Reflecting on the Resilience and Impact of Our Grassroots Community Champions

Dear CODE and Follow The Money Friends

As we close the curtain on 2020, I have been reflecting on what can only be described as a historic year, tested in many ways, filled with anxiety and certainly unimaginable. 
 

Resilience

Since my communication with you in March about tackling the pandemic, our grassroots champions have continued to step up on behalf of the communities we serve. The Follow The Money team seeks to strengthen accountability measures for N187 million COVID-19 intervention funds, despite the vagueness of the government on emergency procurement processes. Some highlights of our #FollowCOVID19Money campaign are; 

• Increased citizens participation in demanding government accountability
• Government’s immediate response to update emergency procurement policies
• Increased public awareness of confirmed COVID-19 donations amongst citizens
• Increased citizen-government interaction through social media

Although rejected and threatened, our grassroots champions remained dogged in tracking COVID palliatives distribution across Local Governments Areas in Nigeria, Liberia, The Gambia, Kenya, Cameroon, South Sudan and Malawi observing how food items and relief materials got to the most poorest and vulnerable while reporting irregularities in the distribution patterns to the authorities and the public. In the midst of our work, some of the staff and I came down with the virus and defeated it. I do not assure that the pandemic will, by some miracle, vanish in a few weeks, months and even years, but resilience is a key ingredient that each one of us will need to thrive in 2021.

Commitment

Our commitment to ensure grassroots communities access basic amenities fuels our passion to deliver on this vision. During the course of the year, we saw all our engagements through the lens of COVID-19, structuring our work to tackle financial leakages, mismanagement of funds and advocating for social justice in fragile communities so these people can access clean water, timely education, proper healthcare and all-round improved public services.

We were certain that the current COVID-19 health emergency was worsening gender inequalities with longer-term gender impacts. Our team demanded an end to sexual and gender-based violence, and assessed the impact of COVID19 on girls’ education in Nigeria. We were glad women at Obodo-Ugwa, Delta State, can not only sit at the table but also lead, following our call for gender equality. In the same vein, CODE joined millions of Nigerian youths to decry and protest police brutality, and advocated that the anti-social media bill be tossed.  

Commitment to the work that we do will continue to be a driving force in achieving a more just and safe world.
 

Hope

When I look back at how extraordinary 2020 has been, the most important thing for me as Chief Executive, is the validation of the powerful culture here at CODE, an Organization I founded in 2012 driven by the compelling vision and rigour of young people to change the world. On a personal level, I am expanding my  focus on building a broader fiscal accountability mechanism across Africa working closely with allies who believe in this important vision, as we must now leave a legacy of an independent fiscal accountability infrastructure, that will outlive us, and also when I am no longer an active player in the civil society space.

This year, we completed the 3-year tracking of $1.3million education spending in Kaduna State, significantly reducing the number of out-of-school children in the State. We were elated to see that the Niger State Government assented to the WASH bill that would ensure residents can assess better water & sanitation services. The Follow The Money team also kicked off Freedom of Information (FOI) Drive, fostering strategic partnerships for sustained development and strengthened capacities of community stakeholders, government officials to better increase trust in public institutions.
 

These remarkable results continue to give me hope in our collective strength and power to defeat the challenges that the pandemic may have posed. This year has witnessed immeasurable loss and although recovery will be slow, we remain hopeful that with the abundance of creativity and passion that exists within the development space, I trust that we will discover great opportunities to combat the seeming challenge for a lasting positive change. We have equally seen these optimism demonstrated in our daily interactions with communities and our friends at the grassroots.

We march on to 2021 with good cheers, as we  take lessons learnt and best practices to strengthen our work, build robust systems and enhance our processes for trustees, management and staff. 

I thank our donors: ActionAid Nigeria, Canadian High Commission, ChristianAid, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, OXFAM Nigeria, Malala Fund, USAID EWASH,  OXFAM Novib, Heinrich Bolls Foundation, Ford Foundation, Luminate, UN Women (UN Spotlight Initiative), Skoll Foundation, and many other helpful institutions and YOU our community for your unswerving support in empowering grassroots rural communities in Nigeria and Africa. I thank the amazing CODE & Follow The Money team for their resilience, commitment and hope all through the year.

