Actionaid annual report 2014

1

Annual Report 2014

Contents 4

Our theory of change

5

Our programs

5

The people we work with

6

Message from our Board Chair / Counry Director

7

Our context

12

Achievement by strategic objective

12 14 28 30

Objective Objective Objective Objective

1 2 3 4

16

Stories of Change

34

Challenges

35

Lessons learnt

36

Organisational goals

37

Voices from the field

38

Financial report

3

Annual Report 2014

OUR VISION

A world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys his or her right to life with dignity.

OUR MISSION

To work in solidarity with the poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice.

OUR VALUES

We are driven by passionate commitment to organisational values. These values define our work and relationship with our communities, partners and other stakeholders.

Mutual respect, requiring us to recognise the innate worth of all people and the value of diversity.

Equity and justice, requiring us to work to ensure equal opportunity to everyone, irrespective of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, HIV status, colour, class, ethnicity, disability, location and religion.

Honesty and transparency, being accountable at all levels for the effectiveness of our actions and open in our judgements and communications with others.

Courage of conviction, requiring us to be creative and radical, bold and innovative – without fear of failure – in pursuit of making the greatest possible impact on the causes of poverty.

Independence from any religious or political party affiliation.

Humility in presentation and behaviour, recognising that we are part of a wider alliance against poverty and injustice

Solidarity with the poor, powerless and excluded will be the only bias in our commitment to the fight against poverty.

4

ActionAid

OUR THEORY OF CHANGE We believe that poverty is a function of human rights violations and unequal power relations.

Promoting just and accountable governance principles with democratic and transparent processes are thus necessary conditions that must be ensured for poverty eradication and development in Nigeria to take place.

“We believe that an end to poverty and injustice can be achieved through purposeful individual and collective action, led by the active agency of people living in poverty and supported by solidarity, credible rights-based alternatives and campaigns that address the structural causes and consequences of poverty.”

In other words, people living in poverty often need to be supported to discover their own power, get organised and connect into movements, publicly demanding their rights from local institutions, national governments and powerful corporate bodies. People living in poverty and exclusion are the primary agents of change. Poverty and injustice can be eradicated only when the poor and excluded are able to take charge of their lives and act to claim their rights. Promoting development from below and challenging the development from above through working with the poor and excluded groups.

Focusing interventions on those platforms created by the people themselves are vital approaches that will ensure an end to poverty.

In order to effect change it is therefore vital that we engage with people, government and institutions to respect, promote, protect and fulfil the rights of poor and excluded people.

This will range from cooperation to protest through non-violent process. The process will also include providing research and evidence, promoting alternatives and running public campaigns.

COVER PHOTO ©ACTIONAID MEDIA 2014 Small As aBusiness result of owner the commitment in Ondo, Nigeria in our theory of change we have set the following objectives to guide

the work we will do from 2014 — 2018. î

5

Annual Report 2014

Our Objectives OBJECTIVE 1 Strengthen people’s action to hold government and corporates to account and enhance people’s access to quality services.

OBJECTIVE 2 Advance the rights of women and girls, promote their safety and participation in public and private spaces.

OBJECTIVE 3 Advance the rights of children and support young people in building just, democratic and inclusive society.

OBJECTIVE 4 Enhance human security and livelihood for the poor and excluded

Our Programmes

The People we work with

Our programming areas are Education; Food and Agriculture; Human Security in Conflict and Emergencies; Health; Just and Democratic Governance and Women Rights. Promoting the right to just and democratic governance and Women’s Rights are cross-cutting themes which apply across the whole programme, but also have stand-alone initiatives.

We work with poor and excluded people in communities, to promote the rights of the poor and encourage positive actions to end poverty.

Linking all these is our geographically based integrated Local Rights Programme which is being implemented in twelve States of the federation. Our works are currently spread across the 36 States in Nigeria and over 250 communities.

From reflections and lessons of our programmes in Nigeria, we achieve good governance and accountable policies centred on the improvement of public services in Nigeria.

Using the Human Rights Based approach from empowerment and solidarity perspectives, ActionAid within the context of security challenges, economic crises and natural disasters , has been able to reap the dividends of mobilising groups and communities in need to engage with the governance structures and demand for their rights.

