In an effort to ensure proper legislative process, and implementation of child and family health related issues, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in conjunction with Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH), has organised a two-day training for journalists on accountability.

Tagged ‘Accountability Media on Legislative Advocacy in Child and Family Health’, the training began yesterday at the Nasarawa Guest House, Lamido Road, GRA, Kano. Participants were taken through series of training exercises on requisite skills, with a view to demanding for accountability from the legislature and policy-makers on issues of child and family health in the country.

In her inaugural speech, the Programmes Manager of the PACFaH project, Ms Chioma Kanu, identified goals and objectives of the organisation which, among others, seeks to strengthen the gap between civil society organisations and the legislature.

Later, in an exclusive chat with News Express, Ms Kanu emphasised the role of the media in projecting the advocacy, noting: “There is a need for the media to stand and support the advocacy project so as to get government at all levels fulfill their commitments on various family health issues across the nation.”

She identified the four basic areas of concern for PACFaH as policy trust, budget fulfillment, framework, and commitment, adding that there is a challenge of implementation in these areas, and that government is not signing necessary documents on them. “So, PACFaH project is more interested in pulling out those policies to make the government do what it is supposed to do,” Ms Kanu said.

While stating his expectation on the training, one of the facilitators and Head of Operations, ISU Media Ltd, Mr Oteh Okereke, had said: “There will be success on the training and participants would be more aware that child and family health is an issue that must be reckoned with, which would also make the responsible sector have a better day going forward.”

In his lecture entitled, Accountability Media, Mr Okereke took journalists through the teaching of objectivity and transparency in accountability media. He linked media roles to civil society’s efforts in ensuring open government, open data and right to information, stressing that accountability media seeks to increase transparency and accountability in carrying the burden of the society

The training turned out to be more interactive and engaging as the media participants who, majorly were online journalists and publishers, bared their minds on the crux of the event, sharing ideas on how to expand its philosophy, even as they dispensed strategies on how to make the discussions workable after the training.

The programmes manager reiterated the need for governments of the federation to provide adequate funding for very important areas in child and family health. These are: Routine Immunisation, Family Planning, Amoxicillin as first-line treatment for pneumonia, ORS-zinc as treatment for childhood diarrheal diseases, and Nutrition.

•Photo by Mayowa Okekale shows PACFaH Programmes Manager Chioma Kanu interacting with participants . . . yesterday in Kano.

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