Q.5 PROGRESS REPORT

CLERD continued the implementation of activities under the P-BUT project during this quarter. Two major activities were carried out: the first evaluation workshop continued and the second Training Workshop on budget process started. The first evaluation workshop which was carried out in two other states evaluated the findings from the monitoring visits in Kano and Ogun States, draw conclusion on the budget implementation and undertake advocacy visit to the policy makers on the outcome of the monitoring visits to project locations in the targeted sectors in these states – 84 budget monitors were trained, and 28 CSO undertook a total of 7 advocacy visits to policy makers across the two states. The second Training workshop on budget process which was carried out in the three of the six project states, improved the capacity 150 CSOs across the three states, thereby plugging the capacity gaps noted after the first training on budget process and the subsequent monitoring exercise. Following the evaluation and analysis of the 2018 budget in Kano and Ogun States, advocacy visits were carried out to 7 policy makers spreading across the focal sectors of the economy including Education, Health, Women Affairs, Works, Housing, Agriculture and Rural Development, Science and Technology. Many of the trained participants acknowledged that the evaluation workshop and second training Improved their lobbying and advocacy skills as it enabled them to use evidence generated from the monitoring and evaluation of capital projects location to inform advocacy messages to policy makers/elected representatives.