Barr. Georgina Ehuriah, MON, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Interior, leading a discussion on developing of Council Documents.

A cross section of participants at the learning event.

Following the presidential retreat for ministers, which identified nine priority areas of the new administration, the Cabinet Affairs Office (CAO) in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), organized a capacity building session for eleven Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The training, delivered by the Centre for Management Development (CMD), held from 9^th to 11^th November 2019 and aimed to enable a deeper understanding of policy management and cabinet documentation processes for effective execution of the nine priority areas towards enhanced service delivery.

The participants were CAO Relationship Officers and Desk Officers (directorate-level staff) from the Departments of Planning, Research and Statistics of the Federal Ministry of Works, Ministry of Power and Housing, Ministry of Finance, Agriculture, Transport, Aviation, among others. The Cabinet Affairs Directorate, Lagos State, was also present at the event to learn from the policy management and Cabinet documentation processes at the federal level for possible replication in the state.

Some of the topics discussed at the forum include:

·       The concept of public policy in national development
·       Delivering on Federal Government’s priority areas
·       Developing council documents
·       Mainstreaming stakeholder management in public policy
·       Understanding the relevance of tracking government priorities and Federal Executive Council approvals
·       Introduction to project management skills for effective planning and execution of polices, programmes and projects
·       Introduction of the new performance management system and the operations of the Delivery Unit.

The discussions targeted an enhanced understanding of the policy management value chain, improved quality of council decisions including, tracking of approvals and reporting.

PERL’s support to CMD to carry out the training was hinged on its thrust of strengthening State institutions to deliver on their mandates in a sustainable manner for better service delivery.