TheCable

The federal government and the Oyo state government have partnered private firms and civil society organisations (CSOs) to conduct a survey on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The focus areas would be on education, water, sanitation, vocational skills and primary health care facilities in the state.

Sola Fagorusi, local partner at Onelife Initiative for Human Development one of the CSOs partaking in the survey, made this known in a statement on Wednesday.

According to Fagorusi, the survey will be carried out in Oyo state through the office of the senior special assistant to the president on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) headed by Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire.

Orbis Consulting Limited and the Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development were also listed as partners in the baseline inventory survey.

Speaking at the training session for the second batch of research assistants numbering 45, Temitope Fajana, special adviser to the Oyo state governor on SDGs , said the results obtained  would be used for development policies in the region.

He said research assistants for the project were chosen from the 33 local government areas (LGAs) in the state.

“The data obtained from the 15 local government areas in the second phase and from the first phase will be used in designing policies and projects and also in making community development decisions across Oyo state,” the statement quoted Fajana as saying.

“The focus of the baseline survey is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The inventory taken by the Research Assistants is to help the government in identifying deficiencies, plan, and take the needed steps when and where necessary.”

Also speaking, Tola Winjobi, national coordinator of the Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development in Nigeria, commended the “pacesetting role” of Oyo state in the baseline survey.

He further explained to the trainees how the Millennium Development Goals transformed into the SDGs.

Yakubu Gana, team lead at Orbis Consulting Nigeria Limited, explained to the research assistants, the workings of the MDGs/SDGs Conditional Grants Scheme and other Paris Club debt relief gains expenditure as a basis for further interventions.

Sharing insights on the data collection tool used for the survey, Fagorusi said there will be proper quality control measures out in place.

“We are going to be using the Open Data Kit for this field survey to ensure that field findings are accurate and the geo points are properly captured. The Quality Control Officers will be supervising your work as well,” he said.