The Nigerian Village Square - Coalitions for Change: A Timely Change Agent

Coalitions for Change: A Timely Change Agent

Written by Marshall Ifeanyi

Thursday, 18 October 2007

Marshall Ifeanyi

In these days when non-governmental organizations are sprouting from every nook and cranny of the society, it is not always an easy task to decipher the ones with fruitful and faithful promise. Most of them are moulded to tackle the multi-faceted socio-cultural-politico -economic problems plaguing the nation and her citizens. Thus the impacts or ineffectiveness of some of these organizations help to assess their genuineness.

And so with the new political dispensation that the country is experiencing, physically demonstrative protests and activism, which characterized the past, have taken a new approach. There is now a paradigm shift from the status quo ante to advocacy, policy development, good governance, democracy consolidation, debt relief gains, loot recovery, anti-corruption campaign and constitutional/electoral reforms.

It is view of the above that the Department for International Development of the British government decided to support a new initiative called Coalitions for Change (C4C) with sum of 7.5million pounds sterling. The NGO which draws partnership from across the civil society, organized private sector, government agencies and institutions, the academia, labour as well as the media focuses on the synchronizing and synergizing the core burning national issues and development projects of all stakeholders that impact the nation.

These issues according to the secretary to the Programme Advisory Panel, Amina Salihu are the “traction” issues and include constitutional reform, anti-corruption, oil revenue transparency, monitoring debt relief gains as well as northern Nigeria water initiatives.

The initiative is being spearheaded by a group of committed Nigerians from government, civil society, the media, and the private sector, sharing a common vision of the need to develop Nigeria by engaging in reforms to improve public resource management which will lead to greater sector accountability.

Well known academician and development expert, Professor Bolanle Awe, who is the Chairperson of C4C’s advisory panel, set the tone in her opening remarks calling for Nigerians to support and work with government institutions to enable them manage public resources effectively. She said, “C4C is unique because it places institutions at the heart of development. C4C is creating an open platform and participative process for government agencies and the public to relate better with each other”.

The NGO devises a new methodology tended toward institutional change and new approach to work in public offices. Hajia Amina who is also the Programme Coordinator, at a pre-launch conference of the NGO, said the initiative is basically about institutional change and a new perspective to how work is done across all sectors and informed stakeholders and participants that C4C is “concerned about anti-corruption, how we manage pool resources like the Yobe River Basin, in an equitable and transparent fashion, and how we can monitor debt relief gains across the water, health and education sectors”. She also said the “this is not about civil society or government working in a vacuum – this is about all of us coming together to work for change.

Corroborating the above position, Amina Ibrahim, a C4C advisory panel member and Senior Adviser to the President on MDGs also commented that C4C will work civil society organizations, government and relevant interest groups to ensure accountable, transparent and effective use of the Virtual Poverty Funds monies as a strategy for enabling the government to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She buttressed this point at the launch of the NGO on Thursday 27th September 2007 at the Int’l Conference Centre, Abuja.

The event which was attended by a wide section of concerned professionals from different groups had goodwill messages of support delivered by the various partners including the National Assembly, the Nigerian Labour Congress, and the Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities, the Nigerian Union of Journalists as well as the President of the Children’s Parliament.

Coalitions for Change is a Nigerian led initiative which has received a seed grant from the British department for international development (DFID) for its three of operation.

Robot Robot is offline
Villager


	# 1 The Department for International Development of the British government has decided to support a n...Read the full article. Posted by Robot\| 18.10.2007 04:43

TsuliyanDodo TsuliyanDodo is offline
Villager


	# 2 I always fear this donor money! Any change that is not fully driven (financially etc) by local leaders , I'm afraid, will turn out a "hoax". All of them in the so called C4C, Amina, Bolanle etc have been involved in numerous other projects with "sweet" names in the past. The are professional NGO managers who dominate the appropriation of donor funds in nIGERIA. Call me a chronic pessimist, but I swear, this is rubish. As usual, 80% of the 7 million pounds will return to the British Economy! Hotel Bills, Air Fares, Consultants' fees etc for British Nationals will take all the money...of course,the Aminas and the Awes get someting that will swell their bank accounts with a good legitimate salary, they will also work...at least, it's better than stealing in a civil service. And then all these donors will claim huge "assistance" to Nigeria... But their Governments keep quiet about RIGGED ELECTIONS. Oil can only flow under "stability" . Cut the crab, Ifeanyi. Posted by TsuliyanDodo\| 18.10.2007 06:28

marcel marcel is offline
Villager


	# 3 Even a begger on the street knows the solution to Nigerians problem...but make him president today and he will be singing a different song. Is this an inherent factor in genes or something else....it pains so much that even the so-called donor countries...knows where their funds would be most felt....but they won't drow it there simply cos it doesn't serve their immediate interest. Whats this nonsese about C4C when people are dying daily on our roads cos of bad roads---benin-lagos, ibadan-illorin---just name them, no NEPA or wetin them call themselves.....some parents cann't afford to send their kids to school....imagine how many jobs 7.5M pounds would shun out if used in micro finance scheme or support viable industries in the country. Just watch out what happens after the launch.....A SHRING FORMULA WOULD TAKE EFFECT....NONSENSE!!! Posted by marcel\| 18.10.2007 09:34

ekins123 ekins123 is offline
JJC


	# 4 hello, i just discovered this site and i'm quite excited that there's a forum such as this where we can talk about all things nigerian. Now, about these NGOs, while some might have genuine intentions, quite a number of them like it has been ponted out simply tend to enrich a few pockets. Too much talk and very little action.C4C it seems is one of the latter. I am waiting for the NGO that will get down to the villages and build schools, rehabilitate hospitals and train the traditional birth attendants -quietly without calling a media briefing. Posted by ekins123\| 08.07.2008 09:38

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