End of Commitment Report – To develop a permanent dialogue mechanism for effective citizens’ access to the budget and other public related documents, including the audit process.

Name of Evaluator

Prof Hauwau Evelyn Yusuf

Email

eveadex@gmail.com

Member Name

Kaduna State, Nigeria

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – Kaduna State, Nigeria, 2021 – 2023

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

To develop a permanent dialogue mechanism for effective citizens’ access to the budget and other public-related documents, including the audit process.

Action

This commitment will ensure that citizens participate and make inputs into the budget process, by paying special attention to the Community Development Charter (CDC) starting from the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Sector Implementation Plans (SIP), the pre-budget statement, executive budget proposal, budget debate through public hearings in the legislature, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the budget. It will also guarantee that budget planning, approval, implementation, monitoring, and reporting meet the needs of citizens and that citizens have open access to budget information in a format that is both human and machine-readable.

Problem

Citizens do not have sufficient information, and can thus not relate to projects and programs in the budget. This ultimately weakens the demand for accountability in resource allocation. There is a need for improved citizens’ engagement and participation in budget preparation, approval, implementation, and monitoring processes.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

Substantial

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Based on the status of implementation of each milestone of Open Budget, we had 12 milestones under this commitment out of which six were completed, three are in progress, and three are yet to start at the time of compiling this report.

• Commitment Repository

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

One of the factors that impacted the implementation of the commitment is the effective leadership provided by the Planning and Budget Commission whose mandate is to ensure that the Budget is open for citizens to engage at all levels. The Civil Society Technical Working Group was strategic in engaging the government in terms of providing ideas for the government to adopt to make the Budget more transparent due to improved capacity. This has resulted in the institutionalization of the Community Development Charter (CDC) and the Development of a citizens’ demand portal for the collation of needs into the Budget. Notable challenges include poor timing which made it difficult to use the disaggregated CDC to engage and inform the budget at the MDA level but that was addressed by an approval to include the CDC as part of the annual Budget calendar. Also, is the absence of clear specifications of inputs from the CDC in the Budget, the Executive Council has approved the use of the CDC and the setting aside of 5% of the Capital component of the Budget for the CDC needs to inform the Budget.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The results that the milestones achieved were in accordance with what was planned and the evidence provided in terms of town hall meeting reports, Public Hearing reports, comprehensive CDC framework, Citizens engaging the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) with reports available, etc. These are clear evidence to further show the achievements of each milestone that has been completed.

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

This commitment contributed significantly to the disclosure of the Budget and the publishing of budget performance for citizens to engage. The CDC most especially the Budgeting tool empowered citizens to make input into the Budget giving them influence on what the Government will do for them. The impact is the CDC influences the State and Local Government Budget on an average of 50%. In practice, the CDC has been institutionalized in the State as it is part of the Budget Calendar with a timeframe to collate the needs of citizens as part of the Budget preparation process in the State. The State has also consistently held Budget Townhall and Budget Public Hearing at the State House of Assembly over the course of implementing the State Action Plan. This not only improves the value of information but also provides an opportunity for access for citizens to engage and hold the government accountable.

• Kaduna State Planning and Budget Commission Website
• Community Development Charter
• Score-card 2021-2022
• Score-card 2022-2023

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

This commitment has successfully enabled the state to make progress in terms of using the CDC as a participatory Budget tool. The CDC has influenced Governments’ decisions by empowering them to have a voice in what the Government will do for them which is a game changer in the State. Consequently, the approval of the CDC by the State Executive Council motivated citizens to automate the process and make it the official tool for sending and collating citizens’ needs into the annual Budget in Kaduna State.

• Commitment Repository
• Score-card 2021-2022
• Score-card 2022-2023

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Not Applicable

2.1.4 Other Results

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The CDC framework was designed to allow the needs of citizens to get into the Budget. This process was done manually and involved lots of paperwork. To scale this up citizens as a contribution to the partnership automated the CDC to a digital platform called the “citizens demand portal”. Citizens can send in needs from across the 23 Local Government Areas and the 255 Wards in real-time which was not obtainable prior to the adoption of the CDC-Citizens Demand Portal and was never conceived when developing the milestones of the commitment area.

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment has resulted in increased participation in the Budget Process in the State. This has seen the needs of citizens from the 23 LGAs making it to the Budget on time compared to before.

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

Technology served as a key enabler in the implementation of the open budget commitment through the automation of the CDC process in the state.

Open Budget Technical Working Group’s strategic engagement with the leadership of the Commission accounted for the significant success of the implementation of the open budget commitment.

The Commitment should be rolled over to the next State Action Plan (SAP III). The Budget serves as a major policy used by the state to deliver better services to the citizens, and there is a need to sustain participation around it to ensure the Government is held accountable by redesigning the milestones to help achieve a more participatory approach to budgeting.