Southwest Nigeria set to Improve Budget Processes and Domesticate SDG Data Disaggregation for Effective Monitoring
The Commissioners for Economic Planning and Budget on Thursday, 13th February, 2020 adopted a uniform standard for planning, budgeting and data coordination across the six States in Southwest Nigeria. This resolution was made at the 5th edition of the Community of Practice (CoP) of Commissioners for Economic Planning and Budget in Southwest, hosted by the State of Osun under the auspices of the Osun Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget.
The quarterly meeting, supported by DfID-PERL and coordinated by DAWN Commission, had in attendance the Commissioners for Economic Planning and Budget from Osun (host), Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo and Oyo States; the Special Advisers to the Governors of Osun and Oyo States on Economic Affairs/Planning, Statisticians General of the six States, as well as the Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries of Economic Planning and Budget. The Commissioner for Lagos State Economic Planning and Budget was represented by the Head of Economic Intelligent Unit of the the State.
The Commissioners also agreed to build a uniform ICT-driven administrative data management system by domesticating the SDG data dissagregation for effective monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Region. As a tradition of the CoP, the Commissioners shared experiences and discussed their successes as well as challenges in Planning and Budgeting reforms in their respective States, and jointly suggested various solutions that will enable necessary and legally-backed reforms for advancing growth and development in the Region.
Speaking at the CoP, the Regional Data Advisor and former DG/CEO National Bureau of Statistics, Prof. Vincent Akinyosoye, presented a sustainable model for tracking the SDGs in the Region using Administrative Statistics. He enjoined the States in the Region to make data production policy-oriented and leverage ICT infrastructures for the communication of data to end users.
A Regional Planning and Public Financial Management (PFM) Faculty was also introduced at the meeting for advancing and sustaining PFM reforms across the Region. The Faculty (a pool of PFM experts drawn from a larger pool of development experts domiciled with DAWN Commission) is being coordinated by the Commission and open to all States in the Region for quality and context-focused technical services including training, advocacy and advisory services following established protocols.
At the end of the meeting, the States resolved to expand the current scope of citizens’ engagement for a more inclusive planning and budgeting process.