Why We Organise A Three- day Training For Kaduna Coalition On Social Protection – Save The Children

Organisers of the ongoing three-day capacity building training (September 21-23) for members of Kaduna Social Protection Accountability Coalition (KADSPAC) on social protection has explained why they were doing so.

Save the Children is currently implementation of a Ukaid-funded programme called Child Development Grant Programme (CDGP) phase II while KADSPAC is a coalition of Civil Society organisations and media practitioners working on social protection accountability and improved intervention programmes for poor and vulnerable citizens in Kaduna State.

Declaring the training open on Monday, Coordinator, Social Protection and Inclusion, Save the Children International, Eunice Victor said, the need to equip the social protection coalition with the knowledge and understanding of key concepts with regards to social protection promoted her organisation to put the training together.

For example, the poverty alleviation programme was a social protection programme, but many don’t know it was social protection until a policy document was developed by both the federal and Kaduna State Governments.

To Eunice, the training would enable the participants to engage more effectively in the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of social protection accountability in Kaduna State.

According to her, while the National Policy on social protection captures Nigeria as a whole, it may not cover the peculiarity in Kaduna State, hence, the need to train the coalition members to enable them to be in the known of the social protection programmes suitable for the state where they engage.

She defined social protection as programmes and policies designed to protect individuals and households from shocks, stresses and risks and to reduce poverty and vulnerability of citizens arguing that, it is a right and not a privilege.

It is important to add that, Nigeria approved its own National Social Protection policy in 2017 while Kaduna state developed and approved its own in August 2020, all geared towards lifting citizens from poverty and vulnerability in line with Sustainable Development Goals.