ANCSDA hosts group on experience sharing visit

ANAMBRA State Community and Social Development Agency (ANCSDA) recently hosted two separate batches comprising the management and staff of State Employment and Expenditure For Results Community Driven Development Social Project Implementation Unit (SEEFOR CDDS PIU) Rivers State on a two-day experience sharing visit.

  According to the ANCSDA Communication Officer, Mr Nnamdi Onuzulike, SEEFOR CDDS PIU is an EU and World Bank funded project which commenced in Nigeria in 2014 with four pilot states, namely Rivers, Delta, Edo and Bayelsa States, aimed at tackling youth restiveness and pipeline vandalisation in Niger Delta region.

    The first batch of the visiting SEEFOR team was led by the Head of Operations, Mr Samuel Lorwen, while the 2nd batch of the team was led by the project director, Mr ThankGod Amaewhule, comprising various staff of Operations, Finance & Admin, and Monitoring & Evaluation Departments of the SEEFOR, Rivers State.

  In his welcome remarks, the General Manager, ANCSDA, Mr Chudi Mojekwu, thanked the team  for choosing the Anambra State Agency as their destination for peer learning and experience sharing “ assuring that the SA will do all it can to ensure that the aim of their visit is satisfactorily achieved.

  He thanked the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano for ensuring that ANCSDA became effective in the state, and the state agency’s board for their various supports.

  In their separate comments, both the SEEFOR Project Director and the Head of Operations stated that their mission to Anambra CSDA was to learn from the agency on strategies for speedy implementation of projects in poor communities successfully within a short period as was being experienced in Anambra State under CSDP-AF.

  The day one of the experience sharing visit involved presentations by GM, ANCSDA and also, Operations Manager, Mrs Uche Nwaizugbo, on various topics relating to CDD approach, the voluntary land documentation (VLD) process, strategies for accelerated implementation of projects in communities,

various project implementation challenges and their possible resolution steps, as well as the performance chart of ANCSDP-AF in the last one year in the state, while day two involved field visits and interactions by the visiting team members with the communities and/or Group Project Management Committees implementing the various approved projects in their communities,

 as well as other community members present to ascertain their level of participation and ownership of the projects being implemented by them as expected under CDD approach.

It also afforded the team the opportunity to constructively criticise (where need be) and also learn more from the good quality of micro projects being implemented in those communities under ANCSDP-AF.

  The SEEFOR CDDS PIU team, through their Project Director, Mr ThankGod Amaewhule, expressed their joy and great satisfaction at the various top quality projects being implemented speedily by the benefitting communities in the state, and the numerous accelerated implementation strategies they have learnt from their visit to the agency which will help them to improve on their project performances when they return to Rivers State.