Anambra COMEN Holds Review Meeting With Relevant Stakeholders

NGOZI ASONIBE

The Community Empowerment Network (COMEN), Anambra State with her Health Network of Partners coordinated by the Justice Development and Peace Caritas (JDPC) Nnewi on Friday, September 9,2022 held a review and reflection meeting at Awka, Anambra State.

The meeting was attended by the representatives from COMEN Anambra State ,Ward Development Committee (WDC), Chairmen, Officers in Charge (OIC), technical partners, Idikacho Women in Governance (I-WIG), Anambra State Associations of Town Unions (ASATU), Artisan Women Group, Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON) and among others on how COMEN’s contribution to policy and implementation addressed the root cause of poor PHC service delivery and the way forward in Anambra.

While addressing the participants at the event, Mr Joshua Arogunyo, Consultant, International Budget Partnership(IBP) said that interviews, data collection procedures and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were gathered from the Ministry of Health, Anambra State, adding that the review was to ascertain the outcome and results of COMEN Campaign.

From the findings, he said that the relationship between COMEN and her health partners in primary health care service delivery in Anambra should be commended,though will work harder for advancement and synergy.

He maintained that the review was not aimed at apportioning blame on anyone, rather to reflect on their strengths, weaknesses and the way forward to Strengthening COMEN’s Campaign.

He said that the donor agencies have helped and funded COMEN all the years in building budget analysis skills, forging relationships with local officials and other capacity building.

He lauded the members of COMEN for demanding that Anambra government adequately prioritized the PHC sector, which the Anambra State Commissioner for Health,Dr Afam Obidike has fully keyed in to ensure the delivery of COMEN’s mandate.

On systematic change, he lauded the Soludo administration for the adoption of #fixmyphc Campaign and the oversight of BHCPH with regular supervision of the healthcare centres.

He noted that the influence of COMEN as a well-organized network was already significant in budgetary process, engagement with the budget office to follow up on the budget, participation in the legislative process and sensitization about the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund(BHCPF).

On effective delivery approach, he said that the social media has increased awareness, driven the conversation and capacity building of the campaign to the relevant stakeholders respectively.

Contributing, COMEN Consultant Anambra State who is also the Executive Director (ED),Social and Integral Development Centre (SIDEC), Mrs Ugochi Ehiahuruike noted that COMEN’s engagement with relevant government institutions has given them access to decision-making spaces previously closed to them”, adding that COMEN is part of the annual budget bilateral forums in Anambra, where the executive presents budget proposals to civil society before they submit them to the legislature for appropriation.

During the group discussion, the participants noted some challenges with the state budget execution and monitoring, which the meeting addressed.

They said that local PHC facilities have suffered from outdated procurement processes and delays in budget flows, which slow down repairs and investment in services; weak oversight and little opportunity for citizens to participate in decision-making about resourcing these facilities.

For COMEN’s campaign to be sustained, they said that the government should deliberately participate in the funding, financed through government budgetary allocation which the communities and the people should be part of, adding that donor funding is limited for few years and the contract will be terminated.

They stated that public participatory mechanism, establishing of monitoring team and a dedicated budget line of Community Charter of Demand(CCD) should be reflected in the budget to address the issues in the primary health service delivery.

They frowned that the Monitoring and Evaluation unit under the ministry and agencies in the state have lamented the non-release of funds allocated to them to carry out projects, adding that the unit helps in identifying the most valuable and efficient ways of utilizing the resources as well as being critical for developing objective conclusions on how projects and programmes can be adjudged successful.

On capacity building, they agreed that COMEN’s campaign should be updated and expanded in the remaining local governments in Anambra State for effective service delivery, growth and development.

They said that the issues with capacity building is mobility, hard to reach people in their remote areas , passion and orientation.

They stated that partnership coalition can be strengthened by having a defined goals and objectives, synergy, shared responsibilities, timeline and accountability.

On the group discussion, the participants reflected on collective agency and coalitions; participatory spaces; service delivery; fiscal governance systems change and how to Strengthening Public Accountability For Results and Knowledge; and how has (SPARK) programme influenced changes in the fiscal goverance system.