The deployment of UZABE in this election cycle aligns with CODE’s objective to increase and share innovative approaches to information exchange through experimentation, research, and technology. Also, as an accredited INEC elections observer, CODE collaborated with other CSOs to actively participate in the 2023 election observation process, while training and deploying over 20,000 volunteer polling station observers. CODE’s Situation Room received and subjected incident reports to a multi-level verification system to provide 12,889 authenticated and verified reports across the 2023 election cycle, which provided a picture of Nigeria’s 2023 electoral process READ MORE
To address SGBV in Kano state, Connected Development (CODE) through funding from the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria launched the project, Galvanizing Mass Action Against Gender‑Based Violence in Kano State (GMAA‑K). The GMAA‑K project is aimed at galvanizing the mass public and empowering women to mount advocacies against sexual and gender‑based violence (SGBV) and domestic abuse, as well as engage the government for the enactment of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) law. The phase I of the project lasted for 3 months ‑ January to March 2021, while the second phase which started in November 2021 ends by March 2023. In the phases I and II of the project, CODE empowered gender advocates who work in communities to rollback GBV, leveraged new and traditional media for systematic sensitisation of the mass public on GBV, while engaging governmental actors on the passage of a VAPP bill and Child Protection Law (CPL), as well as the expansion of the Sexual Assault Referral Centres in Kano State.
For over nine years, Connected Development [CODE], through its FollowThe Money Iniave has tracked and monitored public spending in rural communities across Nigeria and other African countries. As of December 2020, CODE had reached over 3,300,000 people across 231 communities, in 37 Nigerian States and the FCT Abuja. By fostering social accountability, the organization has advocated for open government, improved service delivery in the execution of development projects, exposed and mitigated corruption, and tackled extreme poverty in rural communities.
In November 2020, CODE secured a grant from The MacArthur Foundation, for the project:, “Deepening Cizens’ Interest in Government Spendings and Addressing Accompanying Corrupt Practices (DeSPAAC) in Kaduna State.”
The three-year project involves mobilizing community governance structures across the aforementioned communities through the CommunityMonitoring Teams (CMTs) vehicle and empowering them to provide effective public oversight on government spending in their communities, for effective service delivery on constituency projects in the educaon, health, and WASH sectors.
Year one of the project focused on tracking 23 constituencies (zonal intervention) projects from the list of 2020 and 2021 ZIPs in 30 communities across the three (3) senatorial zones of Kaduna State worth N1.167 billion. In all, 12 projects were tracked from the 2020 ZIP Budget document and 11 projects were tracked from the 2020 ZIPBudget document.
The last quarter of the year 2021 was indeed a rollercoaster. With project managers putting in extra hours to ensure that project deliverables were met in accordance with both internal and external protocol.
An outstanding loss for the team was the demise of our friend and colleague Alfred Anichi Oji, who until his death was CODE’s Digital Media Officer. Alfred was respected and admired for his enduring commitment and outstanding contributions to the development space and to CODE.
The third quarter of 2021 was in furtherance of CODEs strategic plan. On the journey towards taking hold of governance processes and seeking more accountable systems, we made advancement in education, health, energy, governance sectors through various projects championed by vibrant youths who believe in an inclusive Nigeria for all by creating feedback loops between the people and the government and strengthening systems and communities along the way.
In the first half, We recorded significant results from hosting an audacious COVID Transparency and Accountability Conference to kicking off the tracking of N1.1Bn Kaduna Constituency Projects, to advocating better living standards for residents in Oil-producing states, and working with State Governments to demand an end to GBV. We began this second half of the year on the bedrock of enhancing citizens’ engagement, building partnerships and collaborating with institutions who share in our vision to accelerate timely intervention for marginalised groups.
We kick started the year ready to evolve and expand our work across more African countries, reaching more marginalized communities with the message of Follow The Money. To officially launch the programs and campaigns for the year, we engaged our HQ staff as it is the norm in a 3 days strategic and planning meeting in order to reinforce the organisational goals, build synergy across departments and map out deliverables and engagement strategies for our cohort of volunteers and champions.
We have now published the status of COVID Fund tracking in Malawi, Kenya and Cameroon
The COVID19 pandemic was expected to have a devastating effect on Africa’s weak health infrastructure, but it rather left a more devastating trail economically – spiking the already high unemployment rate and plunging the country into another recession.
With high influx of donations by international agencies, individuals and private organisations to combat the deadly virus, the challenge with most African countries is the lack of transparent and accountable systems that can respond to emergency situations.
Our experience has shown rounds of crisis profiteering, creating quick rich schemes for “tenderpreneurs” in a restrictive environment that lacks accountability and civic engagement. We have also seen restriction of civic spaces under the guise of lockdowns as well as brutality by state officials, this was why the COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP) was launched to promote accountability and transparency through the tracking of COVID-19 intervention funds across 7 African countries.
The project is implemented by CODE’s Follow The Money and BudgIT. Both organizations have been 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.
CTAP’s shared long term vision is that every community in the continent has skilled, sensitised and largely self-organising citizens engaged in budget-tracking while presenting feedback and results to the government and development partners in a constructive manner. All efforts are aimed towards building that informed and engaged citizenry – a movement of factivists – in the medium to long term period.
In the past year since the project was launched, Follow The Money has tracked COVID funds in Kenya, Cameroon and Malawi. Click to read the full reports from these countries.
