Communiques Archives - Centre for Social Justice

STATE FGD AND RESEARCH INSTITUTES REPORT

Center for Social Justice — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 13:29:10 +0000

STATE FGD AND RESEARCH INSTITUTES REPORT

STATE FGD AND RESEARCH INSTITUTES REPORT (237 downloads )

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COMMUNIQUE FROM THE CIVIL SOCIETY SUMMIT ON THE 2024 FEDERAL HEALTH BUDGET

Center for Social Justice — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 13:46:45 +0000

The Right To Health Cluster of civil society organizations anchored by the Centre for Social Justice held a civil society summit on the implementation of the 2024 health budget on the 13^th of February 2024 at De Silver Green Luxury Hotel, Abuja. Participation was drawn from the Centre for Social Justice, cluster members across the 7 focal states of the project, key government agencies and the media. The Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Barr Eze Onyekpere welcomed everyone to the summit and gave the rationale for the summit. He noted that the dwindling resources of government is a reason why stakeholders must demand for transparency and accountability in the implementation of the health budget. He noted that while the advocacy for more money to health will be continued, stakeholders must also demand that more healthcare be delivered from the available resources. He noted that strategies must de deployed to increase the absorptive capacities of the health MDAs and put an end to the incidence of high unspent funds despite declining health indicators.

At the end of the summit, the following recommendations were made:

The immediate funding and take-off of the Vulnerable Group Fund should be done. A huge percentage of Nigerians are poor and vulnerable and cannot be left out of health insurance coverage. The NHIA should liase with other MDAs of the federal government to achieve this.
A definite and clear roadmap for actualizing the compulsory health insurance should be developed and implemented. The compulsory nature of health insurance should not only be in the books, but should also be put into practice.
Increased advocacy and awareness creation on health insurance should be done.
The NHIA should strengthen monitoring and evaluation activities as it concerns health insurance service delivery to enrollees/beneficiaries at the health facilities.
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, traditional and religious leaders should be further engaged to promote & support sensitization programmes and activities on health insurance at the sub-national Level.
The Federal Ministry of Health should deploy adequate steps to ensure that it fully utilizes the funds released to it for the delivery of healthcare services in Nigeria. The practice of returning huge unspent funds does not speak well of the ministry, hence this practice must not repeat itself in the utilization of the 2024 health budget. Procurement and other policy reforms that would fast track procurement processes should be done. This will increase the absorptive capacity for funds utilization and enhance efficiency and service delivery.
The allocation of only 4.64% of the total budget size to the federal ministry of health falls short of the 15% target of the Abuja Declaration. Civil society organizations should support the federal ministry of health to advocate for an increase in the share of the budget dedicate to healthcare.
The ministry of health and all her departments and agencies should increase the level of transparency and accountability through enhanced oversight supervision of her projects.
The Ministerial Oversight Committee of the BHCPF should devise technological methods (electronic fund tracking mechanisms) to enhance transparency and accountability of the disbursed funds.
Well-meaning individuals and corporate organizations should be encouraged to contribute to the BHCPF to achieve its objectives and goals.

COMMUNIQUE FROM THE CIVIL SOCIETY SUMMIT ON THE 2024 FEDERAL HEALTH BUDGET (278 downloads )

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COMMUNIQUE FROM THE ROUNDTABLE ON EXPLORING THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK OF NIGERIA

Center for Social Justice — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 11:38:04 +0000