To ensure that these actions and services are felt in the rural communities, ActionAid engages multiple agents at different times and situations, we therefore, act as enablers, advocates, facilitators and catalysts. By so doing, we create space and interest for the voices of people living in poverty and their respective agencies to be embedded in Government policies and actions.

ActionAid Nigeria not only maintains a strong solidarity with the poor, but equally takes sides with them even against adversity. These elements require us to be credible, non-domineering and continuously learning and evolving knowledge based, self-reliant organisation.

The core values of gender equality and courage of conviction drives our determination and innovation to take risks and promote women’s leadership and advancing sustainable alternatives.

6

ActionAid

MESSAGE FROM OUR BOARD CHAIR/ COUNTRY DIRECTOR This year our external context has remained volatile and challenging. We have witnessed trends that directly and indirectly affected our work including violence and insecurity occasioned by insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country. The outbreak of the ebola virus disease which had implications for public health created panic, restricted travels and delayed resumption of school activities for children.

We also witnessed a tensed political environment and its implication for security and governance. All these factors impacted strongly on our interventions as government officials and sometimes community members are not available or even not interested in some of the issues that concern the poor. In spite of these challenges we have continued to impact positively on the lives of the communities where we work.

Prof. Patricia Donli Board Chair

As Nigeria prepares for the general elections in February 2015, our voter education manual will be a valuable resource for responding to the gap that exists in citizenship participation in the Nigeria electoral processes especially as manifested in the exclusion of women, young people and persons living with disabilities.

Thorough our tax justice campaign we have set an agenda for an alternative domestic resource mobilization and financing for development with key recommendation on the need for the Nigeria Minister of Finance/Coordinating Minister of Economy, who is also the Chairperson of the African Union Finance Ministers’ Forum to adopt the Thabo Mbeki Panel Report on Illicit Financial Flows out of Africa and draw up a plan of action and implementation of the report.

This campaign is strongly tied to our youth engagement platform-Activista, where young people are supported with resources that will enhance their demand for their rights in the areas of education, safe cities for women and girls and Tax justice.

Hussaini Abdu Country Director

Our commitment to the promotion of women’s rights was strengthened with mobilization and network building among women and community leaders especially small holder women farmers, whose capacity are being built through networks that allows them to make demand for more favourable agriculture budgeting and policies.

Through our women’s rights work we have provided a forum where new and effective strategies for eliminating violence against women were shared and opportunities for making demands on governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women were strengthened.

Our work on conflict and emergencies have continued to influence policy spaces especially on the need to equip government institutions with the capacity to address the issue of Disaster Risk Management as well as build strong community human security networks that will hold government to account on human security in situation of emergencies.

In the coming year we will continue to focus on building strong conceptual and political clarity of what we stand for, re-assert our uniqueness as an organisation with emphasis built on our understanding of poverty, its causes, and our theory of change. î

7

Annual Report 2014

OUR CONTEXT Working amidst banana peels The year 2014 in Nigeria presents a peculiar reality as both a year of uncommon challenges and heightened active citizenship.

The political and economic climate in the country early in the year became testy and unpredictable and sometimes tensed. It was a year in which most intervention agencies were most challenged and yet restrained as they had to be more conscious than ever of what subjective or tendentious interpretations their actions, statements and engagements could be subjected to.

The year was also a year that tested the resilience of the people, reliability of the Nigeria elite and the ability of politicians from all parties at all locations in the country to provide much needed leadership. For most part of the year, in spite of the plethora of challenges the country had, governance was in recess, at both federal and state

levels, with politics supplanting despite some occasional policy statements and marketing trips by government officials from the federal and states level.

The rebasing of the nation economy which places Nigeria as the largest economy on the African continent was one of the few instances of celebration in the country. However, this was largely a celebratory moment for the government as the people, majority of who are held in the throes of poverty were largely unconcerned and untouched by the acclaimed prosperity of the nation.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, which is the nation’s official data source, about 69 per cent of the populace live in poverty. While it could be easily argued that the government had tried to put in place some measures to address some of the factors responsible for endemic poverty, the suitability of the measures and impact however are debatable.

