Chinedum Treasure
The Strengthening Public Accountability for Result and Knowledge, SPARK 2 project implementing team has promised to complement Anambra State government efforts towards improved service delivery in health and agricultural sectors.
IBP SWOFON Consultant, Mr Folahan Johnson gave the assurance during a high-level stakeholder engagement with state actors in the State to discuss the goal and objectives of the project as well as areas of collaboration with the state government.
Addressing the meeting which attracted officials from the ministries of Health and Agriculture, Johnson, commended the decision of the Anambra state government to develop a database for its farmers for enhanced efficiency and productivity.
“As we set out to collect data of women farmers in our project states, we got to know that Anambra is doing the same thing. So, we felt that making Anambra a pilot state for our own database creation for smallholder women farmers will be most suitable.
“Ours is just to create the database through our consultant Dataphyte and hand it over to the state. We’ve engaged enumerators that will collect the data for the state. This is a veritable tool for the government”.
The Dataphyte representative, Ibilolia Akahome, explained that the database being developed contains the biodata of women farmers, their type of agricultural business, among other vital information that can assist the state government to plan better and formulate policies that will enhance the sector.
“The database is designed in such a way that any other data that the state wants to inject into it can be added. Even if you want to expand it for the entire population of farmers, it can be done”.
In another presentation on the health entry of SPARK 2 project, the Assistant Secretary of Community Empowerment Network, COMEN, Vitus Oraegbunam, explained that the project aims to help government achieve its goals and get value for its huge investment in the health sector.
“COMEN members and Ward development Committees members have been fully mobilised to monitor operations, activities and ongoing upgrades of primary health facilities to ensure that the good intentions of the state government are not defeated.
In a goodwill message, the IBP SPARK 2 COMEN Consultant in Anambra State, Ugochi Ehiahuruike, remarked, “We’re anticipating a beautiful system, where everything works for everyone regardless of their status. We want to see a system that empowers women farmers to reach optimization. We want to see improved service delivery across our primary health centres in the state.
Another SPARK 2 implementing partner and Executive Director, Civil Rights Concern, Mr Okay Onyeka, called for early disbursements of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund to the facilities while charging the Ministry of Health and its agencies to ensure that they make health budgets performance report available for the citizens to interact with them.
The SPARK 2 Project Manager for Justice Development and Peace Caritas, JDPC Nnewi, Onyekachi Ololo, also noted that despite government investments in the primary health care system, there are still gaps which must be filled for better service delivery. “We know that many officers in charge of PHCs still complain that they don’t have drugs despite the supply under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. We want a situation where we can contact the government promptly whenever we observe anomalies in the system”.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs Nnake, in a remark, explained that Anambra is open to a mutually beneficial partnership that will positively impact the citizens and improve its health and agricultural indices.
“We always welcome and optimize partnerships. I hope we will have a mutually beneficial relationship with your team. The truth is that we don’t even know how many farmers we have in the state. So, this database will address a fundamental problem. We can’t do much without data”.
“We need to harmonise what you have with what we have. Our bureau of statistics is critical here and that is why the Statistician General of the state is in this meeting. We also must be looking at the sustainability of the initiative.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Ifeyinwa Uzoka, equally observed, “Data is life. Whatever we’re doing, we should be able to domesticate the data and make them useful in all aspects of the agriculture sector. We’re happy to have this conversation. We need to put data capturing in our budget for 2025″.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Obiageli Uchebo, agreed to the need to train members of Ward Development Committees, which were recently constituted so that they can help to ensure efficient running of PHCs across the state.
“The OICs also need to be trained continuously. The government is currently upgrading one PHC per ward in the state. Building the capacity of OICs and WDCs will greatly enhance efficiency in service delivery”.
The SPARK 2 implementing team and state actors agreed to take the conversation further to fine-tune modalities for the partnership with the state government.
The health entry point of SPARK 2 project is implemented in Anambra state by the Community Empowerment Network, COMEN, Justice Development and Peace Caritas, JDPC Nnewi and Civil Rights Concern, CRC while the agriculture entry point is being implemented by the Small-scale Women Farmers of Nigeria, SWOFON.
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