EU and UK support to Nigeria’s Strategy on Reforms.

The European Union and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) are supporting the Federal Government of Nigeria to implement the National Strategy on Public Service Reforms (NSPSR) through the EU Support to Federal Governance Reform project (SUFEGOR) and the Federal Public Administration Reform Programme (FEPAR) respectively.  At the high-level retreat on the NSPSR held in January in Abuja, UK DFID representative Ms Tia Raappana, said ‘BPSR with the assistance of DFID first developed the NSPSR in 2008 as a coordinating strategic document that provides a common vision and a long-term agenda to guide the rebuilding and transformation of Nigeria’s Federal Public Service. In 2014, the Bureau, working with an Inter-Ministerial Technical Team and with the technical assistance of the DFID-funded FEPAR programme, refreshed the NSPSR to ensure that it builds on progress already being made in the implementation of the Transformation Agenda’. The strategy document derives its framework from the Transformation Agenda. The ultimate objective outlined in the NSPSR, is to have a World-Class Public Service for achieving Nigeria’s Vision 20-2020 and to become one of the 20 leading economies in the world by 2020. The representative of the EU Delegation to Nigeria, His Excellency, Ambassador Michael Arrion said 'the objective of the SUFEGOR project is to support Nigeria in its effort to strengthen systems and enhance processes for public service administration to achieve efficient service delivery in various sectors of the Nigerian economy. Specifically, the project contributes to the coordination of government’s reform programme and supports five Federal Agencies in carrying out their core mandates in the reform process namely, policy planning and forecasting, performance monitoring and evaluation, revenue administration and generation, public finance management and development of national statistics.' The NSPSR has a three-phased implementation plan: Reinvigorating the Public Service with emphasis on critical institutional changes Restoring professionalism and client-focus, and delivering effective basic services by 2017 Transforming the Public Service into a valued-based, strong, and well-performing institution by 2020; and, attaining world-class levels of service delivery in the public service by 2025

Culled from Reformer Monthly.