ABUJA/Nigeria: The ActionAid Nigeria, (AAN), has called for accountability, and prioritization of vulnerable women, children, the aged and persons with disabilities in their plans, just as the questioned the exclusion of CSO’s in the operation of the committee on the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The organization in a statement signed by Ene Obi, Country Director, stated that they had followed with keen interests the federal Government response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and appreciates some of the steps taken so far to mitigate the spread of the virus in the country.
However, the organization with focus on the vulnerable in the society, especially women, children and those living with disabilities, questioned the operations of the presidential Committee, on these group of persons, as no special focus had been given to them.
Amongst other things, ActionAid stated that despite the huge donation towards the control of the disease in the country, it had noticed lack of accountability on the part of the government on how these funds and donations are being spent. As it pointed that, “A huge amount of funding has been committed to the COVID-19 response by both the government and private sector, yet there is no proper accountability put in place, which is likely to breed corruption and defeat the effectiveness of government’s noble efforts.”
“The idea to sustain the school feeding programme is commendable, however children are not in school and there is no clear workable strategy for its implementation. More so, there are no clear information on how child education will be sustained nationally at this time.”
“Access to testing and quality of service received by COVID-19 infected persons remains a point of concern with some citizens reportedly paying for testing while others have complained of neglect and favoritism of infected influential persons.”
It also advised that for effective control, the federal government should extend the lockdown to other states.
“The lockdown of the states with infected cases is noble, but it will be ineffective if adjourning states do not follow suit.”
The organisation further advised the federal government to
“Set a clear accountability mechanism structure in partnership with Civil Society Organizations to track and monitor the utilization of resources committed to the COVID-19 response.”
“Innovate and communicate ways on how child education will be sustained nationally at this time while they are at home.”
“Ensure that access to testing and quality of service is prioritized irrespective of citizen’s status.”
“Work with CSOs and other existing structures who already have database of the poorest of the poor including the aged, to ensure they benefit from the advance conditional cash transfer, as our findings show that some of the most vulnerable and poor are omitted from the list and will suffer other complications other than COVID-19.”
“Prioritize vulnerable women in its palliative measures to cushion their loss of income because when women are reached, their household benefits. Electricity, water, food should be available to households to reduce the burden of care work on women.”
