Center trains 774 staff to monitor FG school feeding programme

From: Femi Oyelola, kaduna

An NGO, Connecting Gender for Development (COGEN), has trained 774 School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) and community members for effective monitoring of the Federal Government’s School Feeding Programme in Kaduna State.
COGEN Head of Programmes, Mr Ebenezer Omolekun, disclosed this yesterday at the opening of a Town Hall meeting and training of SBMCs and community members in Kaura, Kaura Local Government Area of the state.
Omolekun said that 257 were trained in Jema’a, 202 in Zangon Kataf and 315 in Kaura local government arrears, where the NGO, with support from MacArthur Foundation, was tracking the programme.
He said that the meeting/training with the theme, “Citizens Actively Engaging Government for Development” was designed to get everyone on board for the success of the programme.
He explained that the essence was to ensure the success of the programme in Kaduna state by ensuring that every stakeholder do what needs to be done as and when due.
“We equally hope that the meeting will enable us share experiences and what improvements recorded from the challenges affecting the implementation of the programme, “the official said.
Mr Titus Mann, a resource person, explained that the goal was to ensure that the state government successfully implemented the programme in order to promote learning, enrolment, retention and completion of primary school by pupils.
According to him, the effort will also ensure transparency, accountability and responsiveness by all stakeholders involved in the project.
“Not much will be achieved without the active participation of community members and relevant stakeholders in the school feeding programme and other development projects.
“This stressed the need for effective mobilisation of community members and equipping them with necessary skills not only to monitor government projects, but how to mobilise resources to champion development efforts.”
Mann, a legal practitioner, enlightened the participants on how to track and monitor government projects as well as how to attract development programmes from government and NGOs.
Also, Mr Ephraim Yayock, one of the SBMC members, explained that the SBMCs could not properly monitor the programme because they were not carried along in the planning process of the programme.
Yayock said that the vendors antagonised them whenever they go out for monitoring, on the ground that they are not SBMCS employees and as such not answerable to them.
Earlier, one of the NGO Field Monitors, Miss Kaliat Waje said that there was improvement in the implementation of the programme in the LGA.