The Niger State Agency for Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) has begun a one day training for desk officers of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on Vulnerable Group Investment (VGI) to assist the less privileged in rural communities.

Alhaji Yusuf Usman, General Manager of the state CSDP, said in Minna on Thursday that the training would refresh participants and keep them abreast of the new components of CSDA intervention on social infrastructure.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CSDP is one of the development projects in the country’s World Bank portfolio using the Community Driven Development (CDD) approach.

It is leveraging on the experiences gained from two previous projects; the Local Empowerment and Environmental Management Project (LEEMP) and the Community Based Poverty Reduction Projects (CPRP).

CDD strategy is a ‘bottom-top’ approach to development seeking to increase beneficiaries’ participation in project delivery.

Usman explained that the VGI which included gender and vulnerable component intervention was one of the new components of the CSDP Additional Financing II, introduced to assist the less privileged in rural communities.

He said that the intervention was to assist widows, orphans and people with disabilities to access basic social amenities such as health care, education and access to water supply.

“For them to access these social amenities, they are expected to group themselves, register with their respective local government and write to the agency to intervene.

“The agency intervention is through the provision of drugs, schools, clinics and water as well as help alleviate poverty among the poor in rural communities,” he said.

Usman noted that the training was to build capacity of the desk officers in the various MDAs to enable them contribute effectively to achieve the set objectives.

He added that the agency was working towards providing intervention for over one thousand request received from various communities.

Also, Malam Usman Dallawu, Permanent Secretary, Planning Commission, called on the participants to pay attention to the training to learn the new component so as to implement the projects effectively. (NAN)

-Sep 26, 2019 @ 15:49 GMT |