2011 Elections: 4 Dev Partners Donate $80m

The Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsudden Usman, said in Abuja yesterday that four development partners had donated 80 million dollars in support of the nation’s democratic governance and development.

Usman, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC), disclosed this at the signing ceremony of the project document tagged “Democratic Governance for Development in Nigeria (DGD)’’ between the commission and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Our correspondent reports that the donor agencies are the UNDP, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the European Union (EU) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).Usman said the donation was aimed at strengthening the country’s democratic process, and that it would be financed through the reconstituted joint donor basket fund being managed by the UNDP.He said the negotiation of the project document took the relevant stakeholders two years before they agreed to sign it.

`The project document therefore represents a concrete response to the request made by Mr President to the UN Secretary-General for an increased and intensified assistance to electoral reform.“UNDP has rekindled a partnership of like-minded donors such as the UK DFID, EU and CIDA, all of who are committed to consolidating democracy over a project cycle congruent with two elections in 2011 and 2015,’’ Usman said.

In his speech, Mr Daudu Toare, the Resident Representative of UNDP, said the fund was a vote of confidence in Nigeria, and that the donors would allow the project to be owned by Nigeria “as a national agenda’’.

Toare said the donors would also give room for others to join to enable them to strengthen Nigeria’s democratic process.Also speaking, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of INEC, expressed the hope that the support would enable the commission to deliver credible, free and fair elections in 2011.