Promoting Accountability in Universal Basic Education
Access to quality primary education is one of the many rights enshrined in Nigeria's 1999 constitution as amended. As a platform of active citizens working for human rights, democracy, and good governance, the Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED) has been campaigning for the protection and promotion of the power of every Nigerian child of school age to quality and free Universal Basic Education (UBE).
A Two-Day Capacity Building Workshop For Media and CSOs on Strengthening Accountability on Universal Basic Education in Nigeria (2019)
Community Enlightenment Workshop on Tracking Universal Basic Education Projects in Kubau Local Government Area Kaduna State
Community Enlightenment Workshop on Tracking Universal Basic Education Projects in Zaria Local Government Area Kaduna State
The Campaign for Universal Basic Education
This campaign intensified in 2017, when CHRICED, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, flagged off the implementation of its innovative data-driven project titled “Social Mobilization for Accountability and Transparency in the Implementation of Universal Basic Education Funds.”
The Challenge of Maternal Mortality
Despite national and international human rights instruments that uphold the right to and the sanctity of human life, millions of women across the globe continue to lose their lives in the throes of childbirth. Maternal mortality, which refers to the death of women within the cycle of birth and the postpartum period, is an ironic situation in which women on the verge of bringing forth new life lose their own lives in the process.
The Consequences of Failed Governance
The problem of maternal mortality presents a challenge of tragic proportions. If the dimension of infant mortality is added, the consequences of failed governance in the health sector in Nigeria are placed in bold relief. If the numbers of women and children dying as a result of health complications during and after childbirth had been victims of war, the situation would have been described in no unmistakable terms as “genocide.”
Infrastructure Solutions for Quality Education
Through a unique combination of engineering, construction, and design disciplines and expertise, Concor delivers world-class infrastructure solutions to customers and stakeholders across a broad range of industry sectors.
Community Accountability and Action
The project has therefore provided a platform for collective reflection and action on community accountability demands concerning the service delivery in the UBE sector. This project has also focused on mobilizing communities to make accountability demands and track projects, which are being implemented.
Accountability Problems in the UBE Sector
Several accountability problems and their effects on the delivery of quality essential education services in the project areas came to the fore in the course of the project. The most fundamental of these is that several projects budgeted for by the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Commission (KADSUBEB) are either uncompleted or entirely abandoned by contractors.
Tracking Projects and Demanding Accountability
Between 2017 and 2019, CHRICED monitored and tracked projects worth about N800 million located in Kauru, Kubau, and Zaria. According to the data obtained, many critical projects, including the construction of blocks of classrooms, procurement of seats, and other teaching aids, were either executed halfway or not done at all.
Holding Duty Bearers Accountable
Though the convening provided by this project, demand-side actors in the communities have been able to ask questions and hold duty bearers accountable for below-par services in the UBE sector.