Welcome to the Connected Development (CODE) Children’s Day 2026 Composition Competition
Theme: “The SDGs and the Future We Want”
Connected Development (CODE) invites students from public secondary schools across Nigeria to participate in the 2026 Children’s Day Composition Competition.
This competition provides young people with an opportunity to creatively share their thoughts, ideas, and solutions on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can help build a better future for Nigeria and the world.
Eligibility
The competition is open to:
Junior Secondary School Students (JS1 – JS3)
Senior Secondary School Students (SS1 – SS3)
Applicants must currently attend a public secondary school in Nigeria.
Composition Guidelines
Entries must be original and written by the student submitting the application.
Submissions must be written in English.
AI-generated or plagiarized entries will be automatically disqualified.
Students are encouraged to share personal ideas, experiences, and creative solutions.
Parents, teachers, or guardians may guide students, but the writing must remain entirely the student’s own work.
Word Count
Junior Secondary Category (JS1–JS3): 400–600 words
Senior Secondary Category (SS1–SS3): 700–1,000 words
Format Requirements
Typed submissions are preferred.
Handwritten entries must be neat and clearly readable.
Only one entry is allowed per student.
Submission Deadline
9th June 2026
Late submissions will not be considered.
Evaluation Criteria
Entries will be assessed based on:
Understanding of the Theme
Demonstrates clear knowledge of the SDGs and the future students envision.
Originality and Creativity
Presents fresh ideas, unique perspectives, and creative thinking.
Clarity and Organization
Ideas are well-structured, easy to understand, and logically presented.
Grammar and Language Use
Proper use of English language, spelling, punctuation, and sentence construction.
Practical Solutions and Impact
Shows thoughtful solutions or actions that can contribute to positive change.
We look forward to reading your inspiring ideas and learning about the future you want to see.
In 2025, one thing became clear to us again and again: the accountability systems that last are built by people, and these people are the mentors and girls who keep showing up week after week. These people are our state support officers and Follow the Money leads who consistently and constantly return to the site one more time. These people are the families in the grassroots who rely on us to ensure their voices are not left behind. They are the ones carrying this work forward, and quiet frankly, this report belongs to them. Read the full report here
By Ogbonna Amarachi Onyeyirichi, Chinedu Emmanuel Odah, and Tajuddeen Garba Muhammed
Every year on March 8, the world pauses to celebrate women. Songs are sung, speeches are made, and social media is filled with tributes. But what is the use of this yearly celebration if it is neither backed by actions nor women-centred? This year’s theme, “Give to Gain,” is not merely a rallying cry. It is a challenge to every individual, institution, and government: what are you willing to give, so that women can gain equal opportunities across all sectors, including the home? We should not just mark the day. We should ask the harder question: what are we giving, and what are women gaining?
While global efforts to empower women are laudable, one cannot help but notice that these efforts do not fully centre women. Whenever individuals, development practitioners, governments, and relevant stakeholders evaluate the profitability of investing in women, they often speak in terms of the benefits accruing to others as a result of women’s empowerment. For example, development practitioners posit that economically empowering women improves household food security and nutrition, especially for children, which is a great outcome. But how does investing in women’s economic empowerment undo the patriarchy of family meals to accommodate women’s dietary needs over the course of their lives?
According to medical professionals, women and men have the same recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein at the baseline. As women age, their protein needs increase due to hormonal changes. However, men are culturally entitled to having more protein than women and children across cultures. In the Nigerian context, for instance, the majority of households are multidimensionally poor and can barely afford meat. Yet, even in this scarcity, men’s access to protein sources is prioritised over women’s, although the RDA is the same. But when we measure the impact of investing in women’s economic empowerment on nutrition, we centre the nutrition of children and the entire household, and ignore women’s nutrition. Although the effort to empower women is a step forward, it seems like baptizing patriarchy to mimic gender equality.
