Foundation (FAHCI) from Benue state, WFI in Abuja and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
According to Eremutha, the cluster coaching is organized by Palladium and WFI with funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the project which is initially for two years.
He said the goal of the cluster coaching is sharpening the capacity of cluster members to effectively advocate for the inclusion of budgetary allocation for AYH+N in specific local government areas in their respective states.
“For nutrition services, we are targeting the worst local governments in terms of budgetary allocation in Ebonyi and Benue states.
“While for Adolescent Youth Health services, we are targeting the worst local governments in Nasarawa, Benue, Plateau, Kwara states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja,” he said.
He admitted that so far since the project commenced in 2022, the cluster has received support from the 11 selected local government areas which includes Akwanga and Lafia in Nasarawa state, Agatu and Gwer West in Benue state.
Others are Asa and Ilorin West in Kwara state, Jos North and Mangu in Plateau state, Abakaliki and Ezza-South in Ebonyi states and Kuje Area Council in FCT Abuja.
He revealed that so far out of the 11 selected LGAs, nine has already responded to their advocacy positively with advocacy still been pushed in the remaining two.
“The remaining two are in Benue and Plateau states and we could not follow through in the LGAs because of security challenges that didn’t allow us to meet the people we were supposed to meet.
“But we hope we can use the remaining time that we have in this second year to pursue those two LGAs and get them to do what we are advocating for. The nine LGAs already doing what we are pleading shows we success examples and we will share their stories with the other two,” he said.
He also pledged to monitor the release and implementation of the budget allocation for the set goals in the nine local government areas where success has already been recorded.
“What we are hoping we will do in the next one year is to ensure that the monies earmarked for these services in these budget lines are released and even when released, we will follow through with implementation of activities in line with this mandate,” he said.
He then explained that the cluster coaching exercise or training is also aimed at strengthening the relationship among cluster members and build synergy for the purpose of achieving the cluster set goals of advocating inclusion of budgetary allocation for AYH+N in the selected LGAs.
Eremutha then described a cluster as a group of people or organizations who come together to leverage on their strengths, their capacities to achieve a common goal. END