By Danjuma Attah, Gombe
The Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) training of third party assessment enumerators for the nineteen States in Northern Nigeria and the FCT has commenced in Gombe, the Gombe State capital.
The multimillion dollar World Bank supported project is being implemented across all the States in Northern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, aimed at improving climatic resilience, sustainable agriculture and livelihood support.
Interventions include, irrigation support, tree planting, erosion control, and community-based economic empowerment and speakers at the opening ceremony which was held at Matrix event centre, Gombe, said the assessment is to measure the project’s real impact, validate data provided by participating States and determine next phase of implementation, including possible additional financing.
Operations Officer, Joseph Abang, who represented the World Bank’s task team lead, said the assessment became necessary to independently verify claims of achievements under the programme.
According to Abang, participating States had reported progress, however, the independent evaluation would provide credible data that would be published for global reference.
He pointed out that the work of the enumerators will directly influence the outcome of the project assessment and future decisions on the initiative.
Speaking earlier, the Gombe State ACReSAL project coordinator, Dr Sani Adamu Jauro, expressed confidence that the assessment would further validate the State’s performance, noting that more than 900,000 people in Gombe State have benefited from the intervention.
According to him, major projects such as erosion control had transformed previously inaccessible communities thus, improving security, boosted school enrollment and increased economic activities.
He said Gombe State was seeking additional funds to address over 200 active erosion sites in the State and expand community revolving funds for more Local Government Areas.
He called on benefiting communities to cooperate with the enumerators by providing accurate information to support the independent evaluation.
In their various goodwill messages, the Gombe State Commissioner for Water, Environment and Forest Resources, Mohammed Saidu Fawu, as well as his counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives, Dr Barnabas Malle, both commended the training exercise, describing it as critical in aligning the project’s objective with the needs of the beneficiaries.
Saidu Fawu revealed that Gombe State had already received about $27.5 million under the project, reaching more than 930,000 beneficiaries and improving catchment management across about 64,000 hectares.
For Dr Malle, the third party assessment would ensure performance, guide future planning and strengthen transparency in implementation.
He pointed out that, “the third party assessment aims at measuring how well the objectives align with beneficiaries needs and state priorities. It will also provide an opportunity for reflection on the strategy guiding the project”.
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