By Grace Onwukwe
Anambra State and other states have benefited from a capacity-building workshop on the Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT), organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Nigerian Government.
The two-day workshop, held at Lakeside by Pedestal Hotel, Owerri, from October 14 to 15, brought together key implementing partners (IPs) from Anambra, Delta, Imo and Kogi states, as well as civil society organisations (CSOs).
The UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Enugu, Juliet Chiluwe, represented by the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Maureen Zubie-Okolo, welcomed participants and disclosed that the workshop was the fifth and final cohort of the training, through which UNICEF had recently trained approximately 200 partners.
Chiluwe explained that UNICEF was strengthening the implementation of quarterly programme planning and fund disbursement to ensure full compliance with the HACT framework, noting that recent reviews had revealed gaps in existing practices.
She reaffirmed UNICEF’s commitment to its partnership with the Government of Nigeria and their shared responsibility to deliver sustainable results for children.
She also commended the implementing partners for their continued collaboration in ensuring that programme resources entrusted to UNICEF and its partners were managed with accountability, transparency and strict adherence to established policies and procedures.
According to her, HACT is UNICEF’s mandatory corporate framework for managing cash transfers and guides its engagement with implementing partners, including government institutions.
She stressed that consistent application of the framework was essential to strengthening accountability, transparency, risk management, financial assurance and sound financial stewardship.
Other facilitators, including UNICEF Implementing Partnership Monitoring Officer, Mrs Glory Ogbonna, and UNICEF Programme Associate, Dr Amaka Chude-Onwurah, urged participants to adhere strictly to UNICEF’s guidelines and requirements in the discharge of their duties to avoid compliance issues.
The training covered several areas, including an overview of the HACT framework, guidelines for writing quality proposals, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, ethics and integrity, and teamwork.
Grace Onwukwe is of the Ministry of Information and Value Reformation, Anambra State
