The Commissioners of Economic Planning and Budget from the six States of Southwest Nigeria met in Osogbo, Osun State, on 13^th February 2020, to share lessons on data-based planning and budget, the use of MTEF/MTSS to inform budgets, citizens consultation for planning and budget, and sustainability of budget reforms within the region. The Commissioners were accompanied by Permanent Secretaries from the Ministries of Economic Planning and Budget (MEPB), Statistician Generals from the six states and directors from Osun State MEPB. The Community of Practice forum was organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission and supported by the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) programme of the UK Department for International Development.

Some of the lessons and updates shared during the forum, drawing from past Community of Practice (CoP) meetings, included:

·       1. Ondo State scaling up the use of MTSS to 13 Ministries and increasingly involving citizens in the planning and budget processes;

·       2. Ekiti State scaling up the MTSS process to all 8 sectors of the state and holding citizens engagement meetings in 3 senatorial districts;

·       3. Oyo State now having a fully functional Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget in place and commenced the process for a 20-year State Development Plan (SDP);

·       4. Departmental budgets informing the budgets of all Ministries in Lagos State; and budgets of Ministries aligning with the SDP;

·       5. Ogun State scaling up townhall meetings from one central location to 3 senatorial districts, planning to review the SDP and adopting SPARC MTSS tools for the preparation of the 2020 budget;

·       6. Osun State having a robust SDP, informed by the Citizens’ Needs Assessment, the Governor’s “Thank you Tour” Report and manifesto; citizens involvement being an integral part of the SDP.

At the end of the Economic Planning and Budget CoP forum, the six states:

1. Agreed on the need to sustain reforms in planning and budget processes within states, document lessons and experiences, and share lessons across the region;

2. Concluded that the production, management and use of administrative statistics can help planning, monitoring and evaluation in the region;

3. Resolved to work towards a well-established governance structure with functioning economic, social and institutional infrastructure and vital social protection initiatives;

4. Resolved to work closely with the Bureau of Statistics in all states, and across the region, to triangulate data for planning and budget;

5. Discussed the possibility of operating an open data management system from states to the region.

DAWN Commission, working with PERL, continues to lead the reform and integration agenda across the Southwest, helping to improve governance systems and deliver services to citizens within states across the region.