Accountability in health sector: dRPC organizes retreat for Kano OGP team

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As part of efforts to ensure accountability in governance, the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) in partnership with the Women in Media (WIM) under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health At Scale, PACFaH@Scale, Thursday in Abuja commenced a two-day retreat for the Open Government Partnership Team in Kano state, towards enhanced inclusiveness, transparency and accountability in governance processes.

PACFaH@Scale or PAS, for short, is a social accountability project which aims to strengthen the capacity of Nigerian Civil Society Organizations, (CSOs) at national and state levels to hold decision-makers (in the executive and legislature) accountable for health policies, financial commitments and bring down regulatory barriers related to child and family health.

PAS is anchored by dRPC and implemented by a coalition of 12 indigenous health NGOs and professional bodies – with the support of two government think tanks i.e the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) – to develop health champions within the executive and legislature.

The Kano OGP retreat, which aims to find solutions bedevilling various aspects of governance in the state, and principally in the health sector, is geared towards developing an implementable plan for the realization of the goals of the Kano State Action Plan of the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

According to a press statement signed by the Co-Chair of the Kano OGP Hajiya Halima Ben Umar and made available to newsmen in Abuja, the retreat will develop mechanism for inclusiveness in the health and other key sectors of the state.

“This retreat is a partnership between the Kano OGP and WIM, under the PACFaH@Scale project and it is organized to look at the operationalization of the OGP action plan which aims to bring solutions to social challenges in the state,” said Ben Umar.

She described the relationship between the Kano OGP and the PAS project as a welcome development, one that would not only “improve the social accountability framework in Kano state but will also go a long way in improving public engagement in some identified areas towards the socio-economic development of the state.

“By the end of the two-day retreat, the hope is that we will come out with [actionable] strategies that will galvanize citizens’ participation in governance in Kano state.”

The two-day retreat offers a chance to the participants to explore various opportunities for partnership, in line with the State Action Plan as well as agree on the strategies to be adopted to resolve the missing links in the structure of Kano state’s steering committee for the OGP.

Recent health indices released by the NDHIS and MCS 2017 for Kano state, show high health burdens for under-five children, girls and women of reproductive age, in particular.