Therefore, the theme for the 2026 International Women’s Day (IWD) is a call to action for the world to redirect the focus of women’s empowerment efforts towards women themselves. It simply asks: what will you give to gain gender equality in all aspects of women’s lives? In Nigeria, as in many parts of the world, women continue to navigate spaces that diminish rather than develop them. Even in homes, the spaces that should be the safest, many women endure abuse that rarely makes headlines. Do you remember the tragic story of gospel singer Osinachi Nwachukwu, a case that became a national moment of grief and outrage? Yet for every Osinachi whose story reached the public, there are thousands more whose pain is absorbed in silence, covered by long sleeves, masked by forced smiles, and buried under the weight of social expectation.
Abuse does not always arrive as a blow. Sometimes it comes as words. As control. As isolation. The message is always the same: you are not enough, and you are lucky to be here. When a woman is raised to believe that marriage is a privilege rather than a partnership, that lie becomes her cage. This is not just a personal crisis. It is a social one. Because children are always watching. A boy who grows up watching his father dominate may grow up believing control is love. A girl who watches her mother endure may grow up believing pain is normal. Trauma becomes culture. Silence becomes inheritance. So, what can we give to gain women’s safety within their homes? The answer lies in equipping society, especially men, with the right knowledge on navigating equality in gendered partnerships, both inside and outside the home.
Let’s take a look at how CODE is approaching this. To mark IWD 2026, Community Park and CODE jointly organised a wellness event that centred on women’s hormonal health, an event well attended by both men and women. Through expert discussions and lived experiences shared during the event, CODE used its resources to give the public knowledge on women’s health, to gain understanding and support for women going through various hormonal issues such as menopause, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and fibroids. Also, through CODE’s partnership with the Malala Fund, it has worked to keep girls in schools across underserved communities in Nigeria, especially in the Northern region, through positive mentorship. Education is the single most transformative investment in a girl’s life. It creates the kind of woman who knows her value not because someone told her, but because she has built the evidence herself.
At CODE, we advocate for gender balance. Our organisational structures, hiring frameworks, and leadership pathways are intentionally designed to promote equality and equity. Women at CODE are not just beneficiaries of our work; they lead it. We engage men and boys as partners, not bystanders, because true gender equality can only be achieved by including men in these conversations, enabling them to unlearn harmful patriarchal beliefs and relearn values that allow them to view women with respect and as equal partners. When communities understand that empowered women have more agency, economic independence, and self-reliance, enabling them to raise healthier families and build stronger economies, the conversation shifts from concession to conviction. Therefore, the question must shift: not “what is the world giving women so that the world can gain,” but “what is the world giving women so that women can gain.”
The Digital Mobilization Lab (DML) Fellowship 2026 – Cohort 2 is a 12-week youth-focused civic engagement program by Connected Development (CODE). The fellowship runs from March to May 2026 and is designed for young Nigerians ready to engage in governance, digital advocacy, and community mobilization.
Applicants must be 18–30 years old and available throughout the fellowship period. Priority will be given to women, persons with disabilities (PWD), and applicants from underserved communities.
Please complete this form honestly. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
I used to describe education as a pathway to development. It sounded measured, policy-friendly, and safe. But in communities where girls disappear from classrooms before they turn sixteen, development feels too small a word for what is at stake. Education, especially for girls, is about power. It is about who is seen, who is heard, and who is allowed to imagine a future without apology.
Governments across the world have endorsed frameworks such as Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education, SDG 5 on gender equality, and SDG 10 on reduced inequality. Progress on paper appears encouraging. Gender gaps in primary enrolment have narrowed in many regions and more girls are in school today than two decades ago.
But it is common knowledge that statistics do not reveal the full reality.
Women still account for the majority of the world’s illiterate adults. In fragile and conflict-affected settings, progress remains uncertain because millions of girls still fail to complete secondary education. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this weakness when schools closed, and girls carried heavier domestic responsibilities. Many were pushed into early marriage or early motherhood and when schools reopened, not all of them returned.
