In a bid to strengthen governance processes, improve ease of doing business and ensure regional development in the southwest states, the DAWN Commission, with the support of DFID Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) has organised a consultative forum on developing a guide for learning and adaptation of reforms and innovative ideas. This is in line with PERL’s agenda of facilitating lesson and experience sharing among the States of the region.

The forum held in July at Golden Tulip hotel, Jericho, Ibadan essentially focused on documenting an approach that will encourage and facilitate use of evidence and learning in the governance processes of the six States of Western Nigeria.

The programme also attempted Instituting a mechanism for developing and coordinating research, learning and adaptation for reform in Western Region, and the possibility of bringing all these efforts under one coordinating body.

In the spirit of engendering research/evidence driven policies and programmes in the region, some representatives of Think Tanks organisations operating within the region were major participants at the forum.

The need for these organisations to form partnerships with the States’ reforms coordinating agencies so that their research products can begin to influence governments’ policies and programmes was reiterated.

Facilitating the conversations, a Knowledge Management (KM) expert, Enene Ejembi, took participants through methods of research presentation that can easily resonate with the general public and the policy makers in particular. 

In attendance were top government officials, representatives of Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, ISGPP, Centre of Public Policy Alternative (CPPA), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) as well as other Think tank Organisations.

Highpoints of the meeting were focus group discussions, plenary sessions to engage the subject matter as well as the development of a guide for learning and adaptation of reforms. 

Source: DAWN Commission|15/8/2018| http://dawncommission.org/newsPage.php?id=111