8

ActionAid The YouWin project, one of such intervention models, though has had some known and traceable beneficiaries, the impact of this intervention method however is still insignificant and its relevance to people who are really in poverty is suspect. Some of the beneficiary of this project were known to be persons of middle class parentage and are not desperately in need of support as much as the children of the extremely poor.

Different parts of the country grappled with increased insecurity with more tales of violent crimes taking the headlines in major news outlets. While in many part of the country, incidences of armed robbery are on the rise, some part of the country have also recorded increase in number of unexplained murder cases often described as ritual killings. The communal crises perennial conflict between North-Central communities and Fulani cattlemen proved intractable. The North Eastern part of the country in the year did not experience the much desired peace. The spate of killings in the region rather than decrease as was anticipated in an earlier publicised truce between government and the insurgents in the area increased. The abduction of girls from a boarding school in Chibok community in Borno State became the high point of the national tragedy in the year. Social infrastructures that would have provided relevant succour for the people were still in tatters.

As a result of attacks on communities by the insurgents in the North East and the conflicts in the North Central there was significant increase in the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Many of these are left uncared for by both the federal and states authorities and are left to live in inhospitable conditions.

Where we were in 2013 The year 2013 marked the terminal stage of our second country strategy. The year thus became unique for us as we had to not only take stock of the four years of the ending strategy but to also begin to look more closely at our uniqueness, its relevance and also the spectrum of our engagements. In 2013, we therefore focused on building strong conceptual and political clarity of what we stand for and are set to achieve. In the year we re-asserted our uniqueness a non-partisan political organisation. We placed emphasis on reaffirming our politics as built on our understanding of poverty, its causes, and our theory of change which says: “We believe that an end to poverty and injustice can be achieved through purposeful individual and collective action, led by the active agency of people living in poverty and supported by solidarity, credible rights-based alternatives and campaigns that address the structural causes and consequences of poverty.�

We prioritised working with CSOs, community structures, platforms, and women groups, we built their capacity to recognise rights violations and take actions to claim these rights. And the year marked the launch of our tax power campaign which accentuates our commitment to addressing inequality and a viable alternative development strategy for the Nigeria nation.

9

Annual Report 2014 Our 2014 Commitments Our new Country Strategy Paper, Take Action: End Poverty! was launched in 2014.

As we were launching into a new guiding principle on how we work, we committed ourselves to intensify our efforts at focusing on building and strengthen people’s power to hold government to account and corporates to good practices. Our emphasis at the beginning of the year was to collaborate with young people, women groups, other civil society agencies and movements, and to intensify efforts to ensure that government deliver on people-benefiting programmes.

A major duty we also set for ourselves in the year 2014 was working with agencies of the people to plug all loopholes through which resources for development such as corporate taxation are lost are plugged. Therefore, we committed to giving devoting more energies and resources to the Tax Power campaign launched in 2013. Our campaign efforts were therefore planned right at the beginning of the year to vigorously target good governance; ensuring big businesses pay their taxes.

We also decided to devote substantial time and energy to actions aimed at contributing to putting an end to corruption and impunity.

2014 being a significant year in another attempt at achieving transition from one civilian administration to another by the Nigeria nation, we also planned to work with the people to mainstream into the political discourse and the campaign agenda of political parties issues of primary concern for the people.

Where we work, what we do and how we do it.

At ActionAid, we view poverty as unjust - not simply because it is unfair or undeserved, but because it is the result of the denial of basic human rights. Every individual has the right to live a life of dignity and security, with access to basic provisions such as clean water, sufficient food, and basic education. It is when and where these rights are denied that poverty thrives.

Rights abuses occur at all social and political levels. At the family and community level, for example, girls are often not sent to school due to their gender; at the state and national level governments fail to provide adequate social services like health care; and at the international level unfair policies impede the development of poorer countries and people.

At all levels, these abuses of rights are able to transpire for one reason: uneven power relations. Addressing the issue of poverty in a manner that is effective and sustainable thus means addressing the issues of rights and power relations at the local, national and international levels.

Local-level work in poor and isolated communities is at the very heart of what we do at ActionAid Nigeria. Through our Local Rights Programmes (LRPs) we work in solidarity with the poor and excluded (including children, youth, men and women) to build their capacities to better understand their rights and take action to realize them.

