Bauchi, USAID  Present Community Charter of Demand Template

 Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

 As preparation for the Bauchi State 2024 proposed Budget takes centre stage, the State Government, with support from the United States Agency for International Development’s funded State Transparency, Accountability and Effectiveness Activity (USAID State2State) has presented to the public another innovative initiative of getting citizens inputs into the proposed Budget.

The new innovation that comes in the form of template known as Community Charter of Demand (CCD), will give citizens the chance to come together within their respective communities and list their priority needs with a view to having it incorporated into the 2024 proposed state budget.

The CCD template was officially presented to the public by the Permanent Secretary of the Bauchi State Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mallam Idris Sale Giade in Misau  yesterday  during the ongoing Bauchi State budget public hearing held across the Northern and Central Senatorial Zones of the State.

While presenting the CCD template to community/religious leaders, CSOs, FBOs and Local Government officials present at the hearing, the Permanent Secretary said that  the CCD template is yet another avenue for citizens of Bauchi State to articulate their needs in order of priorities.

According to him, this singular act of making CCD template available to citizens has further given credence to Governor Bala Mohammed’s quest for productive citizens engagement and ownership aimed at entrenching good governance in conducting Government activities and programs.

Giade therefore, called on citizens of the State to avail themselves of the opportunity by highlighting key areas of their needs while filling the CCD template.

He also commended USAID State2State for their continued support in providing technical assistance to Bauchi State, and in particular, for developing the maiden edition of the CCD template which, according to him, will no doubt enhance citizens engagement before, during and after the proposed budget has been passed into law.

Earlier on, while presenting the Community Charter of Demand (CCD) templates to the Permanent Secretary for onward distribution to participants, State2State’s Citizens Engagement Specialist, Habila Salem, informed the gathering that the CCD template was designed in a user-friendly manner for ease of understanding by citizens. Salem further revealed that the templates were designed using both English Language and Hausa dialect for maximum understanding, productive input and further engagement for tracking purposes.

Salem then urged citizens of the state to come together at community level and identify what their needs are and then indicate it in the CCD template that would be collated by Government for possible inclusion into the budget.

Reacting on the development, a participant from the Northern Senatorial Zone who also doubled as the chairperson of a CSO known as Community Women Assistance,  Hajiya Ummi Ya’u described the CCD initiative as innovative, stressing that it will definitely increase citizens participation in the budget process.

She said her organisation will leverage on the opportunities provided by the CCD initiative to transmit their priority needs to government.

Hajiya Ya’u also pledged to further enlighten other key stakeholders on the existence of the CCD template so that more citizens could be part of the budget processes.

“Our correspondent observed an active participation of the public during the exercise and the enthusiasm demonstrated by the participants over the unveiling of the CCD template,” Ya’u said.