Nigeria Design Report 2017-2019

Nigeria’s first action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... leveraged ongoing efforts in the country to address important open government challenges like beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More, open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More, and implementing the Freedom of Information Act. The thematic scope and ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... of this action plan has set a good foundation to learn and improve future action plans. Moving forward, the IRM recommends strengthening the institutional framework, inter-agency coordination, and engagement with civil society to support implementation of OGP action plans and deliver key reforms.

The Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP) is a global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... monitors all action plans to ensure governments follow through on commitments. Nigeria joined OGP in 2016. Since then, Nigeria has implemented one action plan. This report evaluates the design of Nigeria’s first action plan to provide useful recommendations for implementation of future action plans.

General overview of action plan

Nigeria’s first action plan addressed open governance in the country through fiscal transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, anticorruption, access to information, and citizen engagement. The action plan furthered previous and ongoing initiatives on these areas.

Development of the action plan in Nigeria was supported by high level political participation during the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive.... The co-creation process was characterized by rigorous, technical methodology (e.g., performance indicators, expected results) while engaging thematic experts and including input from government and nongovernment stakeholders.

Areas where the country can improve its OGP process include ensuring greater participation of women, supporting the National Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... (NSC) with resources and an operational institutional framework, and reporting on how civil society input is used to shape decisions throughout the OGP process.

Nigeria’s first action plan was focused on transparency and access to information. The action plan included commitments in ambitious policy areas like beneficial ownership and open contracting. Commitments 10 and 11 on improving compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) were considered the most ambitious. The table below highlights commitments to watch and considerations for ongoing commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... work.

Table 2. Commitments to Watch

Recommendations

The IRM recommendations from this report aim to support Nigeria in delivering strong open government reforms. The recommendations below are detailed further in Section V of this report and focus on strengthening institutional practices to support Nigeria’s OGP action plan.

Table 3. KEY IRM Recommendations