We reach these communities by working closely with Local Rights Programme partners who are based in the areas in which they work and are best able to understand the unique cultures, languages and influences at play. Currently we have 11 LRP partners in 11 different states across all 6 geo-political zones in Nigeria who, together, reach different communities.

ActionAid also advances the causes of the poor and excluded at the state, national, regional and international level [through our

10

ActionAid projects and campaigns]. By working in partnership with civil society organizations, community-based groups, labour movements, coalitions, networks and social movements we influence policy bodies and hold governments and others in positions of power accountable. We engage constructively with those in power when possible and challenge when necessary.

In all areas of our work, ActionAid prioritizes empowering and working with women and promoting their rights. As a result of socially ascribed roles, women in Nigeria have less access to land, education, networks, technology, transport, financial resources and political power, and have less control over their bodies and safety – all of which makes them more vulnerable to poverty and its effects.

11

Annual Report 2014 Our 2014 Strategic Direction Our strategic commitment enabled us to make interesting progress in: strengthening people’s action to hold government and corporates to account and enhance people’s access to quality services. Advance the rights of women and girls, promote their safety and participation in public and private spaces. Advance the rights of children and support young people in building just, democratic and inclusive development initiatives as well as build the resilience of people living in poverty to conflicts and disasters and respond to disasters with people-centred, rights-based alternatives.

AAN dedication to scale up key organisational priorities targeted investment in staff capacity and requisite skill mix. Strengthen internal governance structure to provide strategic and effective oversight. Strengthen system and enhance synergy for quality programme delivery as well as increase resource base with right funding mix and flexibility.

Therefore, as a critical organisation that looks at issues beyond their face value and act based on unique knowledge and our courage of conviction, we remain independent of contending social and political forces including political parties, ethnic, religious and other primordial issues. We maintain our bias for the poor building strong conceptual and political clarity through reinvigoration of our internal forums and platforms – development forum, women and gender forums among others. î

12

ActionAid

Achievement By Strategic Objectives

OBJECTIVE 1 Strengthen people’s ability to hold governments and corporates accountable and Enhance people’s access to quality services COORDINATING SERVICES FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN

Rights Law is operational in Benue, Nasarawa, FCT, Edo and Kogi states.

In Nigeria, over 17.5 million children are orphans or incredibly vulnerable due to HIV, poverty and conflict. Nigeria’s state ministries and civil society organisations have limited capacity, budgets and technical skills to provide the services that these children need. As a result a large number of vulnerable children are missing out on the support that they so desperately require.

In 2014 we supported civil society organisations to improve the well-being of 500,000 orphans and vulnerable children and supported 125,000 care givers across five states in Nigeria.

At ActionAid we recognise that it is essential that government is responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable children in the society – in order to do this well, they need to be coordinated in their approach across different government departments.

Through our Sustainable Mechanism for Improving Livelihoods and Household Economic Strengthening project – SMILE we trained and supported the ministry of women affairs and social development across the five SMILE states and we have seen some significant improvements in how states coordinate services for vulnerable children including the establishment of functional child protection and support mechanisms such as child protection policy, improved case management systems and referrals, the reactivation of Child Rights Implementation Committees and support to ensure that Child

ENHANCING NATIONAL RESPONSE TO HIV/AIDS IN NIGERIA HIV/AIDS continues to be an issue of deep concern in today’s Nigeria. A lack of accurate information and access to health and support services means that the virus continues to spread at an alarming rate.

Out of fear of being on the receiving end of stigma and discrimination associated with the virus, many people refuse to be tested to know their HIV status or to seek treatment and care services. This makes it all the more difficult for HIV interventions to succeed.

The issue of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria is thus not simply one of health care; it affects and is affected by a large number of other complex factors such as gender, women’s rights, governance, economic security, and empowerment.

Our five year programme Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV/AIDS (ENR), which ended in December 2014 was developed based on the

13

Annual Report 2014 knowledge that both the causes and impacts of HIV are multidimensional and requires an effective, holistic and integrated approach.

With this in mind, the ENR focused on three major areas: policy, community engagement, and civil society organisation engagement.

The policy component of the programme was able to put in place effective anti-stigma laws at the state level. This included drafting bills and getting them passed into law, as well as ensuring quick and effective implementation of the law.

