CSJ Strengthens Capacity Of Smallholder Women Farmers In Nasarawa State For Monitoring Of Budgets And Services

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has trained core teams of smallholder women farmers in Nasarawa State on how to monitor agricultural budgets and services.

The training entailed an understanding and engagement of the budget process through planning, implementation and audit. After engaging with the training series participants had strengthened skills to understand budget monitoring and expenditure tracking concepts and applications and track agriculture sector budget processes and identify how to engage with or influence future budget planning.

They also developed and analyzed performance-based budgets and how to influence resource allocation to agriculture using financial evidence and advocacy messaging.

Training modules were produced based on identified capacity profiles of the smallholder women farmers. The women farmers were taught the role of plans and policies as the basis for designing annual budgets. They were taught all the stages of the budget cycle as well as stakeholders at each stage and strategies for engagement at each stage.

The goals and objectives of each stage of the budget cycle was also established. CSJ designed a template for monitoring of budgets and services, and explained the template to the women farmers in great detail. The women understood the template and gained mastery of how to deploy the template for monitoring of budget and services. They were also taught how to deploy the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to collect information from government agencies.

CSJ is providing technical support to the Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON) to strengthen the campaign for improved access to agriculture equipment and inputs for these women farmers with funding support from the International Budget Partnership.

The project is designed to advocate for the implementation of favorable agriculture policies and budgets that meet the needs of small holder farmers and to influence government national budget priorities to the agricultural sector.