S’East region initiates platform for OGP

By Luminous Jannamike
Governments of the five states of the Southeast have established a collective platform to drive transparency and development in the region based on the principles of the Open Government Partnership, OGP.

The platform known as “Sorochia” will be chaired by the Anambra state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mark Okoye, for the next two years.

A statement by Agabaidu Jideani, the Director-General of Sorochia says the initiative is a multi-stakeholder effort that aims at challenging South East governments and local societies to improve quality of governance, spread good practices, reform legislations, improve public participation and closely monitor implementation and impact of public programs.

According to him, the initiative which has received the nod of the Nigeria OGP national secretariat will also coordinate the region’s effort towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the people.

The statement reads: “The people and governments of the South East zone of the country have established a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative to drive transparency and development around OGP and the SDGs for the zone.

“The Anambra State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget Mr. Mark Okoye has been tasked with leading the South East efforts at establishing and implementing the Transparency and Development imperatives of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and achieving the set objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Zone.

“The Multi-Stakeholder Initiative is aimed at challenging South East governments and societies to improve governance, spread good practices, reform legislations, improve public participation and closely monitor implementation and impact of public programs.

“It will provide a platform for peer learning and shared experiences and utilize economies of scale to reduce costs in the introduction and implementation of the OGP principles and SDGs in the South East Zone. This will be cascaded to the local governments and communities utilizing existing formal and informal platforms whilst ensuring inclusivity."