By Patrick Obia
Non-Governmental Organization ActionAid Nigeria, in partnership with Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI), has ended its one-day stakeholders meeting on ways to alleviate poverty in local communities.
The event was held at the conference room of the State Ministry of Justice, Calabar where the Partnership and Local Rights Program Manager, ActionAid Abuja, Nigeria Mr. Kehinde Arowosegbe, said the main objective of the ActionAid Local Rights Program is to improve the socio-economic status of poor women, men, and children in local rights program states.
Kehinde speaking on ‘ Introduction to ActionAid and The Local Rights Program; Program Expectations from MDA’s, CSOs, Media and other stakeholders; Commitments and Next Steps’, said: “ActionAid Nigeria is an anti-poverty organization that works with poor people. We know the rights of community people are being infringed upon; we open their eyes to their rights that have been violated, some are violated unconsciously either by individuals or the government. For instance, they have the right to boreholes you see in cities.
“In ActionAid Nigeria, we build community resilience to address issues of poverty or any developmental issues within them; so we partner with States, agencies, ministries, and government at all levels to be able to address community needs, having identified their needs, and then link them up with the government to address them.”
He enjoined stakeholders to support the program that will last in the State between 7-10 years working with communities.
“We hope to work, engage them, and be able to address these needs with these stakeholders; hope that a lot of bottlenecks will be reduced. Stakeholders should be proactive to the needs of communities,” he told CrossRiverWatch.
Earlier, the Principal Counsel of BRCI, Barrister James Ibor represented briefly by the Head of Programs, Mrs. Joy Adebayo, said the baseline stakeholder engagement is to let people, especially those in the rural areas know their rights and the right thing done by the government.
In a vote of thanks, James Ibor Esq. thanked stakeholders who will make the project a success. He also lauded the efforts of ActionAid for partnering with BRCI.
Stakeholders were drawn from MDAs, health, media, security, and CSOs.
The highlight of the event was a question and answer session and group photograph.
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