Activist harps on building partnerships for effective social protection system

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

A citizen activist, Sumayya Abdullahi Hussaini, has called on stakeholders in Kaduna state to ensure the building of partnerships for effective social protection system, to scale up provision of such services to the citizenry.
This, according to her will improve the credibility and comprehensiveness of the social register for the poor and vulnerable in the state.
Hussaini, who asserted this in a statement made available to the media in Kaduna yesterday, however lamented that poverty in Kaduna State has become endemic, as jer 8.04 million residents are said to be in multidimensional poverty.
She noted despite the government’s ongoing efforts at curbing poverty and protecting the vulnerable, challenges persist in providing effective social protection services for its citizens.
Hussaini who is a nominee for Open Government Partnership (OGP) Strengthening Social Protection SAP III opined that
to checkmate this trend, transparency and accountability in social protection programs can play a crucial role in ensuring effective targeting and wider coverage.
“As of January 2023, the State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU) portal shows it had 1,056,622 poor and vulnerable households made up of 3,953,809 individuals on its social register.
“This is drawn from 9,976 communities across 234 wards in the 23 LGAs of the State. The Unit also houses a shock-responsive database, Rapid Response Register (RRR), with a data strength of 180,814 successful enrollees across 94 wards in 2,839 communities, all spread across 22 LGAs.
“Despite using the Community Based Targeting (CBT) process, as stated in its portal, many stakeholders have continued to question the coverage, credibility and comprehensiveness of the register.
“ The utilization of the register also remains low. Notwithstanding the commitment by Governor Uba Sani in his SUSTAIN manifesto, the register was not used during the last Federal government N5 billion intervention through the State government. This sends a signal to suggest that the government does not trust its register”, she said.
She continued: “Specifically, under the Investing in human capital development agenda in the SUSTAIN manifesto, the Governor committed to strengthening social welfare programs and pro-poor interventions by deepening programmes designed to cater for the interests and needs of women, youths and the vulnerable.
“He further committed to empower the agency assigned with the mandate of social development and human services to champion and help integrate pro-poor interventions across government.
“The Governor committed to empowering women building more youth talent and sustaining the promotion of equal opportunity for all sports to education, skills development and health, programmes will build and support the ability of young people to thrive.
“There is a significant gap between the existing social protection policy and the practical application. Especially since the implementation plan and other key documents have not been approved or activated. This suggests a need for a review of the policy and its supporting implementation documents to align with current priorities and ensure effective resource utilization.
“To address some of these challenges and advance social protection in Kaduna state, transparency and wider public participation are paramount. The gateway to this is the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
“ Therefore, the next co-chair of the Civil Society Technical Working Group on Social Protection should collaborate with members of relevant accountability mechanisms that have components of social protection to hold the government accountable for the effective implementation of the policies and promises in the manifesto.
“Furthermore, civil society, leveraging the OGP, should actively advocate for transparency in the scale-up of the Social Register, which should be the primary database source for all pro-poor interventions.
“This involves ensuring regular updates, independent verification processes, public access to information, grievance redress, collaborative efforts and proper coordination between social protection implementing agencies to maximize the impact on addressing the needs of impoverished and vulnerable households.

“The recent upscaling of the Kaduna State Social Investment Office to the Kaduna Social Investment Programme Agency (KADSIPA), is a commendable move by the Governor.

“ However, there’s a need for collaboration between the OGP TWG and the Kaduna State Social Protection Accountability Coalition (KADSPAC) to advocate for the speedy and effective implementation of the social security law.

“ The TWG should work with other sector accountability mechanisms, along with media partnerships, to ensure effective tracking and dissemination of reports on social protection programs and interventions focusing on results. This will give the fight against poverty momentum in the State and ensure no one is left behind.”