May 2021 bring better possibilities, good health and fortune.
Sincerely,
Hamzat Lawal
Founder, CODE & Follow The Money

Leveraging Partnerships for Success in Empowering Oil-Rich Communities

–Adaora Okoye

In the 1950s, the discovery of crude oil was a turning point for Nigeria. The nation’s largely agrarian economy fell back to the rising demand for fossil fuels. Decades later, Nigeria has grown to be the largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. From the outside looking in, ours is a success story– until you look deeper. 

Nigeria has the highest number of poor people in the world after India. This is a sharp contrast to the sheer amount of revenue that has been raked in via foriegn exchange. The oil and gas sector continues to be the major driver of the Ngerian economy, accounting for over 95 percent of export earnings and accounts for over 50 percent of government revenues.

This raises several questions about governance, public accountability and transparent resource management. Why does an oil-producing country generating huge revenues (over USD 32.6 billion in 2018) have over 86.9 million people living in poverty?

One may argue that those who bear the highest burden of our sojourn in crude oil extraction are the communities where oil is produced. The Niger-Delta region accommodates mining companies whose activities have proven detrimental in most aspects. Residents suffer environmental degradation, pollution of land and rivers that previously served as lifelines for the local economy. Thus, the people remain poor; almost completely excluded from enjoying the wealth obtained. 

Imagine a young man in Delta State that comes from a family of fishermen. Growing up, he learned how to fish from his father and decided to continue in this line of work. But there’s a problem: the rivers he knew have been slowly contaminated by hydrocarbon spillages caused by ineffective regulations and non-standard crude oil refiners. A 2014 study showed that these hydrocarbons are the biggest threat to Niger- Delta inhabitants.  

Local farmers are not spared. Increased soil toxicity has had devastating effects on Saltwater Wetland Ecosystems. Hydrocarbon spillages not only reduce land productivity but also crop yield and the annual income of farmers. With the land and the water poisoned for humans and animals, it is no surprise that some young people in the region turned to militancy as a way to obtain justice. 

Emboldened by its experience in oil-rich grassroots communities, leading Civil Society Organisation, Connected Development (CODE) identified this scenario as a nod to the lack of inclusive and transparent governance in Nigeria. CODE has been actively working with stakeholders to ensure that the everyday citizen, especially those in the hinterlands, knows how to track government allocation and expenditure meant for the development of the region. 

Understanding the importance of partnerships and leveraging it to regain the trust of citizens in public services, CODE collaborated with government agencies and regulators in the oil and gas sectors like the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and community governance structures,  to foster better engagement between these regulators and Community Development Committees and ensure that local interests are fully represented. 

An instance of  CODE leveraging partnerships for success is during our recent training of Community Development Committee (CDC) members on accountability and transparency in Akwa Ibom  State where we hosted the Department of Petroleum Resources, Academia, OXFAM Team, Facility for Oil Sector Transformation (FOSTER), Oil and Gas Companies and the Ministry of Environment and Petroleum Resources. Participants learnt the process of reporting oil spills; engaging with the appropriate agencies who will then set up a joint investigative team made up of regulators, host community, spill owner and the police. Since the session, CODE has regularly received reports of oil spills from community reporters like in Atia, Akwa Ibom State. 

At the event, NOSDRA also emphasised the impact of third party interference on pipelines in host communities and the economy. Local residents must play a part in discouraging pipeline vandalism. We went on to hold a stakeholder’s parley in the same State that went so well that NOSDRA reached out to appreciate the CODE team for support provided in hope of working together again in future. 

Recording such milestones enables the team to not only strive harder but create effective processes that achieve results. If citizens in oil rich states are equipped with the right tools to enable them to hold the government accountable, this will help check the activities of these extractive companies and call public attention to ongoing issues. All hands must be on deck.

