The Lagos State Civil Society Participation for Development, LACSOP has demanded that the Lagos State Government publishes the amount spent on COVID-19 palliatives in the state.
The demand was made during a tweet conversation which featured the launch of an assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic Palliatives in Lagos State which was jointly produced by LACSOP, BudgIT Foundation and Socio-Economic Rights and Protection, SERAP with support from Agents for Citizen-driven Transformation (ACT) programme of the British Council.
In their demands, the groups noted that “the distribution of the COVID-19 Palliatives lacked proper co-ordination and many things went wrong at various distribution points.”
The group according to the assessment, revealed that “Politicians hijacked the packages at the local level; distributions were done outside available data and there were no objective criteria for identifying vulnerable persons.
“It was discovered that quality of food distributed and food portions were small; absence of a collaborative and inclusive coordinating body for the distributions and COVID-19 safety rules were flouted during distributions.
LACSOP, BudgIT and SERAP recommended that for better emergency responses, the Lagos State Government need to work in collaboration with key and relevant stakeholders.
They also recommend, “the use of verified data, inclusive planning and setting up a robust distribution channel would also help to improve the emergency response system of the Lagos State Government.
“Establish a Lagos Foodbank – and setting up modalities to guide contributors and donors in collaboration with civil society and the organised private sector.”
The full report of the assessment can be accessed via LACSOP’s website