It is not out of place to say that the crisis in girls’ education is not due to a lack of solutions. We know what improves access and retention. It is a power issue. Poverty, harmful norms, weak accountability, and political neglect determine whose education is treated as urgent and whose can wait. Cultural attitudes toward gender roles shape educational decisions in ways that policy alone cannot reverse. Girls’ education in some parts of the country is still weighed against expectations of early marriage, domestic responsibility, or concerns about safety and reputation. Families may value schooling in principle, yet prioritise sons when resources are limited. Changing these patterns requires sustained dialogue with traditional and religious leaders, engagement with parents, and visible examples of educated women contributing meaningfully to their communities.
This reality is clear in Nigeria. I remember going on an outreach to a secondary school in Yola, Adamawa State, where the headteacher quietly told me that about half of the girls who enrolled three years earlier were no longer there. One had been married at fifteen, another had stopped coming because her family could no longer afford basic supplies, and a few had simply “stopped coming,” as the teacher put it, absorbed into domestic work and responsibilities that leave little room for ambition.
I stood at the back of that classroom to count the girls who remained, and they were fewer than a dozen. I kept wondering not only where the others were, but who had decided that their education could wait. The country has one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world, estimated at more than 18.3 million by UNICEF Nigeria on the Out Of School Children (OOSC) fact sheet in 2022, with girls accounting for over 50 per cent of those not attending school at the basic education level.
Girls carry the heavier burden of exclusion in many northern and rural communities. In parts of the North East and North West, fewer than half of school-age girls attend primary school, and many drop out before moving to secondary school because of cost, insecurity, domestic labour, or early marriage.
Schools have become places of fear in some conflict-affected communities. Improving access to education in such places requires coordinated security arrangements, safe school initiatives, and community-based protection mechanisms that allow parents to trust the journey to and from school. Flexible learning models such as temporary learning centres and accelerated education programmes can help girls who have missed years of schooling reintegrate. Recruiting and training female teachers and mentors with access to safe toilets, or basic learning materials even where classrooms exist will also reassure families and strengthen retention. Policy commitments without these layered protections cannot translate into real attendance, which makes parents hesitate before sending their daughters out each morning.
Nigeria has established the right to free basic education in law and allocates annual budgets for it, but the challenge is implementation and oversight. The perception at the grassroots level is not that government has done nothing, but that promises rarely reach the classroom, parents often speak of projects announced but never completed, teachers posted but never arriving, and budgets approved but never visible. The gap between policy declarations and lived reality fuels skepticism because the question for many families is not whether education is important, but whether the system can be trusted to deliver it, whether communities can track and question those decisions, and whether gender responsive realities shape planning or remain an afterthought.
When we examine girls’ education from a social justice perspective, the questions we ask shift. Instead of simply inquiring about how many girls are enrolled, we begin to consider which girls remain excluded. We also ask who determines how educational resources are distributed and who ultimately benefits from public spending.
Girls from poor and marginalised communities are too often excluded not only by circumstance but by structure. Budgets are prepared without meaningful community input. Projects are implemented without transparency. Gender needs are treated as secondary. Classrooms may be constructed without considering distance, safety, or sanitation. Yet these are the very factors that determine whether a girl can attend and remain in school.
Justice requires participation, accountability, and that those most affected by decisions have real influence over them.
This understanding shapes how I see the work we do at Connected Development through the Girls’ Education Project supported by the Malala Fund. We work to shift power closer to communities and approach girls’ education as citizenship, not charity. The principle is simple. When citizens understand education budgets, track spending, and engage decision makers with evidence, systems become more responsive to girls’ needs.
Parents in one of the communities in Bauchi State where we worked discovered that funds had been allocated for school improvements that never reached the classroom. Using the Follow The Money model and sustained community engagement, the project was revisited and basic facilities, including a girls’ toilet, were completed. Attendance improved because the school environment became safer and more dignified for girls.