BudgIT Foundation and Connected Development (CODE), two prominent civic-tech non-governmental organizations spearheading the advocacy for openness, transparency and accountability in public finance in Africa, have launched the COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP), an initiative that seeks to promote accountability and transparency through the tracking of COVID-19 intervention funds across 7 African countries. Both organizations will be leveraging their Tracka and Follow The Money platforms, as well as international chapters in other six focus African countries to activate a Pan-African tracking system for all COVID-19 funds received and donated to these countries.

“Retrospectively, our experience with tracking COVID19 funds has shown a deeply rooted systemic profiteering culture, especially in an environment that lacks accountability and civic engagement.” said Oluseun Onigbinde, BudgIT’s Director and Co-founder. “We also observed that there is an increasing mistrust from citizens on the delivery of palliative care in Nigeria, Kenya and Liberia due to representatives who abuse the process and the absence of comprehensive citizen data” he added.

CODE’s Founder and Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal, stated that “as nations of the world tackle the plague of coronavirus, with funding for African countries amassing in millions of dollars, it has become expedient to block financial leakages and ensure funds do not end up in personal pockets.”

“With CTAP, BudgIT and CODE will advocate for accountability, transparency, and open governance while strengthening civic awareness and ensuring that targeted governments use COVID-19 intervention funds effectively.  The project will address the threat of lack of accountability and the effects of COVID-19 on socio-economic development” Lawal added.

The response to pandemics should prioritize the participation of citizens, including needs assessments and provision of palliatives, procurement and delivery of items, thus, the primary aim of this project will be to drive citizens’ engagement as well as innovative capabilities of tech tools to develop an interactive portal on data relevant to COVID-19, and use these data to enable collaboration between citizen fact-checking programs and public institutions.  

Beyond the engagement sessions with focus non-profits and frontline leaders, the project will visualize and disseminate the contribution of stakeholders to the COVID-19 Relief Fund and other related programs. More importantly, requests of citizens in vulnerable areas will be itemized while both organizations’ sms-to-web platform will be leveraged to deliver relevant data to the government and other stakeholders based on citizens’ requests. The project will also curate stories of COVID-19 case management, palliative measures and its impact on the citizens. 

BudgIT and CODE are committed to working with relevant partners to understand the current transparency and accountability frameworks in focus countries; and devise strategies that combine citizen tracking and advocacy for reforms. Both organizations will promote collaboration and learning among local partners so they can be more effective and share lessons about accessing data, mobilizing citizens, and engaging governments. 

Our plan is to strengthen existing tools and build new ones where necessary. These tools must match citizens’ needs in the current emergency response and use this platform as a means to drive accountability on the importance of optimising public resources in an emergency situation. This project will be supported by the Global Integrity who will design a learning framework that allows for rapid scale while initial funding is provided by Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Skoll Foundation.

Consultancy: Youth Guide to Advocating for Gender Justice

Background:

Despite the Nigerian Government’s response/effort to improve its institutional and policy framework which have not yielded the desired result. The situation of the country’s GBV has even worsened with the Coronavirus pandemic which has led to more increase in the rate of gender based violence across Nigeria. More cases of rape, sexual violence, and abuse of girls and women’s rights have been recorded during this Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown in Nigeria. The Need to advocate for appropriate measures are put in place to  ensure no one is victimised and gender inequality is brought to fore in every discussion, planning and national or state strategy implementations. It is important for stakeholders which include development partners, local authorities, nonprofit as well as civil society organisations to work together to raise awareness and provide platforms for citizens engagement, advocacies and demand for gender justice in Nigeria. 

Connected Development (CODE) and YouthHubAfrica with support from ChristianAid will carry out a series of activities in Kaduna and Plateau State that include capacity building of gender justice youth advocates to ensure that the VAPP Act, Child Rights Act and other policies protecting the rights of women in the state are implemented and given adequate advocacy campaign for people to become informed. Doing this will not only reduce the incidences of violence against women and girls but will also ensure that adequate sanctions are meted on the perpetrators of these crimes. Forming this coalition of youth advocates on gender justice becomes necessary because of the incidences of GBV/VAWG/HP that are higher in the north with at least 3 of 10 girls experiencing one or more forms of GBV by the age of 15(NDHS 2013).

