By; SUMAYYA ABDULLAHI HUSSAINI

Poverty in Kaduna State is endemic, 8.04 million residents are said to be multidimensionally poor, despite the government's ongoing efforts at curbing poverty and protecting the vulnerable, challenges persist in providing effective social protection services for its citizens.

To checkmate this, transparency and accountability in social protection programmes can play a crucial role in ensuring effective targeting and wider coverage, thereby improving the credibility and comprehensiveness of the social register for the poor and vulnerable in the State.

As at January, 2023, the State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU) portal shows it had 1,056,622 poor and vulnerable households made up of 3,953,809 individuals on its social register.

PThis is drawn from 9,976 communities across 234 wards in the 23 LGAs of the State. The Unit also houses a shock-responsive database, Rapid Response Register (RRR), with a data strength of 180,814 successful enrollees across 94 wards in 2,839 communities, all spread across 22 LGAs.

Despite using the Community Based Targeting (CBT) process, as stated in its portal, many stakeholders have continued to question the coverage, credibility and comprehensiveness of the register.

The utilization of the register also remains low. Notwithstanding the commitment by the Governor in his SUSTAIN manifesto, the register was not used during the last Federal government N5 billion intervention through the State government. This sends a signal to suggest that the government does not trust its own register.

A quick look at the governor's SUSTAIN manifesto one will see a commitment to fight poverty and its causes through the State Social Protection Policy, addressing the housing deficit through affordable social housing programs, and offering relief to citizens impacted by poverty through the expansion of social investment programs. It further committed to offer relief to citizens most impacted by poverty.

Specifically under the Investing in Human Capital Development agenda in the SUSTAIN manifesto, the governor committed to strengthen social welfare programs and pro-poor interventions by deepening programmes designed to cater for the interests and needs of women, youths and the vulnerable.

He further committed to empower the agency assigned with the mandate of social development and human services to champion and help integrate pro-poor interventions across government.

The governor committed to empowering women and building more youth talent and sustain the promotion of equal opportunity for all from sports to education, skills development and health, programmes will build and support the ability of young people to thrive.

There is a significant gap between the existing social protection policy and the practical application, especially that the implementation plan and other key documents have not be approved or activated.

This suggests a need for a review of the policy and its supporting implementation documents to align with current priorities and ensure effective resource utilization.

To address some of these challenges and advance social protection in Kaduna State, transparency and wider public participation is paramount. The gateway to which is the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Therefore, the next co-chair of the Civil Society Technical Working Group on Social Protection should collaborate with members of relevant accountability mechanisms that have components of social protection to hold the government accountable for the effective implementation of the policies and promises in the manifesto.

Furthermore, civil society, leveraging the OGP, should actively advocate for transparency in the scale-up of the Social Register, which should be the primary database source for all pro-poor interventions.

This involves ensuring regular updates, independent verification processes, public access to information, grievance redress, collaborative efforts and proper coordination between social protection implementing agencies to maximize the impact on addressing the needs of impoverished and vulnerable households.

The recent upscaling of the Kaduna State Social Investment Office to Kaduna Social Investment Programme Agency (KADSIPA), is a commendable move by our Governor. However, there's a need for collaboration between the OGP TWG and the Kaduna State Social Protection Accountability Coalition (KADSPAC) to advocate for the speedy and effective implementation of the social security law.

Finally, the TWG should work with other sector accountability mechanisms, along with media partnerships, to ensure effective tracking and dissemination of reports on social protection programs and interventions focusing on results. This will give the fight against poverty momentum in the State and ensure no one is left behind.


Sumayya Abdullahi Hussaini, is a
nominee for OGP Strengthening Social Protection SAP III. She can be reached via;
sumayyaabdullahi1010@gmail.com