In Bauchi, Ningi, Alkaleri, and Zaki Local Government area where GEP operates, parents, traditional leaders, youth, and civil society actors monitor allocations and follow up on implementation. Budget figures become real commitments tied to classrooms, teachers, and facilities. Dialogue challenges harmful norms and reinforces the value of girls’ education as a shared responsibility. Girls are recognised as rights holders with agency.
This is corrective justice in practice. It redistributes civic power, strengthens transparency, and embeds accountability at the community level, turning education governance into a partnership between citizens and the state.
If we are serious about justice, then three shifts are necessary. Education budgets must be transparent and publicly accessible; gender-responsive planning must be standard practice, not an afterthought; and communities must be empowered to monitor and question how resources are used. Without these shifts, policy promises will continue to fall short.
The global consensus on girls’ education is strong, and the economic case is clear, but justice does not happen because policies are signed. It happens when public commitments translate into safe, functional, and inclusive classrooms.
Girls’ schooling remains the frontline of equality because it sits at the intersection of rights, resources, and representation. When a girl receives a quality education, she gains agency, and her family gains resilience. Her community gains leadership, and her society gains a more equitable future.
Girls’ education sits at the intersection of how resources are allocated, whose dignity is affirmed, and who shapes decisions. Investing in that is not simply a development strategy, but a deliberate intervention in how power is distributed and a statement about whose future matters.
The question is no longer whether girls’ education matters. The question is whether we are willing to confront the structures that keep girls at the margins. Until we do, equality remains a promise on paper, and education remains the clearest way to make social justice visible.
In a world where health crises do not respect borders, the difference between a resilient society and a collapsing one often comes down to a single word: accountability. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), effective outbreak response depends not only on medical tools, but on systems that ensure resources reach where they are needed most. When a pandemic strikes or a local outbreak begins to spread, the world needs more than doctors, vaccines, and hospitals. It needs systems that work. It needs confidence that money set aside for health security actually reaches the frontline, where lives are saved or lost. This is the quiet battleground of global health, and Nigeria’s experience makes this reality impossible to ignore.
The COVID-19 pandemic made this painfully clear. Reports by the WHO and the World Bank documented how hospitals ran out of oxygen, laboratories struggled to confirm cases, and surveillance systems failed to detect outbreaks early in many countries. Communities were left exposed not because solutions did not exist, but because systems were not prepared to deploy them. One of the most overlooked reasons for this failure was not science or technology, but accountability. Health funds were announced, allocated, and celebrated, yet their journey from budget documents to real protection for people often remained invisible.
To understand why this matters, it helps to simplify the language of global health. Terms like health security or epidemic preparedness can sound distant or technical, but they describe something deeply human. The WHO and the Global Health Security Agenda describe health security as the collective ability to prevent, detect, and respond to disease threats before they spiral into crises. Epidemic preparedness means having functioning laboratories, trained health workers, early warning systems, and emergency funds ready before an outbreak begins, not after it is already out of control.
The problem is that across the world, including in Nigeria, there is a silent leak. Global health financing analyses by the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have shown that while billions of dollars are pledged to health every year, significant portions are lost to delayed disbursement, inefficiency, or weak oversight. When money meant for laboratories, surveillance, or emergency response is not fully utilised, the consequence is not abstract. People die because systems are too weak to catch threats in time.
Nigeria’s experience brings this reality into sharp focus. As Africa’s most populous country and a major regional hub, Nigeria’s health security is inseparable from global health security. According to Nigeria’s federal budget documents and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the country has made important commitments to domestic health financing, including funds earmarked for epidemic preparedness and response. In 2023, Nigeria allocated tens of millions of dollars to the NCDC Gateway Fund, a domestic resource designed to strengthen disease detection, laboratory capacity, and rapid response.