As of June 2023, Nigeria’s foreign debts stood at $43.2 billion, with domestic debt reaching N54.1 trillion, resulting in a total public debt of N113.4 trillion. Despite the eco-nomic strain, the federal government contemplates further substantial borrowing from the World Bank, raising concerns about the country’s overreliance on external funds for public spending.
In light of the current macroeconomic challenges facing Nigeria, manifesting as high unemployment, rising debt, inflation, and a devalued Naira, ActionAid Nigeria in part-nership with key stakeholders-Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Abuja Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (ACCT}, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), convened a Technical Roundtable on the theme on Tuesday, 28th November 2023 at the Rockview Royale Hotel. The event brought together diverse participants, including SMEs, women groups like Small-Scale Women Farmers Association of Nigeria (SWOFON), Persons with Dis-abilities (PWDs), Media executives, government MDAs, Civil Society Organizations among others to address these critical issues and the perspectives. With a commit-ment to poverty eradication through resource redistribution and resilience, ActionAid Nigeria operates in solidarity with those living in poverty, striving for social justice, gender equality, and a sustainable world.
The objective of the roundtable was to collaboratively assess the nation’s current eco-nomic landscape, foster exploration of strategic solutions for sustainable economic de-velopment, and leverage the outcome for further engagement with governments at all levels (National, State, LGAs).
Highlight of the event were welcome remarks by leads/ representatives of the collabo-rating organisations- ActionAid Nigeria, Center for Social Justice (CSJ); Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, (SMEDAN); Manufacturers Associ-ation of Nigeria (MAN),and Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI); a techni-cal session/ presentation on the State of the Economy in the context of the Medi-um-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF 2024-2026), and discussion on the subject.

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COMMUNIQUE FROM THE ROUNDTABLE ON EXPLORING THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK OF NIGERIA (478 downloads )

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COMMUNIQUE FROM ROUNDTABLE ON ECONOMIC AGENDA SETTING FOR PRESIDENT B.A.T’s ADMINISTRATION

Center for Social Justice — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 10:22:19 +0000

On the 25th day of July 2023, Action Aid Nigeria (AAN) in partnership with Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) held a one-day Technical Roundtable on Economic Agenda Setting for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration with the theme: ‘Economic Blueprint for the Tinubu Administration’. The roundtable which took place at the Rockview Hotel Royale, Wuse II Abuja brought together participants from various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the private sector and Civil Society.
The objectives of the Technical Roundtable among others were, to provide opportunity for a robust and total national dialogue among the government, civil society, and the private sector on economic priorities and strategies for the new administration; to explore internal opportunities for expanding Nigeria’s fiscal spaces for sustainable development financing; and to provide the needed information that will enable CSOs, the private sector and the wider citizenry to effectively engage with the 2023 FGN Appropriation Act on funding, implementation, and service delivery. The roundtable featured presentations on the Economic Blueprint for the Tinubu Administration and the Summary Analysis Report of the 2023 FGN Appropriation Act which highlighted key issues that formed the basis for in-depth discussion among the participants and key stakeholders from within and outside government.

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COMMUNIQUE FROM ROUNDTABLE ON ECONOMIC AGENDA SETTING FOR PRESIDENT B.A.T's ADMINISTRATION (542 downloads )

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SCALE REVIEW MEETING CONCLUDING STATEMENT

Center for Social Justice — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 17:53:06 +0000

The Annual Review Workshop of the Right to Health Cluster was convened by Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) with the support of the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) programme of USAID. Participation was drawn from federal and state level demand and supply side stakeholders vis, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Health, Budget Office of the Federation, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Commissioners of the Ministries of Health from Adamawa, Bauchi, Ekiti, Imo, Nasarawa, Rivers and Sokoto states. Others were the chief executive officers and representatives of the Health Insurance/Contributory Health Management Agencies of Adamawa, Bauchi, Ekiti, Imo, Nasarawa, Rivers and Sokoto states as well as Pro Health HMO, representing Health Maintenance Organisations and the Private Sector. The Cluster members in attendance were Centre for Peoples Health, Peace and Progress; Women and Youth Empowerment for Advancement and Health Initiative; Centre for Citizens Rights; People Rights Organization; Clarmar Development Foundation; New Initiative for Social Development; and Journalists for Public Health and Development from Sokoto, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Imo, Rivers, Ekiti and Bauchi States respectively (“the focal states”). The media was represented by key print and electronic media institutions. The Annual Review was convened to review the outgone year’s activities, draw lessons on what worked, what did not work and the underlying reasons for year 1 results as well as plan for the incoming year. It focused on a review of the critical deliverables to be achieved to make the project a success. These deliverables include activation of the compulsory and universal health insurance regime leading to increased uptake of health insurance; new and alternative funding mechanisms for health; improved budgetary outlays for health (more public money for health); enhanced value for money (improved health services delivered from existing resources); and increased awareness of rights and duties of respective stakeholders
in the health sector leading to improvements in holding duty bearers to account. This is expected to result in improvements in health indicators in primary health care, maternal new born and child health, etc.