By Joan Nwagwu
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and development partners have urged the Sokoto State House of Assembly to prioritise social protection funding through effective budget scrutiny and legislative oversight.
Dr Vanessa Phala, ILO Country Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, made the call at a two-day Legislative Capacity Building organised for lawmakers in Abuja.
The workshop was organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), ILO and ActionAid Nigeria, with funding support from the European Union.
The aim is to strengthen legislative capacity and promote inclusive social protection.
Phala said that lawmakers had critical responsibilities in ensuring adequate budgetary allocations, effective implementation and accountability in social protection programmes.
“Through effective budget scrutiny, legislative oversight and policy support, the House can actually ensure that social protection priorities are adequately funded.
“That is the core and main contributor of expanding and extending social protection, to be able to identify within our state budgets lines that will be dedicated to different social protection interventions.
“We remain committed to working with all our partners in advancing decent work, in advancing social justice, as well as universal social protection for all,” Phala said.
She said that ILO, in collaboration with UNICEF and ActionAid, was supporting efforts to strengthen social protection systems and institutional capacity across Sokoto State.
According to her, the organisation had trained stakeholders across the state’s 23 local government areas through its TRANSFORM capacity-building module, focusing on designing, implementing and monitoring social protection interventions.
Phala said that ILO also collaborated with the Sokoto State Contributory Health Management Agency (SOCHEMA) to enrol informal-sector workers in health insurance schemes.
She explained that the initiative was designed to expand healthcare access and enable workers to obtain medical attention without losing their livelihoods.
The ILO director said that the organisation was also working with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to generate data identifying social protection coverage gaps and vulnerable populations requiring targeted interventions.
She added that ILO was supporting the review of the state’s Social Protection Policy, alongside efforts to strengthen information management systems and improve coordination between federal and state databases.
Phala said that the organisation was equally facilitating social dialogue to extend social protection coverage to informal-sector workers, who remained largely excluded from existing schemes.
Also speaking, Mr Suwaiba Dankabo, Deputy Country Director and Director of Programmes, ActionAid Nigeria, said Sokoto recorded the country’s highest multidimensional poverty rate of 91 per cent, according to the 2022 NBS report.
Dankabo said that poverty, insecurity, displacement and disrupted economic activities required stronger legislative accountability and targeted public investments.
He urged lawmakers to ensure that women, young people, persons with disabilities and internally displaced persons were adequately captured in government policies and budgetary allocations.
“Every budget line presents an opportunity to improve lives, reduce poverty, strengthen resilience and deepen citizens’ trust in democratic institutions,” he said.
On his part, the UNICEF Chief of Social Policy, Dr Moses Sichei, urged the assembly to strengthen the legal and financial framework for social protection.
That, he said, was particularly to address child poverty and protect vulnerable populations.
Sichei commended lawmakers for identifying the workshop’s training priorities, describing the approach as evidence of legislative ownership and commitment to constitutional responsibilities.
“Behind each of these figures is a child who is out of school, malnourished and whose future depends on decisions taken in Sokoto State,” he said.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Mr Tukur Bodinga, said the legislature had a strategic responsibility to ensure that public resources were properly appropriated and transparently utilised.
Bodinga urged lawmakers and legislative staff to adopt digital tools for monitoring budget implementation, strengthening accountability and tracking government projects.
He stressed the need for adequate funding, effective coordination and sustained monitoring to ensure that vulnerable residents benefited from social protection programmes.
The speaker urged lawmakers to strengthen collaboration with development partners and relevant government agencies to improve service delivery and promote inclusive development. (NAN)