Yet allocation alone does not equal protection. Civil society budget reviews and NCDC situation reports have shown that without timely and publicly accessible information on how and when funds are disbursed, frontline health workers and communities are left guessing. In practice, this has meant delayed procurement of laboratory equipment, unpaid surveillance staff, and community alerts ignored because diagnostic systems were under-resourced. During the 2022 Lassa fever surge, NCDC reports highlighted how delays in confirming cases linked to overstretched laboratories contributed to higher fatality rates in affected states. The lesson is stark: when health funding lacks transparency, outbreaks spread faster, containment fails earlier, and the risks do not remain local.
This is why health funding accountability is not a technical issue reserved for policy experts. Global health bodies, including the WHO, have consistently emphasised that accountability is central to preparedness and response. It is a matter of survival and the foundation of trust between governments and the people they serve.
This reality is what gave rise to the Global Health Advocacy Indicator (GHAI). According to its concept framework, GHAI asks a simple but powerful question: Can citizens see where health security funds go, and can they demand answers when those funds fail to deliver results? This question matters far beyond Nigeria. It speaks to every country where opaque budgets weaken preparedness and erode public trust. GHAI shifts attention from promises made to actions taken, from announcements to outcomes.
In Nigeria, Connected Development (CODE) has translated this principle into action. Through its #TrackBHCPF (Basic Health Care Provision Fund) initiative, CODE tracks health funds linked to epidemic preparedness, maps disbursements, and compares spending against stated objectives, as documented in its public reports and field findings. Just as importantly, the initiative equips citizens, journalists, and community advocates with the tools to understand budgets, ask informed questions, and engage decision-makers directly.
This work goes beyond monitoring. As shown in CODE’s project briefs, it builds bridges between village clinics and national finance institutions, between grassroots advocates and global health partners. It treats accountability not as paperwork, but as infrastructure, something that must be built, maintained, and defended. The capstone project tracking BHCPF–NCDC Gateway Funds reflects this approach, strengthening transparency so existing resources work harder and faster.
What makes this work especially relevant is its reach beyond Nigeria. Evidence from transparency and accountability initiatives across the Global South, including studies cited by the World Bank, shows that when citizens can follow the money, systems respond better. Transparency reduces waste, improves service delivery, and saves lives, not because more money suddenly appears, but because leakage is reduced and priorities become clearer.
The broader implication is unavoidable. Health funding accountability is not a Nigerian problem; it is one of the most critical bottlenecks in global health security. Global preparedness reviews have repeatedly warned that when accountability is weak, early warning systems fail, supply chains break down, and emergency responses come too late. Accountability does not weaken governments; it strengthens them by ensuring that investments deliver real protection.
The next outbreak is not a question of if, but when. As global health experts continue to warn, the world cannot afford to face it with the same blind spots. Health funding must be visible. Decisions must be explainable. Systems must answer to the people whose lives depend on them.
Health funding accountability is not just about money. It is about preparedness, trust, and justice. In Nigeria, as everywhere else, the path to a safer world begins with making every health naira count.
Connected Development (CODE), a leading non-profit organisation advancing social accountability and citizen participation in governance, has launched a new project titled “Tracking BHCPF NCDC Gateway Funds for Strengthening Health Security in Nigeria (Project Track – BHCPF).” The initiative is an analysis and capstone project of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, supported by Resolve To Save Lives, led by Hyeladzira James Mshelia and Abdulazeez Abdulmalik Hussaini, aimed at improving transparency, accountability, and domestic financing for health security and epidemic preparedness in Nigeria.
The Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) remains the country’s primary domestic financing mechanism for strengthening the health system. Within this framework, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) gateway is the only BHCPF channel that directly supports disease surveillance, outbreak response, laboratory systems, and emergency coordination. However, despite the introduction of BHCPF 2.0 in October 2025 by the Nigerian government, which strengthened accountability and performance expectations, public visibility into NCDC gateway disbursements and utilisation remains limited, as Nigeria’s epidemic preparedness and response capacity depends significantly on sustained domestic financing for health security.
This project seeks to address critical accountability and evidence gaps that undermine effective epidemic preparedness and response. Increased domestic financing commitments have not been matched with transparent utilisation data, weakening performance assessment and constraining policy-relevant advocacy. Through this initiative, CODE aims to generate actionable evidence within six months (January–June 2026) to support improved oversight, learning, and sustained investment in health security.
