By Muhammad Amaan
The Bauchi Field Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has organised a training on budget tracking, monitoring and analysis for officials of the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), budgets, planning Officers, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa states.
The training, which was held on Tuesday in Jos, Plateau State, aimed at strengthening participants capacity on handling the budget process.
Dr Yusuf Auta, UNICEF’s Social Policy Specialist, in a speech at the event, said that the exercise would aid the quest for inclusive budgeting system.
He added that the training was organised in conjunction with the Gombe State Ministry for Budget and Economic Planning.
According to Auta, the exercise will enhance their knowledge toward ensuring that the budgets of their respective states address the needs of women, children and other vulnerable groups.
“We are here to strengthen the capacity of EIU officials, budget and planning officers and some selected CSOs from these three states on budget tracking, monitoring and analysis.
“As you know, our interest in UNICEF is on children and women; over time, the budget that affects these categories of people usually suffer set backs in terms of funding and allocation.
“We have done some analysis and realised that even at spending stage, the areas of basic education, healthcare, social protection and empowerment seem to be the least in terms of budgetary allocation.
“So, this training will enable the participants to use the knowledge to carry out an analysis and engage the policy makers toward having a more effective budget for critical areas in their respective states,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Yusuf Goje, the lead facilitator of the training, said that the exercise would enable the participants to better understand the basics of their job schedules.
”This will help them analyse the budget from the human angle; the budget should not just be about the figures. The focus should be on how it will translate into improving the living standard of the people, particularly women and children.
”This will also help them draw an equitable budget that will ensure that no one is left behind; a budget should reflect the interests of the diverse groups that make up their states,” he said.
Mr Goje said that the training would also help the goverment of the states to ascertain if their budgets are need-based and how to engage the citizens in the implementation process.
