Dr. Gloria Ahmed, the National Coordinator of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Nigeria, declared open a comprehensive engagement with technical experts from both government and civil society to collaboratively facilitate the operationalization of targeted reforms and the documentation of evidence-based results at the national and sub-national levels. She made this declaration during the quarterly OGP Thematic Working Group (TWG) Meeting held in Abuja recently.
In her remark, she stated thatNigeria signed into the OGP since 2016 to facilitate the development and implementation of various reforms initiated in the country to foster openness, transparency, and accountability inline with the OGP principle. However, a recent review of the implementation progresscarried out by the OGP Independent Review Mechanism (IRM) of the National Action Plan (NAP II) 2019-2022 identified some challenges bothering onInadequate and Poor reporting by the implementers (MDAs and CSOs). The challenges include poor availability of evidence to support results achieved,weak ownership among implementing Agencies,weak coordinated synergy among implementing Agencies and within Agencies (including CSOs) andinadequate awareness of commitment obligations among implementing Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
The NC applauded the TWGs for their technical support and sacrifices but challenged them to ensure that the conversation during the meeting will proffer practical solutions that will address the implementation challenges with a view to deliver on the commitments under NAP III come January 2025. She assured the TWGs that the Secretariat has been reinvigorated and is poised to technically support the process as well as deliver on its mandate by working in synergy with the national and sub-national governments.
In her concluding remarks, Dr. Gloria Ahmed urged members of the TWGs to support theinstitutionalization of targeted reforms through the co-creative effort of effective tracking and evidence-based documentation of results. She also enjoined them to justify their identification by the NAP III as co-creators that will technically support and facilitate the development and institutionalization of open, transparent and accountability reforms in the country. She ended by applauding the continued efforts of PERL Nigeria in supporting and facilitating the meeting towards enhancing partnership to Engage Reform and Learn.
The highlight of the TWG meeting was the presentation of a paper titled “Imperatives for M&E Institutionalization towards the delivery of the OGP NAP III with Insights into NAP II IRM report and the way forward”byMr. Mooreino Diftuffe the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) specialist in the OGP National Secretariat. The paperhighlighted the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) assessment of Nigeria under NAP II which stated that Nigeria achieved major early results and won an OGP Impact Award in recognition of efforts to establish a public beneficial ownership registry. Progress was also made in budget transparency, management of recovered assets, and implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. During the implementation period, the Government of Nigeria passed several significant pieces of legislation that promise to further open government. These include the 2020 Companies and Allied Matters Act and regulations, 2020 Police Act, 2021 Petroleum Industry Act, 2022 Proceeds of Crime Act, and drafting an Audit Bill.
However, it was reported that the IRM assessmentpresents that overall, fewer commitments in the second action plan achieved early results than in the first which was largely attributed to a lack of awareness and efforts of commitment obligations among implementing (MDAs) and at the highest levels of government and civil society.
Looking ahead, the paper reiterated the IRM position that the full impact of Nigeria’s efforts will become evident following the full roll out and operationalization of the various legislations and reforms achieved by Nigeria. He concluded the presentation by recommending that the performance management system must be fully operationalized at the national and sub-national levels for evidence based documentation and reporting.
It is in addressing the challenges that the technical experts across the 7 thematic groups of the OGP deliberated over the implementation progress achieved under NAP III implementation. The TWGs reviewed the progress, challenges and proffered practical solutions to ensure that the country meets its reform commitment obligations.