The Lagos government has urged ministries, departments and agencies to align their policies and programmes with the Lagos State Development Plan 2052.


Oladele Oyatope, the head of the Policy Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation Department at the Cabinet Office, made the call on Thursday in Ikeja.


He spoke at a policy engagement session with MDAs, focusing on health and environment, the second pillar of the administration’s THEMES Plus agenda.


Mr Oyatope said the development plan should guide government interventions and set measurable targets to assess progress. He said the plan embodied Lagos’ long-term vision of creating a human-centric city with affordable, world-class education, healthcare and social services.


According to him, public servants must understand their roles in delivering the promises contained in the development plan.


He described public policy as an instrument through which government articulates what it wants to achieve and how it intends to achieve it.


Mr Oyatope said the plan contained 21 focus areas, with healthcare identified as Focus Area 10. He said the healthcare component sought to provide high-quality, affordable and accessible healthcare for residents.


He added that the plan also sought to position Lagos among Africa’s top five medical tourism destinations.


Mr Oyatope said achieving the objectives required government agencies to develop appropriate policies and strategies and set indicators to measure progress. He cited social health insurance as one strategy for achieving affordable healthcare, but questioned whether a comprehensive policy document clearly outlined its provisions and benefits.


He said Lagos had domesticated the national social health insurance law, along with various regulatory and operational documents. However, Oyatope said they needed to distinguish those documents from a comprehensive policy document accessible to the public.


He said information published separately on agencies’ websites was useful but did not necessarily constitute a single, comprehensive policy document.

(NAN)