By Danjuma Àttah, Gombe
The Gombe State Government in conjunction with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has commenced a five day training of its MDA officials as well as some stakeholders on ensuring strategic human development carries everyone in the State along.
Officials from sectors such as education, child protection, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), social protection, civil society organisations (CSO’s) among others, were brought together for the training intended to ensure Government’s strategic development policies positively affects the people of Gombe State.. 
The State is already in the process of implementing a ten year development plan known as DEVAGOM 2021-2030 which aims to address socioeconomic and developmental issues confronting the State.
Alhaji Salihu Baba Alkali, the State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, while declaring the training open, said the Medium Term Sector Strategy (MTSS) 2026-2028, provides the necessary link between the State’s ten year development plan (DEVAGOM) and its budget process in order to have a robust tracking of the plan.
He explained that the preparation of the MTSS is a product of a committed administration that has ensured the use of the ten year development plan to guide it’s budget and planning process in order to deepen ownership and sustainability.
According to Baba Alkali, Gombe State has adopted a new approach to its 2026 budgeting process. He said it is a programme based budget. A budgeting tool where all budgeting information is organised around the State’s programmes and services.
“The budget will show the cost of the programmes and revenues it will generate as well as the way to evaluate its effectiveness and output through programme metrics.
“Organising the information this way rather than the department and division levels, provides a clearer picture of how much money is spent on each programme, the service that the programme has delivered to the citizens, as well as how well the programme is performing”, he stressed, hoping that it will add value to good governance in the State.
UNICEF’s Social Policy Specialist from Bauchi field office, Yusuf Auta, described the training as very important because the MTSS serves as a bridge between the State’s ten year development plan and the annual budgets.
Mr Auta stated that the “programmes, projects and interventions are clearly spelt out in the MTSS so that in our annual budgets, we can be able to draw those interventions and provide funding for them.
“It is very important we are doing this. In the last few years, UNICEF supported Gombe State to develop their social protection policy which needs to be implemented. For us to implement that policy, it is very important to have quite a number of interventions here in the MTSS which will be translated in the annual budget”, Auta noted.
He commended the Inuwa Yahaya led Government in the State for doing it’s best in budget implementation despite the scarce resources available.
He called on the participants to dedicate their time, energy and bring their expertise to bare in developing the strategy document, adding, “this document will lead us to having a programme based budget from Gombe State, ensuring that programmes are implemented over time.
“What we are starting with the MTSS will ensure that development comes at a pace that everybody, at the end of the day, will be better of, particularly children and women whom we’re more concerned with”, Mr Auta emphasized.
End.
