SHARING PRACTICES THAT WORK
Permit me to welcome everyone to this interaction with you, our friends in the media, and to thank you for the support that you have given DAWN Commission since its inception in July 2013. It is our pleasure to have you here and we hope that our meeting today shall be fruitful.
DAWN Commission, the agency set up by the Governments of the States of Western Nigeria to manage their regional integration programme has as a critical core of its mission the strengthening of the Governance process as a foundational requirement for effective public service delivery across the Region.
In furtherance of our mandate to foster regional cooperation and build synergy of actions among all the States of Western Nigeria, the Commission, with the support of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) Programme – Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), it gives me great pleasure to announce our plans to hold a three-day conference, tagged Southwest Governance Innovation Conference 2017 from the 20th-23rd February 2017
The Southwest Governance Innovation Conference 2017 which is scheduled to hold in Abeokuta, Ogun State, will afford the Southwest States the opportunity to showcase their most successful reforms, encourage State-to-State networking, peer learning, stimulate collaborations, and encourage the adoption and replication of innovative practices by all the States.
The primary rationale underscoring this Conference therefore is for our States to present game-changing State-level innovations and reforms that have been tested, and that have proven critical to the improvement of the effectiveness of the governance sector in their respective States. We are also concerned about the deepening of systems and people capability in the delivery of public goods and services in different areas of Governance.
The Conference is expected to bring together State actors, civil society groups, private sector players, the legislature, international development organisations and interested members of the public from across the Southwest States to interact and share innovative governance practices and experiences, especially those that are worthy of being replicated across all the States in the Region.
And of course, central to the Conference is the desire by our various State Governments to approach innovation in governance in its most profound sense, with a stronger focus for devising new methodologies, creating new instruments, improving the capability of the public sector to support the aspirations of all the citizens, to improve the investment environment, build new skills and capability that would lead to achieving high levels of social and economic performances that meet the yearnings of all who interact with the public sector.
DAWN Commission is indeed committed to supporting the aspirations of our States to achieve excellence in governance, as well as building effective institutions, as we pursue the regional development agenda. Working with our various partners along this line and especially by signposting this aspiration with the convening of the Governance Innovations Conference 2017, we believe that our States are well on their way to re-energising the governance process for optimum result in a manner that promotes and leverages the sharing and adoption of best practices.
I thank you all for listening.
Signed:
Dipo Famakinwa
Director General
DAWN Commission
10th Floor, Cocoa House
Dugbe, Ibadan
