Humanitarian Ministry allots digital tools to programmes monitors

Nigeria’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has commenced the distribution of engagement letters and tablets to trained independent monitors in the south-south zone.

In Calabar, the capital of Cross River State where the ministry flagged-off the exercise for the zone, 49 trained monitors were given engagement letters and tablets already installed with special apps to enhance the work expected of them.

Measuring impact

The 49 trained independent monitors selected from different local government areas are expected to utilize the standardized reporting tools to provide relevant data that would in turn enable the ministry measure the impact of the National Social Investment Program, N-SIP.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq in her message read by the Director, Human Resource Management, Babatunde Jaji, said that having trained and independent monitors was important to ministry.

Farouq said, “the NSIP has four components such as the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP), N-Power, and the National Cash Transfer Programme (CCT).

“In a bid to achieve the set goals and objectives of each of these programmes, the Ministry believes that adequate monitoring is important. The engagement of Independent Monitors for NSIP, therefore, is one of the strategies to ensure that these programmes achieve the desired results,” she stated.

According to her, “the Ministry has methodically reviewed the modalities and design of previous engagements to build more robust and proactive strategies to monitor the programmes.

“The Independent Monitors will supervise, monitor programme beneficiaries within their locality, in schools, households and market clusters on a routine basis using a standardized reporting tools which have been made available in hard and electronic copies. This would help measure the impact of these Programmes,” Farouq stressed.

Automated tools

The Minister noted that the initial target was to train for 5,000 Independent Monitors (IM’s) across the 36 states and FCT as well as develop a mobile and internet based application, which they would utilize.

She stated, “4,452 were successfully trained. In addition to the training on the manual data collection tools, which would serve as a working tool for the Independent Monitor, the Ministry has automated the process through development of a mobile and web-based application called the Social Investment Management Information System (SIMIS) for an efficient and effective process of data collection and reporting.” 

Mr Jaji charged the 46 Independent Monitors selected from Calabar to dedicate their time to the data collection,  to assist government in its aspirations of lifting more vulnerable Nigerians out of poverty.

 “Every independent monitor will be held accountable by the Ministry for the task given to you. The Ministry reserves the right to disengage an Independent Monitor for misconduct or noncompliance with set guidelines and directives. I hereby urge you to carry out this assignment with an outmost sense of patriotism, diligence, and sincerity. We at the Ministry will not accept anything short of the set standards”. The Minister said

The Programme Manager of National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Gabriel Okulaja also applauded the Ministry for its continued support in lifting Nigerians above the poverty line and improving on the living standards of the citizenry.

He said the sustainability of the NSIPs is largely depended on the team’s ability to deliver on their mandate.

Earlier, the representative of the NSIP State Focal Person in Calabar, Barrister Sylvanus Iyang extolled the efforts of the Federal Government in training and equipping the Independent Monitors for better performance to achieve the desired objective of the NSIP Programme.

The Independent Monitors are to be assigned to a number of N-Power, National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) beneficiaries for information records.

The Programme is being implemented in the 36 states including the Federal Capital  Territory.

She added that each Independent Monitor would be given unique user ID and Password to gain access to the platform to enable them upload data to the ministry’s server.

Achieve results

Also speaking at the ceremony, the Cross River state focal person on NSIP and Commissioner for Humanity and Social Welfare, Mrs. Blessing Egbara said that the monitors commenced the training on February 19 this year.

She expressed the hope that the monitors would effectively utilize the tools provided to achieve the desired results, urging “we must all show commitment and passion for the job, knowing that it is meant to give lease of life to the handicapped and vulnerable members of the society.”

Some of the monitors thanked the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for initiating and designing the NSIP to benefit millions of Nigerians.

There were goodwill messages from the National Orientation Agency, the State Coordinators of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) and the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP). Pictures below:

 

 

Ime N