Scope of work: (Description of services, activities, or outputs)

Key deliverable:

1. Assist with preparation, management, and updating as required of the training curriculum and Agenda 
2. Develop the youth guide to advocating for Gender Justice

Duration and working schedule: 5 Days

Location: Nigeria

Duration: 18th November to 22nd November, 2020

Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format, and deadline:

Expected travel: None

Required expertise, qualifications, and competencies, including language requirements:

• At least 5 years of relevant experience as a GBV expert
• Previous engagements, volunteer, or work experience with an organisation that supports the gender equality  movement.
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
• Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view during the development of the guide to advocating for gender justice.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of The CA Gender justice and Youth Engagement Strategy.
• Excellent communication abilities (oral, written and the ability to understand and be understood, diplomatic skills, drafting skills)
• Fluency in English 
• Strong attention to detail  
• Organizational, task management and strong analytical skills
• Ability to work under pressure

Application Deadline:  16/11/2020 at 12:00 AM

CLICK TO APPLY

The best laws – with the most altruistic intentions – can often be jeopardized and misanthropic in application…

Every year, Nigeria loses N18b to illegal movements of money or capital from the country– especially through the oil and gas industry, yet very little attention is paid to this illicit financial flow.

Illicit financial flows can be generated in a variety of ways that are not revealed in national accounts or balance of payments figures, including trade mispricing, bulk cash movements, and smuggling. This illegally earned money is transferred across the international border, usually aided by technology.

Despite the nation’s huge resources, which is now referred to as a curse, the Country’s inability to transform its resources as shared wealth and prosperity for all, is making it difficult to block financial leakages, as a large chunk of its earnings are being pocketed by a few and transferred illegally to other countries.

Guardian Newspaper records that Africa’s current losses to IFFs outweigh the continent’s aid and foreign direct investment as the prevailing development is further worsened by trade underpricing, mis-invoicing, oil theft and smuggling, weak regulations and enforcement.

Global Financial Integrity estimates that the annual value of trade-related IFFs in and out of developing countries has amounted to, on average, about 20 per cent of the value of their total trade with advanced economies. 

IFFs pose a huge challenge to political and economic security around the world, particularly to developing countries. Corruption, organized crime, illegal exploitation of natural resources, fraud in international trade and tax evasion are as harmful as the diversion of money from public projects.

It is for this reason, Connected Development [CODE], in collaboration with OXFAM Novib, is galvanizing Nigerian citizens against corruption. The fight against corruption is not just for government agencies but citizens must take this as an obligation for a better Nigeria. Civil Society Organisations also have a responsibility to speak against this misnomer, enhance citizens capacity and amplify issues of illicit financial flows till urgent action is taken to address it.

CODE will be leveraging its social accountability platform, “Follow The Money”, to amplify data, infographics and relevant information on illicit flow of funds by public officials. Having also realised the strengthening of the Federal Audit Service Commission Bill that ensures violating companies and individuals are held accountable for IFFs, CODE will also leverage media engagements to create awareness and urge the Nigerian President to assent to the bill. 

Assenting to the bill will reposition the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and enhance the capability of the Office to execute its constitutional mandate of ensuring transparency, accountability and probity in the management of public funds; and establish an Audit Act in accordance with international best practice of other climes. 

These proposed outcomes, which will be achieved through strategic advocacy and multifaceted engagements with relevant public and private ‘CSOs/Media’ bodies, collaboration with anti-graft agencies (EFCC/ICPC) and social mobilization, would ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies submit their yearly audited financial accounts to the Auditor General of the Federation, hence preventing corruption, illicit financial flows, money laundering and mismanagement of public funds as reported in the Malabu and Dan Etete Case. 

Nigeria Health Watch and Connected Development launched a report on primary health care to advocate for improvements and greater accountability in the primary health care system in Nigeria.

In order to show primary health care provision at the State level, the report looked at primary health care service provision in Kano State as a case study, evaluating whether the state’s primary health care provision is in line with the minimum standards of primary health care as outlined by the Federal Ministry of Health. The monitoring of service delivery in Primary Healthcare Centres was designed to monitor progress in the implementation of primary health care services particularly maternal, newborn and child health services.

