The ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has urged the nation’s media to do more for national transparency and good governance by focusing on public finance management and accountability
The AAN Country Director, Ms. Ene Obi made the call Wednesday in Abuja during the opening ceremony of a capacity building on Public Finance Management and Accountability for Media Actors.
She said that the purpose of the workshop was to train media personnel on the trajectories of Public Finance Management (PFM) in other to enhance effective reporting on matters of Gender Responsive Public Service delivery and Public Finance accountability.
According to her, the capacity building is in line with AAN’s country strategy on promoting a transparent and accountable public finance management system that supports effective gender responsive public service delivery for citizens.
“The training will feature overview of Nigerian Fiscal Policies; Gender Responsive Public Service: ActionAid’s perspectives; budget, participatory budgeting and the budgetary process in Nigeria; concept of gender responsive budgeting and application tools and the role of citizens in the budget process.
She said that the media as the watchdog of the society must function effectively using communication to change and improve the socio-economic condition of the people, thus improving their quality of life.
“It is in line with these numerous strategic roles of the media that AAN has proposed this training to position the media to take our work to the next level. The Media plays a transforming role by bringing social change in a way that inspires people to aim for higher quality of life.
“It helps people to be aware about and develop a consensus upon important national and international development issues,” Obi said.
On his part, the Manager, Governance Programme AAN, Celestine Okwudili Odo, said the media actors will be taken through public finance management system in Nigeria for them to understand the different trajectories and know what each component stands for.
He said the training will also help drive accountability, breaking barriers and youth in leadership.
Odo said, “It will help the public drive issues of accountability, supporting government where necessary and economic literacy within the local communities and beyond on why they should pay tax.”
