As part of its commitments to reposition the North East geo-political zone in the post insurgency era, Oxfam Nigeria in collaboration with its implementing partners such as EU, German coorporation, Cruden, CODERHI and Yaharakai foundation have empowered community stakeholder’s in Adamawa and Borno states to take charge of their development needs and priorities.
Other stakeholders and local governments officials which includes directors, heads of budget departments and financial officers were also trained to sharpened their knowledge on the National Chart of Accounts ( NCoA), a standardised budgetting framework approved by the Nigeria’s Governors Forum for adoption across the country’s 774 local Government councils.
The benefiting stakeholders which includes community leaders, stakeholders, development actors among others were selected from 3 local Governments of Guyuk, Biu, Kwaya kusar in Adamawa and Borno states under the programme tittled, “Support to improving socia cohesion through community development planning.”
Speaking at the event, Oxfam project cordinator, Samuel Lashon, said the event has become imperative especially at this period when the has moved from insurgency to post- insurgency era, thus the need for communities in the region and their stakeholders to take ownership of their development, priority needs and its implementation for the benefits of their people.
He expressed satisfaction with the impacts of the project on communities in the North East so far, stressing that the project has been yielding impacts with people across various communities embracing this initiative, taking ownership of their development issues and embarking on self help projects in various sectors such as water supply, schools renovations, bridge and roads constructions among others to develop their communities.
He also added that the project would also go along way in promoting unity and sustainable development, strengthen social cohesion by given communities the opportunity to identify their challenges and implement their development priorities through inclusive and participatory planning process.
Also speaking, one of the beneficiaries of the project, who is also a member of the Ward Development Support committee ( WDSC), Charles Samson said the project has enable them to be complimenting their communities development through locally generated funds to executes development projects rather than completely depending on government for their development needs.
On her part, zainab Ibrahim, said that with the empowerment and grants given to the beneficiaries in various communities, it would go along way to support development in their various communities and improve their living conditions.