The second component of ENR focused on engaging civil society organisations (CSOs). ActionAid, under the ENR programme, realised that locally-based CSOs were the best positioned to respond to issues surrounding HIV in their communities but often did not have the skills or capacities to do so. ENR advisors worked closely with selected CSOs to improve their abilities to create effective change.

The focus of ENR’s community component was to work with the populations most vulnerable to being infected and/or affected by HIV, particularly women and rural communities.

ActionAid, as a member of a consortium partnership led by Society for Family Health (SFH), implemented these three components of the ENR programme from 2009 - 2014 in Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Enugu, Kaduna, Lagos, Nasarawa and Ogun states with funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

In each state, the programme made remarkable changes in the effectiveness of individuals, communities, organisations and states to respond to issues of HIV/AIDS. Rights violations are being legally redressed, risky behaviours have been reduced, access to HIV testing and counselling (HTC) has improved, and those living with the virus are able to better care for their families and for their health.

And yet the impacts of ENR go well beyond HIV; through the holistic approach, gender issues were addressed, communities have been empowered, and CSOs have strengthened their capacities to serve beneficiaries in a myriad of ways.ĂŽ

14

ActionAid

OBJECTIVE 2 Advance the rights of women and girls, promote their safety and participation in public and private spaces Advancing the rights of women and girls is cross cutting in all our programmes. However, throughout 2014 we implemented specific projects such as the Unpaid Care work, which seeks to help women develop themselves beyond social stereotypes and take decisions on issues that affect them directly, peer education for local community women and providing strategic support for policy change. We provide strategic leadership to the Development Partner Group on Gender (DPGG) as part of our gender policy advocacy. This has led to signing of memorandum of understanding with the Federal Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development on promoting women’s rights through policies.

Also at the state level, four of our local rights partners including Ebonyi, Kogi, Ondo and Akwa Ibom states worked with their State Ministries of Women Affairs and Social Development, community leaders and civil society organisations to develop plans as well as get commitments of community leaders and the states to address issues on violence and women and harmful traditional practices

PROMOTING THE RIGHTS AND SAFETY OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES Women have been on the receiving end of harmful traditional practices that continues to keep them from overcoming poverty and

injustice in most communities. In Ebonyi, Kogi, Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Ondo and the Federal Capital Territory ActionAid mobilized 2668 women and girls to begin to organize around cultural traditions that strengthen harmful traditional practices and safety of women in the communities through our pear education programme. We recognize the role men play in traditional communities and how they can act as positive collaborators in addressing issues of violence against women in communities.

This is why we identified and actively involved male champions in communities as rights champions for women and girls. They join forces with women groups in these communities to promote the rights and safety of women and girls. This contributed to the number of critical mass of people advocating and promoting the rights of women and girls in our local rights communities. Additionally, women and girls as well as children across these states now have a better understanding of their rights as a result of targeted trainings and interactions. This resulted to the increase in number of advocacy and other actions they have undertaken to demand for their rights in the various communities.

In Kogi, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states 18 Male champions were identified in six communities to promote and support the protection of women’s rights as well as addressing gender norms in these communities. These male champions in addition to other males in the communities have been trained on women and girls rights and are

15

Annual Report 2014

advocating as well as supporting women in the communities to challenge gender norms and values that promotes violence against women.

TRAINING WOMEN ON INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES ActionAid Nigeria and Our Local Rights Programmes (LRP) partners in 2014 implemented series of capacity building training for women in 15 LRP communities. As a result over 147 women are currently involved in an income generating activities.

This brings to total of over 360 women in these communities empowered with different trades including soap making, shea butter production, rice mill machines.

Women in 15 LRP communities participated in organized income generating activities as well as helping them organize themselves into savings and loan and cooperative groups. In all we trained 147 and these women are already engaged in various business activities that generate income for them. ĂŽ

16

ActionAid

17

Annual Report 2014

Hassana Paves the Way for Stigmatised Women

By Emmanuel Ojo – ENR Policy, Advocacy and Gender Technical Advisor

It was in July of 2009 that Hassana, then 26, happily married her fiancé. The newlyweds were eager to expand their family, so when Hassana became pregnant shortly after their wedding, they were filled with joy. To ensure both she and baby were in good health, Hassana decided to enrol for antenatal care (ANC) services at their clinic in Lafia in Nasarawa State. It was through a standard HIV test given during an ANC visit that she found out she was HIV positive.

solution to their status. “In 2011, my husband went to see one native doctor,” she recalls. “The man claimed that he has healed my husband of HIV and so should no longer take his drugs. My husband told me to follow him there, that the man said that I should come for him to cleanse me.” Hassana, however, was enrolled in an HIV support group and understood the consequences of not adhering to her drug regimen. She refused to go.

