PERL calls civil societies to engage government on better agric inputs delivery

Cross section

The meeting to rationally engage government on matters relating to agricultural inputs subsidy expenditures has been held by Nigerian civil society at the instance of Engaged Citizen Pillar (EPI) of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) last week Tuesday in Abuja.

Participants at the meeting were intimated with the aims and purpose of LERL towards encouraging an efficient system of accountability and service delivery in the Nigeria agricultural inputs subsidy distributions through citizens’ proactive engagement and involvement in the planning, execution and tracking to get feedback so as to ascertain its accessibility to farmers.

The meeting admonished that citizens must be concerned on the accountability and efficient service delivery by both the public and private sectors in the agricultural inputs subsidy distribution saying this was when the purpose of expenditure on fertilizers, improved seeds and mechanization could be justified.

 

According to Chika Okon, PERL is a 5 years public sector accountability and governance programme, funded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). PERL’s support focuses on government, citizen and evidence based advocacy and is being delivered through three pillars which plan and act together to support sustainable service delivery reforms with three pillars.

Pillar1- accountable, Responsive and Capable Government (ARC), Pillar 2-Engaged Citizens;, and Pillar 3-Learning, Evidencing and Advocacy Partnership (PEAP). The programme  works at the Federal level, in partner states of Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa and through regional learning and reform hubs in the South West, South East and North East areas of Nigeria.

ECP’s focus is to facilitate citizens’ engagement of governance process and plans that contribute in delivery of public goods and services, in areas of policy making, implementation and monitoring.