Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
In order to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the Niger Delta region, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, convened a roundtable discussion on the Strategic Implementation Work Plan (SIWP) of the ministry.
It was held with relevant ministries, department and agencies, development partners and key stakeholders.
Represented by the Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Tayo Alasoadura, Akpabio said the SIWP was conceived as a collaborative framework designed to coordinate development interventions of governmental and non-governmental institutions in the Niger Delta Region.
The concept, Akpabio added, was the outcome of several high level political conversations facilitated by the Office of the Vice President in 2016.
“Currently, the SIWP enjoys the technical support of the United Kingdom Government, via the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN). I wish to remind our esteemed guests present, that SIWP is not a new programme. It is rather an aspect of a broader stakeholder engagement process, and a foundational document of a development compact for the Niger Delta Region which evolved out of the need for an effective tool that would enable the ministry to operationalize its coordination mandate of development initiatives in the region,” Akpabio said.
The minister further said to actualize the implementation of the SIWP, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, through the technical support of SDN, developed a digital Information Management System portal with a mobile application, and imbued with project tracking and Geographic Information System (GIS) features to strengthen monitoring and evaluation framework.
The minister informed the stakeholders that as part of the Ministry’s engagements with the SDN on SIWP, so far, 20 staff of the ministry, strategically drawn from across the relevant departments, have been trained to manage the portal.
He added that over 200 projects and programmes of the ministry have been uploaded on the portal, adding that the SDN is re-modifying some of the variables on the portal for optimal performance.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Olusade Adesola, said the aim of the meeting was to update stakeholders, make discussion around the SIWP matters, and increase awareness of the programme, secure buy-in and obtain contributions for robust implementation of SIWP by the ministry in the Niger Delta Region.