“I was so confused because I did not expect my result to be positive,” says Hassana. “Since I get married, I have not slept with another man.”

Her refusal reinstated her husband’s fury. He demanded that she visit the native doctor and when she continued to refuse, he physically forced her from their home with only the clothes on her back.

“He didn’t want me to come to his house and see my child. I asked him to release my things but he refused,” says Hassana. Efforts made by her family members to quell the situation proved futile.

The clinic encouraged Hassana to disclose the test results to her husband and have him come for testing at the clinic. When she told him, as instructed, he was shocked with disbelief. He argued that facilities sometimes wrongly interpret lab results. As Hassana says, “I think he was afraid of going for HIV test.”

Eventually Hassana was able to convince her husband of the need to be tested. He grudgingly went to the clinic where he too tested positive.

Hassana’s husband reacted with fury. “He was very angry that he tested positive to HIV,” said Hassana.

“He put the whole blame on me. He accused me of sleeping with other men outside.”

Fortunately, Hassana’s husband was pacified by the follow-up counselling he received at the health facility.

The couple was enrolled in anti-retroviral therapy and Hassana utilised the health facility’s Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) services. In April 2010, the couple welcomed a baby girl who, thanks to the PMTCT, tested negative to HIV. For a while, the family lived relatively peacefully, taking their drugs as directed. But the situation worsened when Hassana’s husband sought out a spiritual

Hassana felt ashamed of herself and worried what other people might think or say about her - not only for being HIV positive, but now also for being rejected by her husband. She moved in with her relatives and learned to sew clothes to make ends meet, but emotionally she was distraught. For two long years, Hassana went without seeing her only daughter.

Throughout this time, Hassana continued to attend her HIV support group meetings. On one otherwise typical day in July 2013, the group was introduced to the stigma diary, a tool designed by ActionAid’s Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HI/AIDS (ENR) programme team to track and report cases of rights violation against people living with HIV/AIDS to designated human rights’ agencies.

Hassana was overjoyed at the opportunity to make her own plight known using the stigma diary. She knew she was being treated unfairly all along but she did not know there was a law to protect her against Continued on page 23

18

ActionAid

A Driving Force Behind Poverty and Corruption

B

eing a taxi driver in Nigeria is far from a lucrative business. Each day, taxi drivers like Emmanuel* have to pay five thousand naira ($25USD) to the owner of the car, cover the cost of fuel, pay the car loaders at motor parks, and often distribute a bribe or two to the police. At the end of the day, the profit is small. And yet the expenses do not stop here. There are also the taxes.

Emmanuel plies Abuja’s busy AYA route in his taxi every day alongside hundreds of other marked and unmarked taxis. To use the AYA motor park he and the other taxis drivers pay a daily tax of 250 naira and then another 50 naira for each time they

load their taxi at the park. In the course of a week, Emmanuel pays thousands in tax. In the course of a year he pays well over 100,000 naira ($500 USD). These taxes significantly impact his already insufficient profit margin, yet in comparison to what he regularly pays in tax to the Joint Task Force (JTF), the amount is small.

Setup along the AYA route, the JTF, made up of military and paramilitary personnel, detain nonregistered taxis, collecting anywhere from ten to thirty thousand naira in taxes from the drivers.

Even when paid at the Mabushi Vehicle Inspection Office, no receipt is ever given, meaning that no taxi driver is able to prove he has already paid his fair share of taxes for the given period. As such, drivers are repeatedly hassled for money by the Joint Task Force whose own salary payments are often severely delayed by the government that employs them.

19

Annual Report 2014

The paying of taxes is a normal part of business.

Across the globe, governments use taxes to pay for public services and infrastructure projects, like roads and schools. And yet the roads Emmanuel drives are dangerously full of potholes and unlit, and the schools his children should attend are poorly equipped and charge various fees. Fees that Emmanuel cannot afford ironically due to the amount of tax he pays. As a result, a number of his children are currently out of school.

