The Kaduna State 2023 budget preparation process was a milestone. At the end of the process, over 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) submitted 1,256 citizens’ nominated projects through the Community Development Charter (CDC) process. The breakdown shows that 497 projects were meant for the 23 LGAs, 690 and 69 projects were for the State and Federal governments respectively. Evidently, the automation of the CDC submission and data management portal (www.citizensdemand.org), impressively so, increased the submission rate from 6 to over 20 LGAs.
In tracking its influence, evidence showed that on average about 49.6% of the total number of projects and 48% of the total allocations of the 23 LGAs’ 2023 budgets were informed by CDC. Consequently, there is also a rising increase in the performance of the CDC in the 23 LGAs budget implementation. For instance, there was an increase of CDC average performance for the 23 LGAs from about 30% in 2021 to just above 40% in 2022, as seen in the 2022 Full-Year LGAs Budget Performance report. The tracking of the CDC influence in the State’s 2023 budget is ongoing with the Planning & Budget Commission currently collating CDC nominated projects captured in some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) budgets.
Despite the above progress, a number of challenges continue to hinder more citizens’ participation in the budget process through the CDC process. Prominent among which are: the low public awareness on the CDC process, low mobilization capacity of CDC Champions due to limited capacity, low trust level of citizens in governance actors and processes, difficulty in submission of citizens nominated needs by some LGAs, participation apathy and fatigue due to low level of government responsiveness and implementation of CDC nominated projects, among others.
In a bit to address some of the above challenges, the Kaduna Local Government Accountability Mechanism (KAD-LGAM) in collaboration with the Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment & Development (CALPED) and Ihifix Innovation Technology is facilitating a Virtual Public Sensitization on the Community Development Charter (CDC) and Preparation for the 2024 Budget Process. If you want to know about the CDC process and how you can participate in influencing the 2024 budget process, then join us via Google Meet on Tuesday, 16th May, 2023 by 10am. Register using this link: https://bit.ly/VirtualPublicSensitization_ to be part of the engagement.
Lets engage, ask the right questions and hold the government accountable.
Yusuf Ishaku Goje
Active Citizen
