Lagos reviews health, environment policies, identifies data gaps
The Lagos State Government has reviewed policies guiding the implementation of its health and environment programmes, identifying data gaps and quality as areas requiring improvement to enhance service delivery.
Mr Oladele Oyatope, the Director, Policy Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation (PAME), Office of the Secretary to the State Government, Cabinet Office, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
Oyatope said the review was conducted during a Public Policy Engagement Session with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), focusing on the second pillar of the administration’s THEMES Plus agenda – health and environment.
He said that the session examined existing policies, their implementation, achievements and results, with the objective of determining areas requiring improvement.
“Essentially, what we have come to do is to look at how far we have gone with achieving the agenda of the current government in the area of providing services to the people,” the director said.
According to him, participants examined the goals and key indicators under the health and environment pillar and assessed the policies established to drive implementation.
Oyatope said that the session also focused on data gaps and data quality, stressing that the availability of data was not enough unless its reliability and quality could be established.
“We talked about data gaps that we have and then how to fill those data gaps. We also talked about data quality, that a lot of data that are out there, how reliable are they? What’s the quality of the data that is available to us?” he said.
Oyatope said the next step was for participating MDAs to return to their respective organisations and identify policies requiring review, as well as missing data needed to accurately assess their performance.
He said that the agencies would also be expected to properly implement their policies and track performance to ensure that government interventions produced value for Lagos residents.
He urged the participating MDAs to return with renewed commitment to reviewing their existing policy frameworks, improving implementation and monitoring results.
Oyatope said that public policy should be a documented statement of intent backed by strategies for achieving specific objectives.
He explained that government policies should respond to identified problems and clearly state what government intended to do, how it would achieve its objectives and the actors responsible for implementation.
Also, Dr Nifesimi Akinnagbe, the Technical Assistant to the Permanent Secretary on Executive Order Implementation, Lagos State Health Management Agency, said that the programme highlighted the importance of documenting policies guiding government interventions.
Akinnagbe said the the Lagos State Health Management Agency had several policies, including those relating to social health insurance, but needed a comprehensive compendium bringing the various policies together.
He said such a document would enable residents to understand the importance of the policies, their benefits, requirements and expected outcomes.
Mr Babajide Adeoye, Director, Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, said that several environmental policies required review, because some were formulated many years ago and might no longer adequately reflect current realities.
Adeoye identified flood management, waste management, environmental protection, effluent discharge, contamination and pollution control as areas requiring continuous policy review.
He said that the society was constantly evolving, making it necessary for government to review policies regularly and ensure that they remained relevant to contemporary challenges.
Adeoye also called for greater collaboration among government agencies, saying that agencies could not effectively address complex challenges while operating in silos.
Dr Ayokunle Omileye, Assistant Chief Veterinary Officer, Department of Veterinary Services, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, described the programme as interactive and impactful.
Omileye said that the session had exposed areas where government agencies could improve their policy implementation and deliverables.
He said that some policies within the ministry of Agriculture had been reviewed.
Omileye, however, said that there was a need to work with the Office of the Secretary to the State Government and Cabinet Office to ensure that relevant policies were gazetted and made available in the public domain.
The participants also discussed the importance of reviewing policies to keep them in tune with current realities, noting that where gazetted policies were reviewed, the revised policies should undergo the appropriate gazetting process. (NAN)www.nannews.ng