The assessment in 49 primary health centres (PHCs) across Local Government Areas (LGA) in Kano State was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Speaking at the launch in Kano, Director of Programmes at Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu said, “Results reveal that all the PHCs assessed seem to lack some component of the basic requirements as outlined by the NPHCDA minimum standards for PHCs. Based on the minimum standards, some basic infrastructure and human resource are expected to be found in a PHC facility. This is essential in order to facilitate delivery of timely and efficient services to healthcare users.”

Receiving the report, the Executive Secretary of the Kano State Primary Health Care Management Board, Dr. Tijjani Hussaini said, “…

According to CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal, the report has provided greater clarity on the standards of PHCs in Kano State. Now is the time for Kano State NPHCDA and other statutory regulators to step up and put in place sustainable measures to strengthen the healthcare system. I must add that the gaps identified in this report are not unique to Kano alone. NPHCDA and the Ministry of Health should prioritize provision of the basic requirement that will ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all.

From the report, it is clear that there are gaps in service delivery and adherence to the minimum standards for primary health care. The resultant effect is poor health seeking behaviour among patients in the State. The consensus at the end of the launch of the report was that the local health authorities need to re-examine the services provided at PHCs  and re-equip them with necessary infrastructure and human resource to enhance their service quality and readiness, in order to achieve universal health coverage (UHC).

Other states in Nigeria should carry out a similar assessment of service delivery in their local primary healthcare centres.

About Nigeria Health Watch

Nigeria Health Watch is a not-for-profit organization that aims to advocate for the health of Nigerians, strengthen the capacity of health sector organisations, enlighten Nigerians on good health habits and practices and engage and support government and other partners to formulate and implement positive and effective health policies. Its dual strengths in health and communication enables it to provide solutions for communications and advocacy in the health sector.

About Connected Development

Connected Development [CODE] is a non-governmental organization, whose mission is to improve access to information and empower local communities in Africa. Its initiative, Follow The Money, advocates and tracks government/international aid spending in health, WASH, and education across grassroots and communities to promote and ensure open government and service delivery.

Concerned by the poor service delivery of Primary Healthcare Centres in Nigeria, two Non-Governmental Organisations, Nigeria Health Watch and Connected Development [CODE], have signed an MoU to advocate for improved service delivery in primary healthcare centres across the country.

The partnership, signed yesterday in Abuja, was established for the purpose of monitoring healthcare service delivery and increasing accountability in the delivery of primary healthcare services in Kano State. It will focus on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) services, and will include other services such as family planning, immunization and antenatal services.

Although, Nigeria has many PHC across the country, the performance of the healthcare centres is hindered by poor infrastructure and maintenance, insufficient drugs & vaccines and sub-standard equipment and limited health workers, factors that are hinged on financing and governance.

On the objective of the project, Director of Programmes at Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu, said; “The foundation of healthcare delivery should be through our primary health centres and this project will focus on monitoring the effective delivery of basic healthcare services, with a view to driving positive change in the quality of healthcare Nigerians have access to”.

According to CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal, “this partnership comes at a time when sustainable measures must be put in place to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare system. He added that access to healthcare is one of the basic human rights and providing basic health services to people, especially at the grassroots, through standard primary healthcare system is key to stabilizing the Nation’s medical care challenges.

Strengthening healthcare service delivery is crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 3; to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages, including the delivery of interventions to reduce child mortality, maternal mortality and the burden of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

About Nigeria Health Watch

Nigeria Health Watch is a not-for-profit organization that aims to advocate for the health of Nigerians, strengthen the capacity of health sector organisations, enlighten Nigerians on good health habits and practices and engage and support government and other partners to formulate and implement positive and effective health policies. Its dual strengths in health and communication enables it to provide solutions for communications and advocacy in the health sector.

About Connected Development

Connected Development [CODE] is a non-governmental organization, whose mission is to improve access to information and empower local communities in Africa. Its initiative, Follow The Money, advocates and tracks government/international aid spending in health, WASH, and education across grassroots and communities to promote and ensure open government and service delivery.