BudgIT Foundation and Connected Development have called on the Federal Government to conduct a public audit of how COVID-19 funds including the N50 billion loan was spent.
The organisations also said they would mobilise at least 1.7 million Africans digitally and offline to monitor emergency funds and demand health sector accountability.
According to them, beyond collaborations with the government and sectoral leaders, they would also strengthen citizens’ engagement and equip civil society organisations in each focus country on how to prioritise vulnerable communities in their advocacy for improved health care investment.
The Global Director of BudgIT, Oluseun Onigbinde and Chief Executive Officer of CODE, Hamzat Lawal, stated these in Abuja during the inauguration of the second phase of the COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability in Africa.
The project which was in collaboration with Global Integrity, Oxlade Consulting and funded by Conrad N Hilton Foundation and Skoll Foundation is an initiative which seeks to promote accountability and transparency through the tracking of COVID-19 intervention funds across 10 African countries.
For the first phase of the project, both organisations leveraged their Tracka and Follow The Money platforms to address the deeply rooted systemic profiteering culture associated with COVID-19 interventions and ineffective feedback mechanisms for tracking COVID-19 fund disbursements and management across focus countries.
The organisations expressed optimism that the first phase strengthened civic engagement on COVID-19 response related matters to ensure that targeted governments use COVID-19 funds effectively.
The text of the statement delivered during the launching reads, “Building on these successes, the second phase of the project will advocate for improved healthcare funding and address the issues related to vaccine deployment and equitable distribution across focus countries.
“Both organisations will do this firstly, by conducting research on the post COVID environment, the distribution of health sector resources, the government’s commitment to healthcare funding, vaccine procurement plans and the issues affecting the equitable distribution in Africa, with a special focus on vulnerable groups in terms of commercial activity and socioeconomic status.
“The government owes Nigerians a public audit of how COVID-19 funds were spent. The public audit should be jointly undertaken by both the executive and legislature.”
Onigbinde said, “This research will set a pathway for identifying the peculiar issues with procurement plans and vaccine distribution, after which we can build partnerships with relevant stakeholders and sectoral leaders to co-create inclusive frameworks and solutions for long-term health sector accountability.
“We will not only collaborate with governments in focus countries to institute proper and sustainable accountability systems, we will also enhance the COVID-19 accountability platform with a digital dashboard that tracks health sector resourcing and accountability approaches.”
Lawal said both BudgIT and CODE would mobilise at least 1.7million Africans digitally and offline to monitor emergency funds and demand health sector accountability.
“We will also facilitate dialogue sessions between 36 CSOs and the government to create opportunities for engagement between both parties on improved funding and health sector accountability”, he said.
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