The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Nigeria, an health-based NGO, has called on Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to explore other sources of funding to sustain their activities outside donors support or grants.
Dr Victor Igharo, the Director of TCI stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
Igharo spoke at the end of a 5-Day training workshop on “Resource Mobilisation and Proposal Writing” organised for CBOs, under the Family Planning (FP) and Adolescents and Youths (AY) programme.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the TCI is a three- year urban reproductive health programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Participants at the workshop were drawn from Kano, Bauchi, Ogun, Niger, Edo, and Delta states.
The participants were representatives of Faith Based Organisation (FBO), Advocacy Core Group (ACG), Social Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) and the Media Forum for FP and AY programmes.
The TCI boss, said the training would be taken in phases due to the COVID-19 protocols, adding that with the conclusion of the first phase, the second phase would come up in two weeks.
He noted that the training remained an invaluable resource that any organisation would need to remain afloat.
Igharo urged the participants to make effective use of the training, by thinking outside the box to mobilise additional funds to sustain their various activities and programme in the country.
He said the training was to enable the CBOs build the skills to attract additional resources, either through proposal writing to new donors or employ other ways of increasing their financial flow without solely depending on supports or grants.
“In Nigeria, for about five years, we have implemented and supported states to build platforms, structures and even worked with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and independent platforms and pressure groups.
“One of the challenges that we have in the platform, is that facilitators are not able to sustain the activities without the support of the originators of the programme.
“So, we felt that to equip members of these platforms with skills that will help them thrive or survive with or without our funding, they need resource mobilisation skills.
“That is the reason we have put this training together,” Igharo said.
He said that every project has a life cycle, adding that the idea behind the training was to erase the challenge of sustainability of programmes in the country.
According to Igharo, TCI is a platform with several projects on it.
“We do not know what the future looks like, but we are optimistic that even newer projects and interventions will spring up.
“Every project has a time frame, and we are currently implementing FP and AY projects and by the original design, the first phase of these projects are supposed to round up in September this year.
“But we are already making plans for the second phase of the projects and we have confidence that some states we have partnership with, will follow us through to the second phase.
“The kind of mechanism we run is that there is a certain period of exposure that our partner states should have with TCI and then, they should be able to run the things they have learnt during the period of exposure.
“So, we are currently in the stage of graduating our first states, graduate our older states, and bring new ones on board.
“We are currently operating in 13 states in Nigeria for our combine projects and we have two states lined up to also join us,“ she said.
Igharo urged the participants not to allow the training to waste, adding that “we have equipped you with tools and information that can actually help you way beyond just project engagement.
Also in an interview, Mr Nasiru Gwarzo, representing SBCC in Kano, and Mr Yakubu Abubakar, of Interfaith, from Bauchi, lauded the TCI for the training.
They said that the skills acquired would support their understanding and enable them approach family planning issues for increased impact.(NAN)
