By Billy Graham Abel, Yola
The Adamawa State Government, North East Nigeria has committed to establishing partnership with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in order to strengthen Permanent Dialogue Mechanism (PDM) through which a sustainable synergy between State Governments and the civil society can be forged.
This was contained in a goodwill message delivered by the Adamawa state governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, at a one-day workshop, Monday in Yola, Adamawa state.
The governor who was represented by Ishaya John Dabari, the State Commissioner of Finance Budget and Planning, observed that over the years, dialogue as an unending process between various actors has come to be seen as a potent tool of sustaining reform ideas and achieving meaningful partnerships.
Fintiri said, “For many years, dialogues have been applied to community planning, development and project implementation.”
The governor further states that dialogues were important in increasing the effectiveness of the civil society in public discussions on issues that directly affect the welfare of the citizens, development of the state and the nation at large.
Fintiri maintains that, “I strongly believe that PDM would go a long way in creating and fostering a continued synergy between government and CSOs in maximizing efforts to reform fiscal transparency in the States as envisioned by the Federal Government under the SFTAS Programme for Results.
“I want to assure the Civil Societies in the State that the State Government will continue to engage you as agents of change and public enlightenment in the delivery of democracy dividends to the good people of the State. Therefore, we welcome constructive criticism from the civil society in an objective, fair and rationale manner for the betterment of the society at large.”
He similarly urge participants to evolve new strategies for strengthening permanent dialogue mechanism in the State and the country at large.
In his welcome address, the OGP Programme Manager, Andrew Onyeanakwe disclosed that the objectives of the Permanent Dialogue Mechanism (PDM) workshop were to familiarise the civil society with the SFTAS/OGP Programme for Results especially the online publication of approved Citizens’ budget with Budget accountability report of Citizens’ participation in the budget process and the use of the available SFTAS data to demand accountability from State actors, address the issue of different perceptions in the relationship between civil society organizations and government that often lead to misconceptions and misunderstandings.”
Other objectives according to him include, “Building civil society capacity on strategies for more effective engagement and sustainability of the engagement process with a focus on co-creation and partnership and equipping civil society members with public financial management knowledge, especially budget access and process, to effectively play an accountable role in the implementation of activities in the multi-year plan beyond SFTAS”.
Onyeanakwe also listed the learning outcomes of the workshop to include strengthening ability of CSOs to effectively engage the state governments and demand transparency in budget processes, enhance interaction between CSOs and State governments and improve knowledge management for more effective participatory governance.
The event which was a workshop on permanent dialogue mechanism organized by the OGP under the auspices of the World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme for Results. The zonal workshop was attended by 3 participants representing civil society organizations drawn from each of the 6 States in the north east region.