The even greater irony is that across Nigeria, and indeed much of Africa, poor citizens like Emmanuel pay more in taxes than multi-million dollar foreign companies. In Ghana, for example, SABMiller did not pay corporate tax for three years between 2005 and 2010. The Associated British Food group (ABF) in Zambia has also admitted to paying “virtually no corporate tax”, thereby depriving Zambian public services of an estimated US$27million, according to an ActionAid study. In Nigeria, an estimated average of 15 billion dollars is lost to illicit financial flows each year, of which most is as a result of harmful tax practices. If this lost revenue was kept in the country and directed towards public services, Emmanuel’s children – and indeed all the 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria – could claim their basic human right to education.

The blame, however, cannot be placed solely on the foreign companies. While these companies’ tax avoidance practices may be immoral, they are not illegal. In fact, tax breaks and other harmful tax practices are willing offered up by the Nigerian government. The belief is that low tax rates, tax exemptions, and treaties that permit money to be channeled through tax havens will attract more foreign investment into the country which will in turn lead to job creation. Unfortunately, this belief has no firm basis. Numerous studies have shown that foreign companies rate tax breaks as very low on the scale of motivation for investing in a country. In yet another tragic stroke of irony, what these companies rank as high motivators for investment are a skilled/educated work force and strong infrastructure – the very services that tax is supposed to finance.

Emmanuel is frustrated that he pays taxes while many multinational companies do not. He believes that if the Nigerian government made multinational companies pay

their fair share of tax, not only would public services improve, but corruption would decrease. With the additional revenue, he says, the government would have enough money to pay the salaries of military and paramilitary agents, who often go unpaid, and then they would not be compelled to extort money from poor taxi drivers like him.

There is hope that Emmanuel’s wish could come true. Throughout 2014, ActionAid Nigeria lobbied duty bearers, engaged continuously with the press and reached out to the public through social media, radio programs, rallies and awareness campaigns to demand that the African Union (AU) accept a high level report with recommendations on illicit financial flows. These efforts, combined with those of the greater ActionAid federation and civil society partners around the world, finally paid off. In January 2015, at a summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the AU formally accepted the Mbeki High Level Panel Report on IFF. It is a significant step in the right direction, but there is much more work

❝Emmanuel is frustrated that he pays taxes while many multinational companies do not❞ to be done to ensure the effective application and implementation of the recommendations by the Nigerian government and other governments across the continent.

ActionAid, through its international Tax Power campaign, remains committed to holding the government to account and ensuring that the outflow of money from the continent is not only stopped, but re-invested into health, education and infrastructure projects. Such projects will not only boost the development of the countries, it will also assist in improving the lives of Emmanuel, his children and the millions of others unjustly living in poverty. î *Name changed upon request.

20

ActionAid

21

Annual Report 2014

Economic Empowerment for women in Oshiri Improves Family Livelihood

“M

y foster mother is part of the crusade,” fifteen-year-old Jemila Kabiru says proudly. “She has taught me many things on the need to go to school. She spearheads EGBEK in the community for women as [the] women leader.”

The EGBEK that Jemila is referring to is the popular short term given to the Enhancing Girls’ Basic Education in Kebbi project, delivered

by ActionAid Nigeria. As the name suggests, the project, funded by OXFAM Novib, aims at improving the enrolment of girls in schools in 16 communities in Kebbi, a state in northern Nigeria.

Kebbi state, and indeed the entire northern region of the country, are particularly hard hit by poverty and cultural gender roles are deeply ingrained.

These two factors lead to many parents keeping their female children out of school. A girl’s role is to become a good wife and mother and thus the school fees and cost of materials and uniform is often seen as a waste of money and resources.

To deliver on its objects, EGBEK, which ran from 2012 to 2014, took a multi-pronged approach, which included working with teachers, schools, school management boards, girls, and mothers.

The establishment of Mothers Associations was key to the project’s success.

Through the Mothers’ Associations, ActionAid empowered approximately 40 women in each of the 16 communities with vocational skills and sensitized them on the importance of girlchild education. These women now use their increased earnings to help send girls in their community to school and speak with parents on why education of children, specifically girls, is necessary.

