PAACA monitors implementation of FG's school feeding programme in FCT

- Anti-corruption group, PAACA, has been monitoring the federal government's school feeding programme

- The initiative, with support from Action Aid Nigeria, is geared towards tracking the implementation of the programme

- To ensure the effectiveness of the monitoring process, PAACA made use of its community anti-corruption network

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Anti-corruption group, Peering Advocacy and Advancement centre in Africa (PAACA) has given a situation report on its monitoring of the implementation of the federal government's school feeding programme in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The initiative, with support from Action Aid Nigeria, was geared towards tracking the implementation of the programme and weighing the perception of the people in determining the efficiency of the exercise across the six area councils of the Nigerian capital.

To ensure the effectiveness of the monitoring process, PAACA made use of its community anti-corruption network, after an organized training on how to carry out a survey using a questionnaire and one-on-one interview guide to elicit responses from respondents.

Having analyzed the evidence-based findings from the community anticorruption network resident in the six area councils of the FCT, PAACA convened a stakeholder meeting to share findings and recommendations from the research as well as harness feedback/inputs from participants.

In attendance were representatives of Action aid Nigeria, ministry of humanitarian affairs, relevant civil society organizations and the media, including Legit.ng.

While giving the overview of the research, some of the findings from the field where enumerated to include

1. Shortage of items

2. Poor information dissemination

3. Lack of awareness

4. Inconsistency with laid down procedures for authentication and verification

5. Uneven distribution of vouchers to the exclusion of some communities

6. The opaqueness of the process, amongst others.

Certain recommendations were made in the research, which included:

1. Greater awareness

2. Transparency and accountability of the process

3 Better inclusion

4. The need for a centralized and updated beneficiary list

4. Availability of law enforcement officers in each centre to prevent the activity of thugs

5. Distribution of voucher without discrimination and

6. Active monitoring of the process

The ministry of humanitarian affairs, represented by Aisha Hamid, applauded PAACA for providing constructive feedback on the exercise and pledged to further study the findings and consider the recommendations made.

Other participants made certain observations and inputs, some of which were; the need for follow-up research on the relevance and impact of the programme, need to intensify the use of Freedom Of Information to get relevant information that will aid accountability, evidence of program implementation and important data that will support meaningful advocacy.

One of the gaps identified in the research was the non-inclusion of challenges encountered outside COVID-19 challenges and risks or limitation of the research work.

Participants applauded PAACA for providing the research as a baseline for subsequent intervention in the area.

PAACA resolved to consider all inputs, update the reports and invite all relevant stakeholders to the launch of the published report in a future date.

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Meanwhile, as Nigeria prepares for life after the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has assured citizens that it will soon roll out additional stimulus packages for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.

This was disclosed by the special assistant to the president on MSME in the office of the vice president, Tola Johnson.

COVID-19: FG kicks off school feeding programme in Abuja | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng