‘Food and Financing, Important to Address Imbalance’

To solve the perennial crisis of social and financial inequalities in the country, Oxfam, an international non-governmental organisation, in collaboration with BudgIt Information Technology Network Lagos, has established the need for food and financing to bridge the gap. This was stated at a forum in Lagos with the theme; ‘’Even it up: Tackling inequality in Nigeria through analysis and advocacy.’’ Major highlights of the event were; Right to Food(R2F) and Financing for Development (F4D).

According to the nongovernmental organisation, the forum, which was attended by relevant stakeholders, was initiated in its enduring commitment to creating a world without poverty where people are capable of building a livelihood.

Oxfam, which launched and implemented the strategic partnership programme in 25 countries in 2015, has three basic theories for change: Right to food, conflict and fragility and financing for development.

According to Coordinator of private & public sector transparency & accountability coordinator ( Oxfam ), Mr. Celestine Okwudili Odo, “The organisation has five pathways to change: improved policies of government on tax and budget, improved policies of private sector on tax, wages and corporate social responsibility, increased citizen’s voice, stronger and wider alliances across the country.

According to him, Oxfam’s strategy includes “research, lobby and advocacy, citizens mobilisation and enlightenment, networking and alliance building, capacity building for the civil society and the government.

“Other local partners include; Action Aid Abuja, Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group ( NDBUMOG), BudgIT Information Technology Network Lagos, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre ( CISLAC ), KEBETKACHE Women Development and Resources Centre, HEDA Lagos, Farm and Infrastructure Foundation ( FIF ) and Nigeria Association of Nigeria Traders ( NANTS ).”

According to Celestine, Data collection and Analysis are important to generating contents for advocacy and implementation.

Explaining the concept of the Right to Food (R2F) Bill, Mrs. Abiola Bayode from Farm and Infrastructure Foundation (FIF) said, “It is a human right bill which protects people from hunger.”

She further said, “The challenge is that the government sees food as a need and not a human right. We want to see that the right to food is explicitly stated in chapter four (4) of the Nigerian constitution; this will make the government more accountable on food security in Nigeria.

“It is therefore not about distributing food free of charge to all Nigerians, but a necessity to protect the vulnerable people by creating an enabling environment.”

In addressing some of the challenges encountered in the implementation of the programmes, Mrs. Emem Okon said, “it has been noticed that community needs most often do not get included in the state and federal government budgets. “Therefore, we are training members of communities on how to conduct needs assessment. We also train government agencies, parastatals and ministries on community needs assessment to ensure that the extant or future budgets include the needs of the people.”