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The Federal Government says it is committed to producing national development plans for the country.
Mr Clement Agba, the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning made this known at a news conference on the Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDPs) 2021 to 2025 and perspective plan, Nigeria Agenda 2050 in Abuja on Thursday.
Agba said Nigeria Vision 2020 would end on December 31, and President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of the terminal dates.
“And to avoid a vacuum, hence approved and directed the ministry to prepare successor plans from which governments can derive its policies going forward,’’ he said.
He explained that the plan required the involvement of critical stakeholders and the ministry adopted participatory and inclusiveness of all arms of governments and the Private Sector.
He said stakeholders such as the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Opinion Leaders, Public Commentators, Religious Organisations, Traditional Leaders and various pressure groups among others were involved.
The minister said that six state governors, one from each of the six geopolitical zones, representative of major political parties were involved at the Steering Committee (SC) level for the development of the plans.
“We are in the process of engaging the grassroots through the states and the local government in the planning process, which shall take place via town hall meetings where memoranda from town development associations and traditional rulers shall be received,” he said.
Agba said that 25 Technical Working Groups (TWGs) comprising experts with diverse experiences had been engaged to identify thematic areas for the plans.
He said that they were working on Macroeconomic Framework and Growth Diagnostic to identify the policies and provide macroeconomic projections for the new plans, the performance of the outgoing plans and sector policy documents in the past periods.
The minister said that more TWGs were inaugurated to work with the Central Working Group (CWG) on agriculture, food security and rural development, manufacturing and industrialisation, transportation, housing and urban development.
He said that cross cutting issues were on employment, gender and people with special needs, education and manpower development, health and nutrition, environment, social, regional development, disaster management and digital economy, among others.
“I am happy to announce that the Macroeconomic Framework and Growth Diagnostic TWG, after three months and two weeks of tedious work, has produced a Macroeconomic Framework report.
“The report has been shared with the CWG and presented to the remaining TWGs on August 19, to guide the ongoing work on their thematic areas.
“The Macroeconomic Framework report will also be shared with the Steering Committee and Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) by the Central Working Group in due course,” Agba said.
He said that the deadline given to the TWGs to submit its work on the MTNDP, 2021 to 2025 to CWG was Sept. 30, while CWG was to turn in its report at the end of October, with the launching of the plan in December by the President.
Agba also commended the TWGs, CWG and the SC for their continuous support.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the CS is co-chaired by well-respected Nigerians representing the Organised Private Sector in the persons of economist and investment banker, Mr Atedo Peterside and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed for the Public Sector.
Also the governance structure of the CWG is headed by a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and currently Special Adviser to the President on Finance and Economy, Mrs Sarah Alade and 26 TWGs.
Edited By: Chioma Ugboma/Grace Yussuf (NAN)
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) says it would in conjunction with that Core Working Group (CWG) of the Human Capital Development project of the National Economic Council (NEC) to accelerate Human Capital Development (HCD) indicators of the country
The forum in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by by Mr Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, Head of Media and Public Affairs, NGF Secretariat, said that the forun and the CWG would by this week engage with the North Central and North East geo-political zones of the country.
It noted that the CWG Coordinator, Ms Yosola Akinbi, gave the indication while addressing the States’ Focal Persons of the programme in two different virtual conferences, involving the North west and South-south geo-political zones held on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
The statement quoted Akanbi as saying the decision became imperative because of the rating of the country on the HCD indicators when compared to other countries.
“The Nigerian Government recognizes the critical role that HCD plays in driving sustained economic growth, boosting productivity and reducing poverty.
“This strongly supports the need to invest in people through healthcare, education and the labour force, which led to the setting up of the Core Working Group with the view to accelerating human capital and development in Nigeria,” Akanbi said.
It noted that since the project was set up, the HCD drivers had emphasised three thematic areas and six outcome areas, including healthcare and nutrition, education and the labour force.
“They would each respectively provide equitable access to decent healthcare to every Nigerian, a quality, inclusive and functional education system and empower the nation’s youth with the capacity and skills to create or seek employment anywhere,” the statement said.
It noted that the CWG in collaboration with state focal persons, development partners and other key stakeholders have articulated a long-term vision for HCD in the Country.
“In similar vein the states are expected to develop a vision that is tailor-made for their peculiar environments.
It said: “However, all the various aspirations would eventually align with the national vision of improving nutrition and reducing childhood stunting by half.
It added that under education the objective was to double school enrolment, double girl-child enrolment as well as double secondary school completion from 42 per cent to 80 per cent by 2030.
“The cumulative effect of this is to drop the number of out of school children by at least 70 per cent while raising the number of those who obtain good grades in reading and mathematics substantially.
“The last thematic outcome is expectedly the result of the first two.
“By this the CWG envisions that the rate of youth employment would have risen from 23 per cent to 46 per cent and the female labour force would have doubled from 21per cent to 41per cent.
