TRAINING FOR CSOs ON OGP AND UNCAC REVIEW MECHANISM ORGANIZED BY ANEEJ
TRAINING FOR CSOs ON OGP AND UNCAC REVIEW MECHANISM ORGANIZED BY ANEEJ ON MARCH 29-30, 2017 AT THE GRAND IBRO HOTEL ANNEX, ABUJA
BACKGROUND
ANEEJ organized a 2-day training for selected Civil Society organizations from Wednesday 29th – Thursday 30th March, 2017. The workshop was designed to;
- Train participants on the concept of OGP and the implementation of UNCAC in Nigeria including the second UNCAC review process.
- Prepare CSOs to participate in the 2nd UNCAC review circle
- Bring focal persons involved in the implementation of OGP and UNCAC review process to meet with CSOs
About 35 participants (13 females and 22 males) attended including CSOs, representative from Ministry of Justice/OGP secretariat and EFCC. This was part of activities lined up under the “Civil Society Advocacy to Support Anti-Corruption in Nigeria (CASAN)” project which ANEEJ is currently implementing. The CASAN project is supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the European Union (EU) founded 10th European Development Fund (EDF).
ANEEJ WELCOME ADDRESS
In an address of welcome, ANEEJ executive director, the Rev David Ugolor, said that the workshop was targeted at getting a number of CSOs to understand what the Federal Government is currently doing regarding two important processes so that they will be able to engage the relevant government agencies taking lead in the implementation of such initiatives. The processes we are referring to here are the;
- Iimplementation of Open Government Partnership (OGP) and;
- the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)
Rev Ugolor said, ANEEJ expected that the workshop should enhance knowledge of participants on the OGP and UNCAC implementation and review in Nigeria and they should be able to apply the knowledge to support their policy advocacy around the issues. In addition to journalist being able to use their platform to report the issues they learnt during the workshop, participants would be expected to identify entry points for CSOs in the implementation of OGP and UNCAC review.
GOODWILL MESSAGES
Ministry of Justice, MOJ – Team Head, OGP, in the anti-corruption department in the Ministry of Justice, Cynthia Ojukwu, said that the OGP is a driver of transparency in governance and its existence in Nigeria has given life to the FOI. According to Ojukwu, because some MDAs do not even understand the concept of the OGP, the Attorney General of the Federation had already given instructions to MDAs to organise their own workshops in line with the template that ANEEJ had already established with the training workshop on OGP. Highlights of her message included the following that the MOJ is developing a communications strategy to develop a platform for taking OGP to the grassroots.
Mr. Modibbo Hamman Tukur, Head External Cooperation at EFCC and Chairman 2nd UNCAC Review Circle in Nigeria – expressed support to the ANEEJ CASAN project and urged organizers not to water it down because it is an oversight function expected of CSOs. He said he would write a memo to the AGF permit the release of the self-assessment checklist to CSOs and that CSOs have opportunity to participate in the review process. He added that the country visit will be around May 10 – 11, 2017. He also said that the EFCC will publish the executive summary of the self-assessment report on Nigeria the UNCAC Review, which will be available even two years after the Review process.
CASAN PROJECT OVERVIEW
INNOCENT Edemhanria presented an overview of CASAN project as a mechanism which enhances the capacity of CSOs to support the anti-corruption effort of the Nigerian government. According to Mr. Edemhanria, ANEEJ is interested in specific areas of the UNCAC Review Process which captures Chapter 2 of UNCAC – preventive measures and Chapter 5 focussing on asset recovery. ANEEJ is also interested in implementation of OGP and how CSOs can be fully involved in both processes.
PRESENTATIONS
- Identifying and using red flags to monitor procurement processes – Mukuolu Adeshina, BPP representative
- Role of CSOs in implementing open contracting data standard – Mukuolu Adeshina, BPP
- Overview of Nigeria’s Open Government Partnership Commitments – Stanley Achonu, Operations Manager Budgit/Coordinator of Open Alliance Nigeria.
- Implementing OGP in Nigeria: The role of CSOs – Stanley Achonu,
- Understanding UNCAC & its Review Process Mechanism in Nigeria – Lukeman Adefolahan – Zero Corruption Coalition
- Group work: Identify level of implementation of the UNCAC chapters under review and come up with recommendations – Lukeman Adefolahan
Some of the presentations can be found on the links bellow;
https://www.aneej.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Open-Contracting-Principles-Inception-Meeting-.pdf
https://www.aneej.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/UNCAC-PRESENTATION-ANEEJ.pdf
https://www.aneej.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Review-of-Nigerias-OGP-Commitment.pdf
https://www.aneej.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/LOWG-2014-Workplan.pdf
OUTCOME
There was considerable media attention for the project during the workshop as the twitter analytics of the event showed over 1.1 million impressions. See attached analytics
The Bureau of Public Procurement, ANEEJ major partner in the delivery of the training, leverages on the opportunity to present the yet to be launched open contracting portal and got useful feedback to improve the portal.
Civil society have done independent assessment of Nigeria’s implementation of UNCAC with respect to some Articles in Chapters II and IV for which they are now prepared to meet with the official from the reviewing countries during the country visit scheduled for May 8 – 12, 2017. See attached harmonised statement from Abuja and Lagos workshop
Following the workshop and previous meetings ANEEJ had with UNCAC review secretariat and focal persons, the secretariat has recognised ANEEJ work on the issue and invited ANEEJ to participate in the UNCAC review preparations.
Following the workshop, participants are now applying the knowledge to engage the issues. See link to media from SERDEC
http://nigeriantimes.ng/news/serdec-calls-for-launch-of-nigerias-open-contracting-portal/, https://breaking.com.ng/nigeria/serdec-calls-for-launch-of-nigerias-open-contracting-portal/
Some of the participants and even other persons and organisations reached through media publication are now engaging government on the issue through the media. See snap shot of twitter engagement.
Extensive media report of the workshop and the issue
https://guardian.ng/news/aneej-stresses-journalists-csos-roles-in-anti-graft-campaign/
http://nigeriantimes.ng/news/aneej-trains-csos-on-open-government-partnership/
http://nigeriantimes.ng/news/aneej-trains-csos-on-open-government-partnership/
http://nigeriantimes.ng/news/aneej-trains-csos-on-open-government-partnership/
http://nigeria.shafaqna.com/EN/NG/4466676
A link to the UNCAC Civil Society Coalition in the ANEEJ workshop.
http://uncaccoalition.org/en_US/successful-civil-society-training-in-nigeria-on-the-uncac-review-mechanism-and-the-open-government-partnership/