The Commissioner, Mrs Deborah Okah, providing assurances of high-level political commitment to the CCD process during her opening remarks at the training		Participants in a group work during the training

The Ebonyi State Government has adopted the Community Charter of Demand (CCD) initiative as an approach for opening up the State’s budget process and making it participatory and inclusive. With this, citizens in Ebonyi State can now prepare and submit to government community charters of demand which specify the service delivery needs that are most important to them. Relevant government ministries, departments and agencies will cost these needs and include them in their annual budget estimates for implementation.

This is the latest result of PERL’s intervention to facilitate the replication of effective governance practices in South East Nigeria, through learning, evidence and partnership building. Through these efforts, Ebonyi State has now become the fourth State in South East Nigeria to adopt the CCD initiative based on lessons and evidence from Anambra, Abia and Imo States. 

To ensure that the CCD initiative is implemented effectively in Ebonyi State, PERL commissioned a consultant to train Mrs Jane Ajah, Senior Planning Officer, Ministry of Budget, Planning, Research and Monitoring, Ebonyi State, and 50 of her colleagues responsible for planning and budgeting, on the modalities and processes for implementing the initiative. During the training, which took place on 12 – 13 November 2019 in Abakaliki, adult learning methodologies – including role plays, demonstrations, plenary discussions and syndicate group sessions – were used to walk participants through a Presentation on CCD Process and a CCD Collation Template. The presentation which has been regularly updated with lessons from previous support to other states, was contextualized to reflect the realities in Ebonyi State particularly the interface with local governments. 

Reflecting on his experiences from the training, another participant, Mr. Michael Agha, a Senior Planning Officer in the Ministry of Health said:

Prior to the training, PERL had met with the Commissioner and key officers of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Budget, Planning, Research and Monitoring to explain the CCD initiative and to emphasize the need for political buy-in and leadership if the process is to succeed. 

The CCD initiative is not entirely new in Ebonyi State.  In 2017, the Voice to the People (V2P) Programme conducted pilot CCD exercises in six communities, supporting them to develop charters of demand. The exercise however had very limited impact because government had not adopted the initiative and so there were no government-side processes or mechanisms to process the charters into the state’s budget. 

Now that the initiative - along with the necessary processes - has been formally adopted by the State, it is expected that public resources will be more effectively and efficiently utilized to provide much needed public services which respond directly to the needs of citizens in Ebonyi State.