ANEEJ CHAIRS PLENARY OF NACS ROUNDTABLE & CSO ENGAGEMENT
The very first National Anti-Corruption Strategy Roundtable took place at the Barcelona Hotels, Abuja on 30th October, 2018. It had in attendance, the Representative of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Representative of the Executive Secretary, PACAC, Development Partners such as Trust Africa, Anti-corruption agencies and a broad range of CSOs. The objective of the Roundtable was to review the National Anti-Corruption Strategy with a specific emphasis on the engagement of CSOs.
The meeting has a plenary session with speeches for the AG, Director of CDD, Trust Africa, One Campaign and others. It then had two panels, with various breaks and interactive sessions in between. From the Plenary session which provided updates on the implementation of the NACS, the following information was provided with regard to the implementation of the Strategy:
- Secretariat of NACS established
- Technical committee for implementation established
- Implementation plan validated
- Regional sensitization programme for 6 geopolitical zones to commence imminently
- M&E committee for implementation of strategy established
- CSOs are to be main drivers of strategy as the strategy is intended to be a grassroots strategy.
From the various panels, the following issues/ideas were highlighted:
- The public enlightenment and ethical reorientation components of the strategy provide the main inroads for non-state actors to play significant roles
- It is important that strategies like this are connected to things that people care about in terms of development, to provide incentives for them to act
- CSOs should stop working in silos and start prioritizing collaboration
- CSOs should be integrated beyond invitations to decision-making processes
- The capacity of MDS in the area of engaging CSOs should be enhanced: MDAs should all have civil society engagement plans
- NACS should be simplified if it is to be a truly grassroots strategy
- There should be a possible quantification and valuation of the cost and benefits of the strategy.
ANEEJ director of policy and research, Dr Matthew Ayibakuro, represented the Rev David Ugolor, executive director at the NACS meet and chaired a plenary session on the strategy generally before the commencement of the panel.