US Supports Umahi, Tambuwal, Bala Others with Million Dollars

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>US Supports Adamawa&comma; Akwa Ibom&comma; Bauchi&comma; Ebonyi&comma; Gombe and Sokoto governments<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>reports that<strong> US<&sol;strong> supports selected state governments to strengthen governance&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to a statement made available to OpenLife Nigeria by the US Embassy&comma; the U&period;S Agency for International Development &lpar;USAID&rpar; has launched a new State Accountability&comma; and Effectiveness &lpar;State2State&rpar; Activity to strengthen subnational governance systems in six key states across Nigeria&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The five-year&comma; &dollar;72 million State2State Activity helps improve how these states plan and budget&comma; raise revenues&comma; increase civil society participation&comma; and oversee service delivery in the health&semi; education&semi; and water&comma; sanitation&comma; and hygiene &lpar;WASH&rpar; sectors&period; The activity will begin operations in Adamawa&comma; Akwa Ibom&comma; Bauchi&comma; Ebonyi&comma; Gombe and Sokoto states and later expand to others&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;State2State works primarily at the state level&comma; but also supports federal institutions and local government areas by strengthening government processes like public financial management and procurement&semi; monitoring and evaluation related to delivery of services&semi; increasing responsiveness to citizen priorities&semi; and improving capacity to manage societal conflict through prevention&comma; mitigation and reconciliation&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The scale and scope of the State2State activity is a potent symbol of the U&period;S&period; government’s commitment to partner with Nigeria to improve governance&comma;” Ambassador Leonard said at the virtual launch ceremony&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We have made this sizable commitment because we believe dramatic improvements sometimes require considerable resources&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;State2State promises to increase accountability&comma; transparency&comma; and effectiveness while building on locally derived solutions&comma; including expanding reforms that have proven effective in other parts of the country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There’s no doubt that we need the support of development partners to improve and sustain delivery of critical services&comma;” said David Nweze Umahi&comma; Executive Governor of Ebonyi State&comma; one of three governors to participate in the virtual ceremony&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;State2State has come to Ebonyi at an important time&comma; and I assure you that we will collaborate with this activity to ensure that it succeeds&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Implemented by DAI in partnership with key Nigerian organizations&comma; the activity will capture&comma; document&comma; and share best practices – working with partner states to make more information available to citizens and relevant institutions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;