Operate within budget limits, community-based agencies told

A call has gone to officials of community and social development agencies operating in collaboration with the World Bank to always operate within  budget limits.

The call was made by the task team leader of Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) in Nigeria, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa at a two-day meeting organised by the Federal Project Support Unit on Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) and 2017 budget deliverables in Ilorin, at the weekend.

Professor Okunmadewa urged the agencies to follow the World Bank administrative and financial procedures while dealing with communities.

The don, who said that the CSDP was designed with a special provision for the poor and the vulnerable in rural communities, added that 26 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, were currently participating in the project.

He further said that there is a need for the development of a new manual in order to commence  implementation of component 4 of CSDP in the coming year to assist vulnerable groups and internally displaced persons in the North-East.

The task team leader said CSDP had the mechanism of creating partnership between government and poor communities, adding that  the mechanism gives ownership and control of the project to the poor.

Okunmadewa, however, gave kudos to the state governments that had bought into the project despite the economic recession in the country

Also speaking, the National Coordinator of CSDP, Dr. Abdulkareem Obaje, said the meeting was called at the instance of FPSU which coordinates CSDP activities in Nigeria, to discuss issues of the draft manual of component 4 of CSDP which deals essentially with gender issues and the vulnerable.

He also said that the assessment so far had showed that the poorest of the poor had not been sufficiently targeted for support even now that there are a lot of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the country, adding that this reason made the World Bank to give its backing to the component.