Devt partners pillars for provisions of critical socioeconomic services – Idris

From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi

Kebbi State Governor, Nasir Idris, has described development partners as supporting pillars to any government in the effort to provide critical social -economic services, infrastructure development to the people.

He stated this while flagging off a development partners forum/ meeting with state MDAs, donor organisations, development partners and non-state actors, organized by the state Ministry of Budget and Economic planning in Birnin Kebbi.

  Idris, represented by his deputy, Umar  Tafida, said: “Development partners are supporting pillars of the government,in their efforts on providing communities with critical social- economic support services, infrastructural development and systems strengthening. They have such eagle eyes of identifying local needs  and providing aid,where the conventional system could not reach out to. We have often received good news and seen beautiful pictures, videos and reports of several laudable and impactful interventions provided by these partners.

“The government and good people of Kebbi State are indeed happy and grateful. Unfortunately, the presence and much needed interventions of these important development partners happens to be at its lowest ebb in the state, where we have less than 40 of such interventions in total.

“This is in comparison with happenings in our sister and neigbouring states of Sokoto and Zamfara,where donors and  heart touching interventions are provided in hundreds,thus positively affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

  “Effective donor engagement, accurate information, reliable data, indigenous representatives, effective monitoring, strategic reporting,and policies like the standards of operations and operational framework, among other vital tools are very pertinent in attracting donors and making them more accountable. This will no doubt contribute significantly to the overall activities of development partners,and in turn the overall development of the state.”

Secretary to the State Government, Yakubu Bala, said activities of development partners always add value to good governance.

“Through out the world, efforts to strengthen governance institutions and partnership among them are being rewarded by the fruits of social stability and economic well-being. Institutions and partnership are strong,when ideals,data, strategies, implementation and evaluation are shared. This sharing takes place with openness and transparency so that all stakeholders are mutually accountable.”