COMFORT EKELEME
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) has stressed the need for economic procedures to be subjected to critical planning for effective implementation.
FES equally said that there is need to sustain and deepen collaborations with the public sector, private sector, labour organisations, CSOs and other interest groups in policy campaigns and advocacy.
According to FES, shortfalls in economic policy generally and industrial policies being pursued presently with regards to contents, formulation and implementation comprise weak involvement of critical stakeholders, lack of synergy between agencies of government, policy inconsistency and poor/weak policy implementation framework.
In 2016, FES commissioned a study to broadly examine past and existing socio-economic and political policies affecting the state of industrialization in Nigeria.
For the nation to move forward, FES however, called for critical review of institutional frame work to make government economic policies for both short and long term planning have appreciable effect.
FES is a non-profit organization committed to the values of social democracy and economic advancement, and was founded in 1925 as Germany’s first political foundation and bears the name of the first democratically elected president of Germany, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
In the presentation, which was the preliminary report of FES, a German based company made by Dr Omo Aregbeyen from Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, FES called for new approaches to economic policies and governance, stressing that there was inconsistency in the nation’s policy formulation and implementation processes.
He noted that the general poor macroeconomic and business environment is associated with failures of economic policies over the years.
To him, economic policies have failed at virtually every stage of the policy management process in the area of identification and articulation of the problem, specification of the objectives and targets, design of strategies and policy instruments, implementation, evaluation, and feedback.
“There is nothing like continuity and this has to change because it is affecting our development. An example of where continuity has led to capacity building is Lagos State where over the years successive governments have modeled their inputs on foundation laid by their predecessors but at the federal level, the reverse is the case.
He said based on the foregoing, “the conclusion from this study is that to make success of the attempt towards economic development and industrialization agenda of the country requires a renewed, pragmatic and disciplined approach.
In his recommendations he said government should create a stable macro-economic framework/environment; direct the economy along the line stipulated in section 2(a) of the 1999 constitution as amended by returning the country to the path of conscious planning.
Also, that necessary legal initiatives for the amendment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (2007) to make MTDP replace the MTEF (which is not per se a legislative act but a mere endorsement) is required, adding that this legal initiative will henceforth insulate present and future development plans and policies from changes in political leadership at all levels as well as eliminate the prevalence of abandoned projects
The presentation was the preliminary report of a study, the Germany-based private, non-profit organization dedicated to the values of social democracy and economic advancement, commissioned in 2016, to examine past and existing socio-economic and political policies affecting Nigeria’s drive towards industrialization.
For a better society
The post FES harps on critical examination of economic procedures appeared first on Champion Newspapers Limited.