DFID/PERL, DAWN Commission facilitate strategic meeting of S/W states Heads of Service 

By Olawale Adewale, The Nigerian Voice, Abeokuta

The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission and the DFID’s programme, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) have moved another step further towards achieving sustainable development in the South-West region by facilitating fostering cooperation and promoting necessary reforms in the region.

To achieve the objective, DAWN Commission and DFID/PERL organised a strategic meeting for the Heads of Service of the six South West States in which necessary reforms and mechanisms that would facilitate and enable rapid development were reviewed and fine tuned.

The strategic Meeting which was held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital was well attended and the HoS reaffirmed their commitment to ensure necessary reforms and embark on processes that will aid development in the region.

The Director General of DAWN Commission, Mr Seye Ogunleye said the meeting was aimed at deliberating on ways to strengthen, sustain and share governance reform programmes in the South West states.

He highlighted major areas of opportunities that could be harnessed towards improving service delivery in each of the states.

Issues bordering on capacity development for the civil/public service personnel across levels and creating a standard structure for coordinating and warehousing reforms were also discussed.

Oyeleye reiterated the importance of the Public/Civil Service to Governments, particularly the pivotal role that the Heads of Service play in the process of policy conceptualization and implementation.

He stressed the need for the high level government officials to throw their weight behind reform activities in their respective states in order to make it more credible and gain traction.

Mr Oyeleye, affirmed the unflinching commitment of DAWN Commission to continue to encourage the political Leadership of the six states to embrace and support various innovations and good practices aimed at achieving excellence in public Service delivery.

In his goodwill message, DFID Nigeria, Deputy Team Lead, Siaka Alhassan reiterated the commitment of PERL as a governance support programme to provide technical support to the states in areas of strengthening the governance processes and structures in the South West and the other pilot states where DFID is operating in Nigeria.

Also present at the meeting were other senior Civil Service officials across the Six States of the region.

At the end of the one-day strategic session, the Heads of Service and other top civil servants that attended the meting pledged their commitment support and foster reform activities directed at improving the quality of service delivery to the citizens across the South West region and certain specific next action plans were agreed upon.