The UK Department for International Development commissioned Ecorys to provide independent reviews and support for its five interlocking State Level Programmes in Nigeria. The reviews, throughout the processes, supported the iterative development of the programmes, and will now form a background for the DFID’s planning for the Operational Plan 2016-2020.
The Department for International Development (DFID) in Nigeria is a UK Government led programme that aims to support the country meet its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As it stands the country of close to 170 million people, finds around 100 million of those living on less than £1 a day. While relatively wealthy in terms of natural resources, Nigeria faces considerable institutional barriers – including wide spread corruption.
According to recent data, complications during birth result in the deaths of up to 100 women per day, while 2,000 children under 5 die from preventable disease. Every day. 8.5 million of the country’s children do not attend school. The poor outcome for the weakest in Nigerian society risk the MDGs for the entire continent not being achieved.
As part of its wider support of Nigeria, the DFID ran five State Level Programmes (SLPs), which focused on addressing key areas of lack. The programmes included:
Strengthen governance arrangements at the State level through Public Finance Management (PFM), Public Administration Reform and policy formulation;
Increase accountability and voice;
Improve financing, management and delivery of sustainable and replicable pro-poor health services;
Improve planning, financing, management and delivery of basic education services to achieve universal basic education in Nigeria;
Create an improved environment for non-oil sector growth.
To support the DFID achieve its goals in relation to the five State Level Programmes, an Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (IMEP) was run along side the wider programme. The IMEP was given awarded to consultancy firm Ecorys at the start of 2013.
The firm recently announced that it has completed the commission from the DFID in relation to the SLPs. The firm reports that, as part of its wider services in line with the IMEP project, it ran regular annual, mid-term and completion reviews for the SLPs, the compilation of which will inform the DFID’s planning for the Operational Plan 2016-2020.
In addition, the consulting firm ran two Citizen Perception Survey as part of its wider collection of data regarding the efficacy of the SLPs, across ten states in Nigeria – regarding how/what changes citizens perceived in the quality of State Government service delivery. The continual collection and delivery of information through the IMEP to the DFID allowed the latter to make relevant changes to its SLPs where necessary to improve wider project outcomes.
Remarking on the project a spokesperson for the firm adds, “Ecorys has completed a five-year project with Department for International Development (DFID) in Nigeria. The Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (IMEP) aimed to increase individual and collective performance of five State Level Programmes.”