National Devt Planning Manual Ready Soon
in Abuja The acting Secretary to the National Planning Commission (NPC), Mr. Bassey Akpanyung, has revealed that a National Development Planning Manual aimed at facilitating the coordination and integration of government policies, plans, budget as well as monitoring and evaluation process in the country would soon be released by the Federal Government.
Already, a Technical Working Group (TWG) on the preparation of the Manual for Nigeria was inaugurated over the weekend by the acting Secretary.
Akpanyung explained that the development manual was part of government’s drive to facilitate the integration of policies and strengthen systems and processes for effective implementation of projects and programmes.
According to him:”This is aimed at facilitating the coordination and integration of government policies, plans, budgets as well as monitoring and evaluation process in the country. The manual will also assist in strengthening systems and processes for effective formulation and implementation of not only sector strategic plans but in the realisation of the objectives of NIPs and NV20:2020.”
The NPC is working with the DFID FEPAR country office to bring the document to light.
He said the NPC was also in the process of repositioning the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics (DPRS) in Federal MDAs for enhanced delivery of Government’s projects and programmes through skills upgrade of the DPRS officials in the area of development planning.
The membership of the TWG, which has five weeks to complete its task of the preparation of the manual is drawn from public and private sectors, including officials of the Commission.
The group’s terms of reference is to basically work closely with FEPAR consulting team in developing the manual, undertaking a desk review of relevant documents, including under studying of global and local best practices; obtain inputs from the development partners towards ensuring effective buy in on the document; and to propose strategies to make the Development Planning operational and implementable.
In a statement by Head of Information, NPC, Mr. Salisu Badamasi, the secretary further noted that the DFID/FEPAR programme had recently assisted the Commission in the development of her strategic plan and the manual for M&E towards strengthening the institutionalisation of the M&E system in the Federal MDAs.