Consultant ( Development of Social Audit Toolkit for Social Groups and Network) at Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)

Background
There is a national consensus in Nigeria and within the international community that corruption is endemic and pervasive in the country. Corruption is related to the massive stealing of public resources that would have been invested in providing wealth-creating infrastructure and social services for the citizenry. The scourge of corruption has assumed an existential threat to the country and has become a major obstacle to human and economic development efforts. Nigeria scored a low 27 out of 100 on the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International earning a ranking of 148 out of 180 countries. Corruption in the public sector remains a sore spot in Nigeria’s quest to instill transparency and accountability in the polity.

Consequently, the failure to deliver social services, the endemic problem of power supply and the collapse of infrastructure are linked with corruption. Unfortunately, the will and framework to combat corruption in all tiers of government is still very weak and underdeveloped. In some cases, especially in the states and local governments, the political will to fight corruption is non-existent, as the workings of the polity are intricately connected with corruption activities. It is no surprise, therefore, that most of the predicate offences to money laundering are connected with corruption within the officialdom. Furthermore, the high level of corruption in the Nigeria as indicated in various researches is linked to the level of infrastructural decay, pervasive poverty and the high rate of

Contrary to the prevalence of corruption in the public place in Nigeria, the country’s informal space however, seems to have little tolerance for corrupt practices with the informal structure quickly responding to such incidences and dealing with same in decisive manners.

Working with social networks and platforms within both informal and formal setting is very critical to the success of anti-graft war in Nigeria. This emanates from the fact that there is the need to demand greater accountability from public officials and service providers. Therefore, a social audit as an accountability mechanism where citizens organize and mobilize to evaluate, or audit government’s performance and policy decisions are imperative. Against this backdrop, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) calls on interested applicant to submit expression of interest for the development of a social audit toolkit.

Scrap - C Project

• The Strengthening Citizen’s Resistance Against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C) is a DfID supported project with aims to influence social norms and attitudes that help corruption thrives in Nigeria with a view to effect a social change.
• The campaign will leverage on social capital and social networks to promote a corruption averse mentality.
• Preference is placed on socio-ecological model as it reinforces change not only at individual or interpersonal level but also at community level. It recognizes that people act based on their interactions with other people in their network and how they behave or what they think depends on this interaction.

Expected Outcomes of the Project include:

• Improved public awareness resulting from supporting communication and media platforms and other structures that will drive intolerance to corruption by citizens.
• Creation of platforms and spaces for citizens to participate in anti corruption initiatives. Such spaces will facilitate the needed collectice action against corruption.
• Citizens are then empowered to demand accountability and transparency from public officials.
• All these will ultimately lead to increased resistance to corruption and increase anti-corruption efforts.

Scope of Work

• Social audit toolkit to be developed should be context relevant and appropriate to building a unified movement amongst social groups in target states (Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Jigawa and Borno States) for social accountability and the fight against corruption.
• In drafting it, consultant will take cognizance of challenges confronted by the actors in their years of demand for social accountability from government officials and service providers thus, focusing on identifying opportunities and strategies of getting it right.

Methodology

• The development of social audit toolkit will go beyond review of existing works on social audit in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world. While it is recognized that existing works would provide useful information on why and how social audit could be implemented, making it context relevant and appropriate demand the need to consult with local actors in the project’s focus states for better understanding of challenges faced and how best the social accountability tool could be practically applied.

Duration:

• The work will be carried out from May 1 to 31, 2018.