Kaduna OGP Week: Group Highlights Improved Government-CSO Collaboration in Health, Education Sectors
By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna
Stakeholders in Kaduna State have highlighted how the Open Government Partnership (OGP) has transformed the relationship between government and civil society from confrontation to collaboration, leading to improved service delivery in the health and education sectors.
This formed the focus of a virtual meeting organized by the Technical Working Group (TWG) on Improving Service Delivery in the Health and Education Sectors during the 2026 OGP Week celebration held on May 19.
The meeting, themed “A Shared Journey: Improving Service Delivery in the Health and Education Sectors of Kaduna through the Open Government Partnership,” brought together government officials, civil society actors, development partners, media practitioners, religious and traditional leaders, and private sector representatives to review Kaduna State’s OGP journey and achievements since joining the initiative in 2018.
The 2026 OGP Week, celebrated globally from May 18 to May 22, marked 15 years of the global open governance movement.
Speaking during the meeting, Mallam Mubarak Abdulganiyi, SAP III OGP Civil Society Co-chair, said Kaduna State has continued to deepen transparency, accountability, and citizen participation through several innovative mechanisms under the OGP framework.
According to him, the state has institutionalized platforms such as participatory budgeting, open forums, stakeholder dialogues, citizens’ feedback portals, open procurement systems, and accountability mechanisms across critical sectors.
He also disclosed that Kaduna South Local Government Area has successfully joined the OGP initiative, while plans are ongoing to onboard the remaining 22 LGAs in the state.
The OGP Point of Contact and Cost Manager, Tara Jeremiah, traced Kaduna’s journey from State Action Plan (SAP) I to SAP III, describing the state as one of the pioneer subnational governments in Nigeria to join the OGP in 2018.
Jeremiah noted that the partnership has strengthened open budgeting, fiscal transparency, citizen engagement, social accountability, and service delivery in the health, education, and social protection sectors.
He said constructive engagement between the government and civil society had produced reforms and policies that continue to improve governance outcomes in Kaduna State.
Participants at the meeting reflected on how the relationship between civil society organizations and government institutions evolved after Kaduna joined the OGP.
Before the initiative, speakers noted that distrust, secrecy, and weak access to public information dominated engagements between both parties, with civil society groups largely operating as external watchdogs through confrontational advocacy.
However, the meeting observed that the OGP framework created institutional spaces for collaboration, enabling government officials and civil society actors to jointly review reforms, budgets, procurement processes, and service delivery initiatives.
Stakeholders said this shift encouraged mutual trust, co-creation of policies, and stronger citizen participation in governance processes.
The meeting also highlighted key achievements recorded through accountability mechanisms such as the Kaduna Maternal Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM) and the Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM).
According to the report presented during the meeting, KADMAM contributed significantly to improving transparency in health financing and budget monitoring, while sustained advocacy helped increase Kaduna State’s health budget allocation from 9 per cent in 2014 to 15 per cent in 2016.
The coalition was also credited with supporting the recruitment of about 1,800 skilled health workers and the upgrade of 255 Primary Health Care facilities across the state.
Similarly, KADBEAM was recognized for conducting independent school monitoring across several local government areas, generating school performance scorecards, and strengthening community participation in education governance.
Stakeholders further commended Kaduna State for regular publication of citizen-friendly budgets, quarterly budget performance reports, procurement data, and Bills of Quantities, which they said has improved fiscal transparency and enabled citizens to track government spending.
The meeting identified several lessons from Kaduna’s OGP journey, including the importance of strong political will, institutionalized citizen participation, digital governance tools, and sustained collaboration between government and civil society.
Participants, however, acknowledged existing challenges such as low public awareness of OGP principles, weak institutional capacity in some MDAs, funding constraints for civil society activities, and inconsistent political commitment across levels of government.
To address these gaps, stakeholders recommended stronger coordination among MDAs, increased public sensitization, improved media engagement, enhanced digital communication by government institutions, and sustained evidence-based advocacy by civil society groups.
They also called for deeper transparency in participatory budgeting, open contracting, and community monitoring systems to further strengthen accountability and improve service delivery outcomes across Kaduna State.
