We will continue to push for the Kaduna government to release the N100m donation to people with disabilities. – SDGs – The Sun Nigeria

Hajiya Aisha Muhammad, Kaduna State Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Coordinator, has vowed to keep pushing for the state government to release the N100 million donated to people with disabilities (PWD) on time.

She made the commitment while speaking to NAN on the sidelines of the closing of an inaugural four-day Voluntary Local Review (VLR) workshop to ensure stakeholder engagement and outcome in the delivery of SGD in Kaduna.

The VLR is a process through which subnational governments assess and document progress made in achieving global goals.

It is an analysis of the SDGs at the subnational level for a specific local context.

The VLR workshop, supported by United Nations Development Partners (UNDP) and UNICEF, drew participants and stakeholders from state and federal MDAs, paramilitary organizations and others.

Muhammad said the N100m donations to disabled people by the state government were to improve their well-being and livelihood.

“People with disabilities are inclusive, they are not discriminated against, our good office will continue to push for the N100m to be delivered to them as donated by the state government.”

She said that there were some administrative reasons behind the delay in releasing the fund.

Muhammad noted that the Kaduna Planning and Budget Commission (PBC), which is responsible for the release of funds, would ensure that the money was released to the Ministry of Finance for disbursement to people with disabilities.

“We want people with disabilities to start implementing their commitment to reduce the number of panhandlers in the state,” he said.

He said, however, the Kaduna state government had empowered many of the disabled with skills and trades.

“There are many plans made for the N100m; so we will do everything we can to make sure they get the money and use it for the purpose they said they would use it for,” he said.

Muhammad explained that the government’s gesture was in line with goal number 10 of the SDGs, which was to reduce inequality.

Earlier in the workshop, he said that they would validate input from stakeholders to ensure compliance with the actual data provided to them in the templates (questionnaires).

The coordinator noted that after validation, her office would once again invite stakeholders to validate the draft documents and submit them to the executive council, UNDP and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the SDGs.

“All the processes have to be done before the documents can be finalized,” he said.

He mentioned the content of the templates (questionnaires) to include what stakeholders were doing to domesticate the SDGs in their own way.

“All the stakeholders that we invite are tracking various SDG targets, although we already have baseline data, SDG reports from 2017 and also an updated one from 2021.

“We wanted to see what they were currently doing and fill in the gaps so that we can track the level of progress of the SDGs being domesticated across the state,” he said.

The coordinator noted that after developing the documents, her office would want it to serve as a budget framework for the state where the State Development Plan (SDP) and Sector Implementation Plan (SIP) could be taken into consideration.

Likewise, Mr. Joshua James, member of Civil Societies with a focus on governance, said that the expected outcome of the workshop was to ensure the harmony of all stakeholder contributions and to validate them.

He said doing so would provide a standard template that would allow stakeholders to discuss implementation in Kaduna State.

“The Kaduna state government and various supporting partners are also expected to adequately fund the ODS unit in the PBC, to deploy both the hardware and soft components of the SGDs in the state,” James said.

Also on the sidelines, Mr. Abubakar Adam, vice president of the National Joint Association of People with Disabilities, Kaduna chapter, praised the government for adopting the Disability Act.

However, he said there was a provision in the law for a Disability Trust Fund, adding that if implemented well, it would address the plight of people with disabilities in the state.

He noted that the trust fund would address skills acquisition, empowerment, training and many other challenges faced by people with disabilities, if properly managed.

“Since the government created the disability trust fund, we want them to see it through to launch and full implementation; it will take the beggars off the streets of Kaduna,” Adam said.

NAN reports that some of the SDGs are zero hunger, zero poverty, good health and well-being, quality education, clean water and sanitation, clean and affordable energy. (YAYA)

Credit: https://www.sunnewsonline.com/well-continue-pushing-for-release-of-n100m-donation-to-pwds-by-kaduna-govt-sdgs/