Project Track BHCPF will apply CODE’s proven #FollowTheMoney accountability methodology, combining Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, policy and guideline reviews, administrative data analysis, and a focused sub-national case study to assess preparedness outcomes. Advocacy efforts will include the production of policy briefs aligned with national budget and oversight cycles, structured engagement with oversight bodies and decision-makers, and strategic media engagement to strengthen public accountability.
Strategic stakeholders for the project include the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the Ministerial Oversight Committee on BHCPF, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, State Ministries of Health and Emergency Operations Centres, as well as civil society and media partners.
The project is designed to deliver measurable outcomes, including improved transparency on NCDC gateway disbursements, independent evidence to support oversight and performance assessment, stronger data-driven advocacy for domestic health security financing, and a replicable accountability framework for tracking health security investments.
“This is a timely response to the critical need for transparency and accountability in how domestic resources for epidemic preparedness are utilised, and also strengthening health security is not only about funding, but about accountability and learning,” said Hyeladzira James Mshelia, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Connected Development.
With Project Track – BHCPF, Connected Development hopes to continue in its commitment to advancing transparency, accountability, and citizen-driven oversight in Nigeria’s health sector, while ensuring that domestic health security financing translates into measurable preparedness and resilience outcomes.
Signed Nankpak Cirfat Communications Officer – Media Relations Connected Development (CODE)
A few days ago, I discussed tax compliance with a friend who runs a display shop in Mararaba Market, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, in Nigeria’s North-Central region. As we talked, other shop owners joined the conversation, phone sellers, tailors, and traders hustling to survive one day at a time. Different businesses, same worry.
People are not just afraid of paying taxes; they are afraid of being forgotten after paying. For many small business owners, taxes feel like another demand from a system that rarely shows up when it matters most. This shared concern explains why many Nigerians are anxious about the new tax system that took effect on January 1, 2026.
For many Nigerians, taxation is not just about deductions from income; it is about memory. Roads that were never repaired. Hospitals that never improved. Budgets that never translated into better lives. Emergency services are meant for everyone, but are accessed by only a few. Basic amenities meant to be shared, yet unevenly distributed. For many, scepticism is not rebellion; it is lived experience speaking.
From our work at Connected Development (CODE), one thing is clear here, that Nigeria’s challenge is rarely the absence of laws or reforms. The real problem is the weak link between public contribution and public accountability.
For me, this issue is personal. In my professional journey, I have seen how access to information and citizen participation can change outcomes. When people understand systems, budgets, contracts, or public funds, they move from frustration to engagement. The same lesson applies to taxation.
One of the biggest fears is that the new tax system simply means taking more money from people who are already struggling. But from my professional view as an accountant, the intention of this reform is different. It is designed to reduce pressure on low-income earners while ensuring that those who earn more contribute their fair share. For many average Nigerians, deductions are meant to be gradual, not punitive.
Still, one hard truth remains: good policy intentions alone do not rebuild trust. Trust grows when people can see results.
So, why does Compliance matter, even when trust is low? From our experience with the Follow The Money initiative, one lesson stands out: what cannot be traced cannot be challenged.
Let me explain it simply. When businesses and individuals operate completely outside the tax system, public money becomes harder to track. Records are weak, oversight is limited, and misuse becomes easier to hide. In simple put, compliance creates visibility, visibility creates data, and data strengthens our ability to ask informed questions.
Paying tax is not an endorsement of government performance. It is a claim to citizenship, documentation, and voice. You cannot meaningfully ask, “Where is our money?” if, on paper, you are not part of the system funding it.
Truth be told, public scepticism is rooted in real experiences. In many states in Nigeria, for example, education budgets existed on paper while classrooms lacked basic learning conditions, and pupils quietly dropped out of school. Many communities did not know what funds were approved, when they were released, or who was responsible for implementation. Similar patterns appear across sectors, health, water, and social services, where citizens are meant to benefit but lack the information needed to ask questions.
