Keketkache Women Development and Resource Centre, an NGO, on Friday said it trained 200 people in Delta communities between 2016 and 2018 with the support of OXFAM.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Ms. Emem Okon, made this known at a news conference with Keketkache Budget Advocacy Group in Asaba.
Okon said that the 200 men and women were trained on Community Need Assessment, taxation participatory budgeting and gender responsive budgeting.
She said the training was to promote citizens participation in budgeting processes and engage Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to address issues of people’s welfare, poverty, inequality and development.
”The project also encourages citizens, particularly women at local government level to speak up on issues of multiple taxation,” she said.
Okon said that the organisation was collaborating with Tax Justice Platform and in each of the project, states were expected to mobilise community members to campaign for fair taxation.
”The project also builds the capacity of community members to conduct Needs Assessment and present same to the local government or relevant state ministries to enable government’s budget to address specific needs of community members.
”This way, the government will be able to budget for health, education, poverty reduction projects and other specific needs of the various and diverse communities under its jurisdiction.
”This is to ensure that the concerns, interest and needs of men, women, youth, persons with disabilities, farmers and artisans are included in the budget,” she said.
Okon said that apart from training, the organisation’s main focus was on financing for development projects to increase citizens voices.
She said the first three years of the project was focused on conducting the Gender Context Analysis of Budgetary and Fiscal Policy, mapping of community groups in influencing policies and practices by speaking up and holding government accountable.
”We have now entered the phase of taking action and influencing.
”Budget advocacy groups were formed during the training, these groups are now monitoring the implementation of government budget, ” she said.
Okon said that through the support from OXFAM, some government MDAs were informed about the project and the training programmes.
”Some MDAs did not only participate, but also nominated participants for the training,” she said.
Some of the participants told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that in the past, budgets had been one sided.
They said government used to execute projects in communities without carrying people along “but today all that are changing because of advocacies by NGOs”.
Mr Pere Botu, a participant said ”through the training, we were able to observed some lopholes in multiple taxation and were taught how to get government to correct such anomalies.”
Flooding: Delta govt. charges communities to clear drainage channels
The Delta government has charged communities in the state to clear water drainage channels and desist from blocking natural waterways to avoid flooding.
The state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Chris Onogba, gave the charge on Friday in Owhelogbo community when he led officials of the ministry on an inspection tour of flood prone areas in Isoko North Local Government Area of the state.
Onogba said that in view of the perennial flooding in the area, there was an urgent need for communities to evacuate drainage channels and natural waterways to curb flooding.
“Building on natural waterways and blocking drainage channels have been a serious problem in some of our communities.
“Flooding arises whenever the river overflows its banks and when natural waterways are blocked, flood takes over.
“People should stop illegal dumping of refuse into drainage channels to mitigate the effects of flooding,” he said.
While condemning the act of dumping of waste inside drainage channels by people, Onogba urged them to cultivate the habit of patronising waste collectors to enhance proper disposal of wastes in government-approved dumpsites across the state.
The commissioner also advised people living in low land to relocate to safer places rather than wait to be displaced by ravaging flood.