“Once vigorously pursued and meticulously calibrated between the federal and subnational governments and down to the local government structures, it is expected that the nation would have produced 24 million healthy educated and employable people by 2030.
“The target of the year 2030 is also deliberate, the coordinator of the CWG explained because it corresponds with the year in which all global development aspirations would terminate. Nigeria wouldn’t be an exception,” it said.
It recalled that the state governors had fully bought into the HCD agenda and had thrown their weight behind the transformation of the human capital capacity of all Nigerians from an unemployable citizenry to a healthy and competitive one.
It noted that before the Covid19 challenge, the CWG conducted visits to some states including Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Ogun and Ekiti, towards ensuring a nationwide buy-in by state governments and key stakeholders in every state.
It added that in the light of the Covid19 challenge, the CWG reverted to conducting online regional HCD engagement sessions to facilitate peer learning, experience sharing among states and provide implementation support to state teams towards driving the HCD agenda.
Edited By: Kayode Olaitan (NAN)
The Federal Government is set to develop the country’s”Agenda 2050 and a Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2021-2025 to coordinate sectoral approaches.
The Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clement Agba made this known while inaugurating a Central Working Group (CWG) for the programme on Wednesday in Abuja.
This is contained in a statement issued by the ministry’s Director of Information, Mrs Imaobong Udoh.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the MTNDP is being designed to succeed the current Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) terminating in December, 2020.
On the other hand, the Agenda 2050 is a long-term perspective plan.
Agba said that the CWG would coordinate sectoral approaches to interventions for joint implementation of the plans.
He said that the adopted approach would address anticipated challenges for preparing an evidence-based national development plan, long-term vision document as well as make recommendations to the ministry for implementation.
According to the minister, the group’s assignment includes to refine the scope where necessary, provide leadership, establish the strategy and schedule for the project.
“They are also to develop management plans, including a monitoring evaluation framework and the structure for national planning process.”
Agba said that the group would convene high-level consultations where necessary designed to elicit commitment to national objectives for development.
The minister said that the group would prioritise policies, programmes, projects and interventions for Nigeria’s rapid economic development and recommend strategies to support effective implantation of identified development priorities.
“The CWG would coordinate progress reporting to the steering committee and serve as clearing house for information sharing among the various layers within the institutional arrangement for the plans.
“It will deliver key process outputs, including strategies for effective participation of states and non-state actors in the preparation and implementation of the plans.” Agba said.
The minister said that they would develop detailed documentation of programme for collaborative implementation with States, LGAs and non- and ensure that the final plan documents MTNDP 2020-2025 and 2050 meet the standard quality of good development plan that could be showcased anywhere in the world.
Edited By: Ese E. Ekama (NAN)
This documents intents to provide guidance and advice on how to best adapt Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) programming during the current Covid-19 outbreak and specifically:
Download Document Here: https://bit.ly/2xyCrZL
1) How to manage CVA during the outbreak;
2) How to operate while reducing the risk of contamination.
This document (adapted from CashCap global cash community of practice) is a compilation of information from sources that currently are available and relevant to the South Sudan context. This also means that this is a living document, and it will be revised and updated when necessary. Any advice, inputs and comments are warmly welcomed.
Coordination
Coordinate with relevant authorities and coordination bodies such as the health authorities and interagency coordination bodies;
Contact donors to understand how flexible they are on programme changing, prioritizing etc.;
Update the Cash Working Group of any CVA activity changes and initiatives;
Ensure dissemination of preventive guidance and tools within the organisations.
Coordinate with other humanitarian agencies, for a joint and harmonized response in case of emergency 1 such as revision of Minimum Expenditure Basket .
Continue follow-up the CWG webpages, and CaLP website’s page on COVID-19 related resources, guidance, events and questions.
When Rumors rule: Work with humanitarian community to address the rumors and fake news about humanitarian responses.
Connect with National Social Protection Working Group, to know how NSPWG partners are changing approaches for social protection or safety nets as per the changing environment.
Coordinate internally with global teams within your organizations to understand how and what others are doing regarding cash and vouchers assistance. Look for global service desks your organization might have created one for example WFP has created a Multi-Functional Support team in HQ.
All of the clusters have developed their pages, and are regularly uploading information on Covid-19 and responses click here to access the South Sudan-Covid-19 resource materials.
Global HRP on Covid-19 and CVA (Messages)
Scale-up of social assistance systems, and cash transfer programmes with complementary livelihood assistance (including adaptations for remote digital trade/marketing), particularly for rural crop and livestock workers and producers, small/medium businesses, refugees, IDPs, migrants and host populations, and other food-insecure population groups
Preserve the ability of people most vulnerable to the pandemic to meet their food consumption and other basic needs, through their productive activities and access to social safety nets and humanitarian assistance
