By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has concluded a 2-day Monitoring & Evaluation Capacity building program for CSOs and Journalists at the Vichy Gates Hotel in Benin City, November 16-17, 2020.
ANEEJ said that the objective of the workshop was to design monitoring & evaluation framework for Edo State Integrity and Accountability Strategy (EDSIAS) to be owned by participants and used by CSOs and Journalists to monitor implementation of the program.
ANEEJ executive director, the Rev David Ugolor, who was represented by Leo Atakpu said that ANEEJ was implementing the Civil Society Advocacy to Support Anti-Corruption and Rule of Law in Nigeria, CASARN, as part of effort to improve oversight, transparency and accountability in the management of resources while also targeting corruption prevention measures.
“We have assembled experts to provide the context that will ease our understanding of the issues and also take participants through the design of the framework. We expect that CSOs will be able to design and own the monitoring framework, and be able to use the framework to monitor and report on the implementation of the EDSIAS,” Ugolor said in an opening remark.
The goal of the ANEEJ CASARN project is to enhance governance in Nigeria by contributing to the fight against corruption, strengthen the rule of law and the protection of human rights by reinforcing prevention mechanisms and enhancing civil society and public engagement. It is part of the implementation of the rule of law and anti-corruption ROLAC programme funded by the European Union and implemented the British council.Emmanuel Uche, Component 3 Manager of the ROLAC programme said that the capacity building platform encourages non-state actors to be involved in the governance reform in Edo State.
“How do we ensure enforcement and the application of sanctions in governance in Edo State? Can we adopt some of the indicators in the Open Government Partnership, OPG, and put them in the EDSIAS and avoid unnecessary duplication resolutions at this meeting?
“We need dispassionate voices that can help drive governance, and we know that Edo is one of the most active states on issues relating to governance. It will be good to leverage on the power of the CSO to use whatever indicators to be used to measure and drive integrity in governance in Edo State,” Uche said.The ANEEJ capacity building workshop represents an excellent example of how the demand and supply side of governance works together for good governance. Prior to this meeting, the Edo State government held a Midterm Expenditure Framework meeting on Monday November 9, 2020 at the government House in Benin City.
Its spokesman at that meeting Mr Joseph Eboigbe, Hon Commissioner of Finance said that it organized it because it wanted the buy-in of CSOs, and give opportunity to members of the public to participate in the budget making process.
At the Vichy Gate meeting, Innocent Edemhanria, ANEEJ Programs manager said that the Edo State Integrity and Accountability Strategy document, EDSAIS, was actually designed by state and non-state actors with support from ROLAC. The ANEEJ CASARN Project is part of a ROLAC programme funded by the EU & implemented by the British Council. There were 30 participants and key activities that featured in the 2-day workshop included EDSIAS monitoring and evaluation framework developed by participants, group work to develop SMART action plans for tracking the implementation of the EDSIAS policy document and an outlining of the EDSIAS monitoring and evaluation framework.
The M&E meeting has 6 strategic pillars – prevention of corruption, public engagement, ethical reorientation, enforcement and sanctions, assets recovery and management and ease of doing business.
