Kenechukwu Ofomah
Awka
Anambra State Government on Thursday invited stakeholders across relevant fields to a one-day meeting for the validation of the Draft Anambra State Social Protection Policy Document.
Social Protection Policy is a government programs intended to help individuals and societies to manage risk and vulnerabilities, protect them from poverty and inequality, and help them to access economic opportunity.
The validation exercise which happened in Awka, followed the development of the draft, using critical data available to the State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget.
The validation exercise is supposed to review the draft document and come up with a comprehensive document that will be presented to the State Executive for approval.
In an opening remark to commence the exercise, the State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Chiamaka Nnake said the state has a lot of programmes ongoing and through them, the social register had been built and the needs of the people have been itemized.
According to her, the workshop is to get input from stakeholders on how the document can be made more inclusive and implementable.
“We want this document to be a true reflection of the opinion of stakeholders in the state.
“This is a very important event.
“The social protection initiatives are critical to the efforts of the state government to lift Anambra people out of poverty.
“The state, as a subnational government, is recovering from COVID and other national economic problems and the state needs a working document that should speak to these vulnerabilities of our people and find solutions to them,” she said.
Nnake said upon completion of the validation, the document will be forwarded for final executive approval in mid-January 2023.
She said; “By the end of the whole exercise, the stakeholders are expected to come up with a comprehensive document that the state can work with and successive administration can also find useful.”
In his speech, the Deputy Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Leo Atakpu said the project was the organization’s contribution to support government efforts in five states in tackling poverty in Nigeria.
He regretted recent accusations and counter accusations among various tiers of governments following alarming statistics from National Bureau of Statistics revealing that 133million Nigerians living in poverty.
He said, “While we would not want to be dragged into that controversy, it’s important to note that the struggle to lift more citizens out of extreme poverty is an indictment on successive and current Nigerian governments which have mismanaged nation’s vast resources over the years.
“For us in ANEEJ, it’s a wake-up call for all tiers of governments in Nigeria to take deliberate steps by putting the right policies in place to address poverty crisis at the national and sub-national levels.
“Blame trading by various tiers of governments will certainly not help. Other stakeholders such as the private sector and civil society must also play some key roles in addressing the poverty crisis.”
Atakpu also advised beyond the validation exercise, that the state government should look at putting up a draft bill to the legislature that will support the implementation of social safety initiatives in the state.
In an overview, a Senior Special Assistant to Governor Chukwuma Soludo on Planning, Christabel Idehen, said the SPP is a multi-sectoral policy that helps to sustain people who are vulnerable to systemic risks.
“The focus of the SPP is the poor and the vulnerable and the rationale for developing the SPP for the state is because of the vulnerabilities that plague the state and the need for a system that will give the people succour.
“We have adopted some of the key frameworks at the national levels, international agreements, National and state-wide state protection plans, so as to have a robust policy that will speak to the key issues of poverty and exclusion across sectors.
“The policy was developed along 5 key lines- social assistance. Social care, social insurance, labour market and policy effectiveness,” she revealed.
Prince Chris Azor, of the International Peace and Civil Responsibility Centre, a key partner in the SPP initiative, hailed the initiative to secure a better life for the poor and the vulnerable, saying if fully implemented, living will be better for the people.
“Social Protection is the first condition of government and governance.
“It shows whether it is the government of the people or not.
“The social protection policy or legislation creates a system where the citizens feel that they are important to the government and that the system is worth dying for.
“If we have this policy approved by government, people will have that feel that government is responsive and that is our joy today,” he said.
The event was also attended by the General Manager, Anambra State Community and Social Development Agency, Chudi Mojekwu, the Managing Director/Statistician-General, Anambra State Bureau of Statistics, Obiora Obiabunmo, among others.