Distrust does not come from a refusal to contribute. It comes from watching public systems operate without explanation. Yet, these same experiences show that when spending becomes visible, when communities are informed, and when government is pushed to explain how money is used, engagement changes. Compliance moves from blind obligation to a conscious expectation of value.
At CODE, we have tracked public funds meant for schools, health centres, water projects, and livelihoods. Time and again, we have seen how citizen engagement helps close the gap between allocation and real impact.
Tax compliance should not stop at payment. It should continue with civic engagement, asking how funds are allocated, tracking implementation, and demanding transparency from those in power. A tax system without accountability deepens frustration, and accountability cannot survive without citizen participation. This is why movements like #FollowTheMoney matter.
Taxes are part of a social contract. Like many reforms before it, the new tax system will only matter if Nigerians stay engaged beyond compliance. Paying tax should strengthen our collective voice and not silence it. When we contribute, stay informed, and organise together, taxation becomes a pathway to justice, not just a revenue tool.
At the end, the real question is not whether Nigerians should pay taxes. The question is whether we will finally use our collective contributions to demand better.
Organization: Connected Development (CODE) Location: Abuja, Nigeria Employment Type: Full-time Application Deadline: January 27th, 2025.
About Connected Development (CODE)
Connected Development (CODE) is a leading African civil society organization, founded in 2012, that empowers marginalized communities through technology, open data, and social accountability to demand transparency and better governance from their governments
As part of our growth and expanding program portfolio, CODE is seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented programs officer to support the design, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of our projects and initiatives.
Role Summary
The Programs Officer will support the effective delivery of CODE’s programs by providing programmatic, administrative, research, and financial support across multiple projects. The role requires strong coordination skills, analytical thinking, reporting ability, and a deep interest in governance, development, and accountability work.
Key Responsibilities
The Programs Officer will:
Research contextual and operational factors that may impact the success of CODE’s projects
Work closely with the programs and research teams to document project requirements and provide informed input
Monitor project objectives, activities, and milestones, and prepare regular progress reports
Develop work plans and action plans, and track progress toward project goals
Support the development of promotional and program-related materials
Manage project documentation, relational databases, and reporting systems
Monitor project expenditures and assist in budget tracking and financial reporting
Support fundraising efforts by identifying funding opportunities and contributing to proposal development
Prepare operational, narrative, and statistical reports to support decision-making
Support or lead the planning and coordination of program-related meetings, trainings, conferences, and convenings
Represent CODE at meetings, trainings, and conferences when required
Draft reports, briefs, speeches, grants, and other written materials related to CODE projects
Provide programmatic, administrative, and financial support to additional CODE projects as assigned
Perform other related duties necessary to support CODE’s mission
Required Qualifications & Skills
Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Public Policy, Project Management, or a related field (Master’s degree is an advantage)
At least 2–4 years experience supporting development or civic programs
Strong research, monitoring, and reporting skills
Experience with budgeting, expenditure tracking, and donor reporting is an advantage
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong organizational and multitasking abilities
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment
Commitment to CODE’s mission of transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement
Why Join CODE
Opportunity to work on impactful governance and accountability projects
Exposure to national and international development partners
Professional growth in program management, research, and advocacy
A mission-driven, collaborative work environment
How to Apply
Interested candidates should complete the online application form and upload the required documents.
In early July this year, the fears of millions around the world, particularly those working closely with funding from development aid, came to fruition as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) closed its doors. Despite being the largest single donor of aid in the world (according to the UN) disbursing around $72 billion in assistance during 2023, the USAID also accounted for over 40% of all humanitarian aid accounted for by the UN in 2024. With USAID absorbed by the Department of State, one trend is clear across the development landscape. It is rapidly changing and slated to affect developing countries (mostly those in Africa) even more Read more or download full report below 👇
