FG reviews collaboration with development partners

The Federal Government has begun moves to review the level of cooperation between Nigeria and its international development partners.

The move, according to the Supervising Minister of National Planning, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, is to ensure that aids and grants from such partners are aligned with the country’s development priorities.

The minister spoke in Abuja at the annual forum between the NPC and the development partners.

The meeting, with the theme: ‘Enhancing partnerships for national development and socio-economic transformation’, was aimed at sharing views and ideas on development approaches, best practices, intervention and strategies.

Yuguda said following the rebasing of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, which showed the Nigerian economy as the largest in Africa, there was a need to review the collaboration mechanisms and explore ways they could be optimised.

To achieve this, he said there was a need to agree on priorities, targets and shared approaches towards accelerating the pace, quality and the impact of development programmes being implemented by the various international partners.

He said, “The outcome of the rebasing has now further challenged us to redouble our efforts at ensuring the successful transformation of the economy.

“To keep Nigeria in its current position requires the efforts of all stakeholders, particularly the development partners, as more resources are needed to sustain the tempo and to address current challenges, particularly in the areas of security, education, health and employment generation.”

Yuguda said Nigeria and the developing world were currently passing through a critical phase in their development since the global development agenda was shifting focus from the Millennium Development Goals to a more comprehensive post 2015 development agenda.

He added, “As we move towards the 2015 development agenda, we must also begin to review ways to enhance and strengthen our partnerships.

“The NPC-IDP development dialogue forum should be used as a platform for forging such partnerships,” he said.

The Resident Representatives/Coordinator, United Nations Systems, Mr. Daouda Toure, said that the challenges that lay ahead for development partners after the rebasing of the GDP would be to reduce unemployment, diversify the economy and address escalating insurgency.

“What we are bringing to the table is the best practice that will allow optimal utilisation of resources and this can be achieved when programmes are nationally owned,” he added.