The Benue State Bureau for International Cooperation and Development (BICD) has declared that the sustainability of development interventions in the state must begin at programme design, rather than after donor funding dries up.
Mr Leo-Angelo Viashima, Director-General of BICD, said the bureau was repositioning Benue’s development partnership model to ensure that every intervention strengthens state institutions and leaves the state better equipped to sustain results.
He explained that the old practice of creating parallel systems that disappear when externally funded projects end was no longer sustainable, stressing that “the State itself must be a principal beneficiary of every development partnership.”
According to Mr Viashima, BICD is pursuing six major shifts: from partner-led to State-led coordination; from isolated projects to stronger systems; from humanitarian dependency to durable solutions; from donor dependence to resource mobilisation; from capacity substitution to capacity transfer; and from activities to accountability.
He explained that the approach would ensure development interventions aligned with the priorities of the Benue State Government while strengthening coordination, data, reporting, monitoring, and institutional mechanisms that would survive individual projects.
Mr Viashima also stressed the need to connect humanitarian interventions with livelihoods, infrastructure, resilience, peacebuilding and economic recovery, rather than allowing humanitarian assistance to create permanent dependency.
BICD, he said, was expanding its engagement beyond traditional donors to include United Nations agencies, bilateral and multilateral institutions, development finance institutions and the private sector.
On capacity development, the BICD boss said the bureau would insist that technical knowledge and implementation capabilities be progressively transferred to government institutions and local organisations, rather than being permanently retained by external partners.
He credited Governor Hyacinth Alia with providing the political commitment and openness required to deepen development partnerships, but said BICD’s responsibility was to convert that political opportunity into sustainable state capacity.
Giving insight into the bureau’s emerging principle, Mr Viashima said, “Every partnership must leave Benue stronger than it met it.”
He disclosed that the bureau’s next frontier was to make sustainability measurable by requiring major development partners to answer five questions: What state system is being strengthened? What capacity is being transferred? What data will remain? What responsibility will government progressively assume? And what is the transition strategy?
“BICD’s responsibility, therefore, is not simply to attract partners or resources to Benue. It is to ensure that every partnership leaves Benue stronger than it met it,” he said.
The strategy, according to Mr Viashima, is ultimately about moving Benue “from projects to systems, from dependency to ownership, and from temporary interventions to sustainable development.”
