Connected Development Initiative (CODE), is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

not-for-profit founded in 2012, and focused on empowering

marginalized Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

to demand goods and services by creating platforms for

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

and building citizens’ capacity to hold their government accountable through its

Follow The Money "Follow the money" is a catchphrase popularized by the 1976 docudrama film ''All the President's Men'', which suggests political corruption can be brought to light by examining money transfers between parties. Origin For the film, screenwriter Wil ...

(FTM) initiative.

History

Connected Development started as a community activism and

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

mobilization. In 2012, the founder, Hamzat Lawal was grieved by the lead poisoning that took place in Zamfara state two years earlier. When he realized that nobody was talking about the disaster and the people affected after killing more than 400 people, he embarked on a 14 hours journey to the community, Bagega, where the incident took place in order to learn more about the aftermath of the problem. This propelled him towards community

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

and to start a grassroots movement known as follows The Money, using data to hold government accountable, and demanding action from government agencies. CODE has worked to improve public governance in Nigeria and across Africa by empowering marginalized communities to demand high levels of

accountability Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the publ ...

and transparency from the government. Since its inception, it has been awarded various grants to carry out community development and citizen empowerment of marginalised communities.

Vision and missions

CODE envision a world where all people even in the most remote areas of the globe can hold their government accountable.

Work and Achievements

* In 2012, Connected Development initiated Follow The Money Campaign, an initiative that leverages technology and open data to track public funds and holds government accountable. The campaign started as a follow-up to No. SaveBagega, which brought the crisis scenario front and center to government officials who were able to channel resources to Bagega. Through Follow the Money (FTM), connected development and partners mobilize more young people to use technology to document and amplify voices and hold governments to account. FTM currently has 6,000 members from the 774 local government areas in Nigeria. * CODE partners with Budgit to track COVID-19 Intervention Funds in 10 African countries * In 2021, CODE tracked 23

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

projects worth N1.2 billion in Kaduna state. * Since inception, CODE has tracked about $113.6 million budgeted for projects across 181 communities in 25 states in the country

Supporters and Partners

* Luminate Group * MacAuthur Foundation * Ford Foundation * Skoll Foundation

References

* {{official website, connecteddevelopment.org 2012 establishments in Nigeria Companies established in 2012 Information technology companies of Nigeria Technology companies established in 2012

History

Vision and missions

Work and Achievements

Supporters and Partners

See also

References