South-East Governors’ Forum on Monday organised a workshop for Open Governance Partnership (OGP) Desk Officers in the states of the region.
The workshop was organised in Awka, the Anambra capital, in collaboration with Department for International Development (DFID) under its Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL)) programme.
Declaring the two-day workshop open, Prof. Simon Ortuanya, Director-General of the forum, said the event was geared towards reviewing the extent to which OGP had been implemented in the participating states.
He said that OGP was meant to make governments in the region more inclusive, responsive and accountable.
Ortuanya said the states represented at the training programme had developed an action plan and also set up steering committees that were compliant with the principle of the OGP initiative.
He said that forum had been providing peer-learning support and guidance to enable member states to understand and effectively navigate the OGP process.
The director-general tasked the desk officers to start implementing the commitments contained in the action plan in their various ministries, departments and agencies.
He said that besides Imo, other states in the zone, including Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu had formally joined the OGP programme.
He said that the training was meant to deepen their understanding of the OGP initiative and provide an overview of their responsibilities.
“It will also help them to identify specific activities they need to implement to ensure that the MDAs attend to relevant commitments in their states action plan,” he said.
He thanked the DFID-PERL for its enduring partnership and support for the forum.
In her address, Mrs. Ucheoma Egwuatu, the Reform Manager of DFID- PERL for the forum, commended the forum for embracing the programme.
Egwuatu said that OGP was already operational in Kano and Jigawa states
She also lauded the forum for facilitating the training programme within a short period of its existence.
She expressed the hope that the reforms would yield excellent results with a view to ensuring good governance.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that OGP was inaugurated in 2011 by UN to provide an international platform for domestic reformers, committed to making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. (NAN)
