By Ado Hassan, Sokoto
A global non profit and non partisan organisation, the International Research Institute (IRI) with the active support of the United States Agency for International Development(USAID) has called for full participation of citizens in the process of service delivery.
It also decried the low participation of women, youths as well as people with disabilities in political process adding that “IRI is helping in that direction.”
The essence of the purposeful course of action by IRI is to strengthen their capacities to lobby for specific solutions to elected officials and state level party leaders.
Speaking at a two day workshop for CSOs in Sokoto state, the institute’s Resident Programme Director, Sentell Barnes said the workshop was further aimed at identifying major components linked to fundamental service delivery issues in the state and CSOs working in sectors of education, heathcare, water santation and hygiene as well as democracy and governance in the state.
She noted that CSOs remain key and fundamental tools to remarkably achieve the objectives of IRI dream of ensuring quality service delivery through active democratic process and participation.
Also, Senior Programme Officer, The International Republican Institute (IRI), Mr Sunday Alao in his remarks tasked Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to see themselves as key for interface between the government and people, in order to abreast them on issues of good governance and provision of social amenities for the citizenry.
However, the workshop which drew participants from across 30 CSOs, ended on Wednesday with the aim of engaging both political parties and elective officials to be responsive to citizens through quality service delivery.
On the theme of workshop titled: ‘Developing Advocacy Strategy on Service Delivery Issues: Prospects and Challenges,’ Alao charged citizens to always hold their political leaders accountable, especially in service delivery.
He maintained that ” we have discovered vital roles the civil societies can play, especially, in helping mobilize citizens to participation in active politics in order to drive the society.”
In the same vein, Alao noted that at the end of the workshop, the selected CSOs will help abreast the people on how they were being governed and provision of social amenities by their political leaders.
“We are coopting the CSOs as an interface to engage these political parties on how to fulfill their campaign promises toward addressing challenges facing the society.” Alao explained.
Also, the IRI Resident Programme Officer, Husna Hassan, urged the need for developing an action plan for women advocacy in Sokoto.
She reiterated the Institute’s commitment to ensuring adherence to political parties’ manifesto in meeting citizens aspiration.
Hassan also emphasized the need for women to engage in advocacy drive in order to achieve their political aspiration