YMCA-Climate Justice AACJ Nigeria he Young Men s Christian Association (YMCA) Mada Hills NGO and the Association of Small Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN) are two separate NGOs working in the area of Village Savings and Loans Associations supported by Oxfam in Nigeria, CommunityBased Agricultural Extension Services CBAES), mobilizing and facilitating support for Small Scale Farmer, promoting increase investment in Agriculture and Agro Processing in Nasarawa state. The two NGOs are in Collaboration with Oxfam in Nigeria on implementing Budget Monitoring especially as it affects agricultural sector which is the larges employer of labour which large number of people are employed. Weworks to help the ministry of agriculture and local governments agricultural departments straightenpolicies and improve service delivery to enable the citizens participate in democracy. The aim is to introduce policy reforms, restructuring public institutions to enable them improve the of service delivery. This effort is geared towards supporting the laudable programmes and activities of the state government towards reforming and transforming the state into a giant for the benefit of the government and her citizens. Wehave been working in the area of social audit, budget tracking, advocacy, trainings,media engagement and capacity development around Community Development Plan CDP in the last six months to help connect citizens to the government towards better service delivery. It is on this premise that we would like to use the reaming part of the yeartoconsolidate and build on what we already started. We will therefore intensify our efforts to sensitize the

citizens, civil society organizations, traditional leaders on the importance of OGP, CDP Concepts, and More media engagements until we are heard.Other activities we shall be engaging will include, campaigns, rallies, town hall meetings, advocacy etc to see that government institutions are strengthened for good governance and improved services in Nasarawa state.
Statement of the problem
Oneofthebasic needs of every human being is food, therefore; whenever a state or people fail to solve their own food problems; the destination of such people remains doubtful.  Nasarawa state and Nigeria at large has not been able to adequately solve herownfoodandagricultural problems. There exist conditions of food shortage, malnutrition, hunger and infectious diseases outbreaks because of challenges facing food system in the state and Nigeria at large. This is in addition topoor service delivery, abandonedprojects, lack of information dissemination, weak democratic system, near lack of transparency and accountability etc has caused a lot of disconnection between government and the governed. All these and many other factors put together are the reasons forourintervention to see how we can connect communities, citizens to duty bearers, policy makers and implementers to make them responsible and accountable to her citizens.
In Nasarawa state for instance, 80% of the inhabitants are agrarian population andthe implication of this is that the economy of the state greatly depends on this rural populace, yet they are not equipped to adequately support themselves and families nor the entire society.  YMCA/ASSAPIN are ready to lead the process through advocacy,campaigns, rallies, media engagement etc to ensure that the voices of the comers are heard and respected.A popular German axiom says “The eyes believe themselves; the ears believe other people” supports the view that seeing is believing, indicating thatthe additional sense activated through sight increases the chances of understanding
What we have done so far
In the first phase of the project, we have been able to achieve the following. Building on that will ensure sustainability
  Sensitization, capacity development, media engagement and mobilization of communities, Budget monitoring groups and stakeholders on budget and budget processes, social audit in three Local Government Areas of Nasarawa state. Now we have seen a need to extend to atleast two additionallocal governments.

We have been able to successfully mobilize and expose CSO/NGOs in the state, State Government Executives for participation on Open Governance Partnership capacity development supported by Oxfam and Centre-LSD in Abuja, preparingtheState Government towards signing into OGP. We feel it is expedient to consolidate on what we already started to make it a reality
  YMCA/ASSAPIN alone cannot achievethis that is why we want to facilitate the process of working together withother Civil Society Organizations and the government to be able to achieve greater impact where citizens can participate in democratic process.

Justification for continuation
With what YMCA/ASSAPIN has been able to achieve in the last few months especially bringingtogether over forty civil society organizations and NGOs in the state, coordinated and facilitated the coming together of state government executives, legislative and other MDAs to have a round table talk on possibility of stategovernment joining Open Government Partnership OGP, facilitated the formation of state OGPInterim /Open Alliance Steering committees for a better development advocacy voice, we feel the best option for us is to continue from where we started because to stoponthe way will not bebeneficial to the state, civil society organizations and citizens than to abandon the good process and pathway already created. So we intend to build and continue what we started with larger advocacy voice, more media engagements, andsensitization and town Hall meetings. If we cry alone people will think we are mad; but where many are crying together, others will believe something is wrong and they will stop and listen. INSTEAD OF CRY YOUR CRY; WE WANT TO MOBILIZE OTHERS TO CRY TOGETHER AS AWEAPON TOATTRACTATTENTION of the government towards improving structures, institutions, policies for improved service delivery in Nasarawa state

Objective
To improve citizens knowledge on Agriculture budget monitoring and tracking concept, government budget trackingsystems and institutions, reports and information that can be sourced from government and other sources as well as to track expenditure against budgetary allocation for good governance in the State.

Goal
Improved Servicedelivery forallcitizens
Strategies
• Mobilization and Capacity Building of CSOs in the state on CDP and  OGP Concepts  to help them mainstream it as part of their advocacy work