The Imo "Shared Prosperity" Agenda As A Sustainable Development Goal ( SDG)~Prince Eze Ugochukwu.
The Imo State government agenda of "Shared Prosperity" is primarily targeted to lift a large segment of the Imo population out of poverty. This is exactly in-line with the agenda for Sustainable Development Goal, ( SDG), the focus of which, is to reduce inequality and extreme poverty.
Put together, the goal of Imo Shared Prosperity deals with the sustainable development of Imo State. It is built on social needs and demands, economic needs and ecological and environmental improvements. It is about inclusion of the poorest, in social-economic development.
In his inaugural address, the Imo State governor, His Excellency, Chief Hope Uzodinma captured the goal of his administration saying, "“Our New Imo State will enshrine a new culture of SHARED PROSPERITY in which the common wealth of the people is made available for the good of all...Above all, it is a new Imo State that will ensure good governance, prosperity, rule of law and equity".
Following therefrom, it can be said that the ingredients of shared prosperity is ingrained on good goverance, rule of law, and equitable distribution of resources to all strata of society especially the poor.
To achieve this goal, the means of implementation becomes very critical. The need for well functioning and effective institutions for capacity building becomes inevitable.
As with sustainable development, it will require the availability of data of those living in poverty, it will require capacity building of institutions and personnel to drive the agenda, for example the bureaucracy; can the bureaucracy help to strengthen the agenda. It will require funding and allocation of resources, the involvement of critical stakeholders is necessary including Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Trade Unions and Business Organizations.
We must strive for a well functioning business environment. New legal and regulatory frameworks are needed to simplify bottlenecks, enable ease of doing business, and position Imo State as a leading business and investment hub and destination.
The State must provide easy access to land for business development and wealth creation, support elimination of all kinds of double taxations and fees and considerably reduce delays in business adjudications by providing alternative conflict resolution mechanisms. This will give comfort to potential investors.
The objective of shared prosperity is for progressive societal transformation and satisfaction of human needs and aspirations.The emphasis as we said earlier, centres on the needs of the poor. A pro-poor growth agenda, carefully engineered by the Imo State government in partnership with all stakeholders.
Implementation of the agenda requires the bureaucrats and public servants to help deliver the agenda, and in some cases, emulate what is happenning elsewhere? Government must address systemic issues within the bureaucracy to untangle any bottlenecks in policy implementation. Have the activities of the civil service helped to drive the agenda.
The training and retraining of the workforce is laudable. It appears that Governor Uzodinma clearly understood the need for efficient drivers of his shared prosperity agenda, when he directed the; "overhaul of the bureaucratic structures to entrench strict adherence to extant laws, procedures and statutes to achieve efficient service delivery" (unquote).
Equally, there is need to balance resource allocation between the urban and rural areas. Cities are responsible for 70% of resource consumption but occupy 2% of land space. How can rural areas benefit more from government spending, bearing in mind that the main goal of any development is to achieve a prosperous society.
A factor that secures prosperity is the improvement of infrastructure namely, water, energy, roads, waste management, labour productivity, skills aquisition, cheap and inter-connected transport system, and agricultural production. These are main indicators of prosperity. To succeed, we have to accept that it is everyone's business to fight poverty both public and private sector players. We all need to step-up. Currently, the government of Chief Hope Uzodinma is tackling infrastructure head-on in most of the sectors mentioned.
On the part of the government, there is need to utilize all available channels to mobilize revenue to be able to embark on social programmes in education and healthcare etc. In this era of low crude oil earnings, how can government fund the shared prosperity agenda?
The answer lies with increase in resource mobilization through efficient and digitalized administration of the tax system, which is being accomplished at the moment by the Imo State government, bringing more people within the tax bracket, curtailing tax evasion, formalizing the informal artisanship and trading sector. It is equally important to seek international development cooperation. This remains an important source of development finance and helps to supplement the budget. This has been achieved leading to increase in internally generated revenue.
International development partners include the World Bank agencies like Newmap, Unicef, WHO, RAMP, etc, the United States USAID, Ford Foundation, the United Kingdom DFID, the Afrieximbank and the AfDB etc. Payment of counterpart funding for projects will lead to inflow of foreign funds. Again, there are domestic agencies and institutions at the federal level. Aligning with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Bank of Agriculture, the Bank of Industry, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency ( SMEDAN) the NIRSAL for agric funding, etc is necessary to tap into funds, as they have one form of development program or another ranging from agric, SME's and industry. Interesting, Governor Uzodinma has held meetings with some of these institutions.
Private Sector participation can help to share prosperity among the people. Companies doing business within the state should be encouraged to step-up there Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.This will enhance the lives of the people especially in our oil producing communities, in view of the degradation of their environment. Helping to solve local challenges will help the companies retain local legitimacy. The good news is that government has maintained open channels with oil and gas companies and other key players in the economy of the state.
To pull-off the shared posperity agenda, media activism in support of the program is crucial. If the government choose to partner with the local media, information, enlightenment and orientation can be disseminated to the population effortlessly. This will enable the masses key-into the program of government.
In today's world, we cannot migrate into shared prosperity without technology playing a vital role. We must improve our digital literacy, upscale and improve access of women and youths to training opportunities, employ technology to reduce cost of governance through cheaper, faster, and more efficient service delivery and having data accuracy.
Agricultural development remains the key to putting food on the table for our people. There are vast funding opportunities out there especially with the CBN, the Bank of Agriculture and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, (NIRSAL). We need to increase the cultivation of priority crops likes rice seedling, cassava, palm fruits, etc, with accompanying value chains. The CBN guidelines towards Anchor Borrowers and co-operatives require proper documentation and data and this calls for agro data capture of agro practitioners in all the local government areas. Today, the Imo State government is providing Imo farmers and entrepreneurs access to funding from federal government institutions.
Education remains a pathway out of poverty. Lack of education disproportionately impacts on students from low-income families. The government can leverage on opportunities offered by qualitative education to checkmate rise in crimes.
By embracing continuity in governance, Governor Hope Uzodinma been a man of persistency and determination has shown clearly that good politics leads to good policies, and creates good incentives while generating economic growth.
Prince Eze Ugochukwu wrote from Nkwerre, Imo State.