Jemila’s foster mother, Hajiya Wanke Abdul, is heavily involved in the Mother’s Association in her community in Augie Local Government Area.

“I go out early in the morning and visit houses in the community to remind them of the need for children who are already in school to be punctual and persuade mothers who have children not yet enrolled in school under their roofs to take them to school,” she says. “If I see a child who is not in school, I ask: ‘Why did you not got to school today?’ Some may say ‘I don’t have socks, books or writing materials.’ If I have the money I buy that thing they need immediately so that they may be in school. If I don’t have it, I got to their parents and try to see how that challenge could be addressed so that education of the child would not be jeopardized.”

Like her foster mother, Jemila is also an important advocate for girl-child education in her community. She belongs to the Girls’ Club which EGBEK initiated in each of the participating

❝I go out early in the morning and visit houses in the community to remind them of the need for children who are already in school to be punctual❞ communities. The club encourages girls to stay in school and to become actively involved in bringing about change in their communities.

For instance, the girls support the school management boards by identifying and mapping out which children are not in school and why, so that the board can then take appropriate actions.

Jemila says that a main reason children are kept out of school in her community is to help support the family. “I feel sad when I hold my bag and see other children like me hawk [sell items on the

22

ActionAid street] during school hours,” she says. “It is a very bad thing to do. Many of the parents claim they are poor and their children would not go to school. This is a big challenge for children like me in this community.”

Jemila and the Girls’ Club members understand the need for children to help bring in money for the family - in fact, Jemilia herself works after school ‘hawking’ small items on the streets - but they believe that there must be a balance.

Education is every child’s right, but beyond that, in the long-term a family and a community will be much more secure financially if their children are educated.

“Look at our community,” says Jemila, “many basic amenities are lacking; the women are not empowered; most men engage in farming; there is no development. I believe when we young ones go to school, there will be a change.”

Thanks to EGBEK, the change that Jemila speaks of is now a more reachable goal.

From 2012, when the project was started, to 2014, when the project ended, there was a 20% increase in girl-child enrolment in the 16 participating communities’ project schools.

And with the continued efforts of girls and women like Jemila and her foster mother, Hajiya, more positive changes are sure to come. î

Continued from page 17

such violations. “It was like an answered prayer,” she says. “I couldn’t wait to report my case.”

With guidance from ENR, the support group assisted Hassana with drafting and submitting her complaint and ensured that it was properly filed and acted upon in a timely fashion. She was contacted shortly thereafter. “I received a call from the NASNET [Nasarawa State Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS] Coordinator that my case is been handled by the Human Rights Commission,” recalls Hassana. “My husband was invited for an out-of-court settlement at the Human Rights Commission’s office.”

Upon hearing her story of mistreatment, the Human Rights Commission granted Hassana full access to her clothing and other belongings and, most importantly, her daughter. Now Hassana sees her daughter as frequently as she wants. “I am happy now that ENR has helped me have access to my only child and my things,” she says. “I feel like I am beginning a new life.”

Hassana’s case was the first to be reported using ActionAid’s stigma diary as well as the first to gain redress under the anti-stigma law in Nasarawa State.

Today, Hassana serves a strong advocate for the stigma diary; she speaks with women who have had similar experiences and informs them of the law, their rights and how to act if their rights have been violated.

Hassana’s case and advocacy efforts have engineered the tracking and reporting of more incidences rights violation against persons living with HIV/AIDS in Nasarawa State, with six cases having been reviewed by the National Human Rights Commission as of December 2014. All six were cases concerning married women experiencing domestic violence due to their HIV positive status. And all six have gotten appropriate redress. î

23

Annual Report 2014

24

ActionAid

Nnamdi Returns to School

N

namdi Nweke was just 11 years old when his father told him that he would be leaving school and going to Lagos. “At first I did not understand what he meant,” Nnamdi recalls. “When he discovered that I was not catching up with what he was saying he called the names of other boys in my community who left school and went to the city. It was then that I understood.”

What Nnamdi had come to understand was that he was being removed from school and sent off to work and make money for his family. Like many others in their community of Ephuenyim in Ebonyi State, the Nweke family had been struggling for years to make ends meet. Nnamdi’s father did not see the value of continuing to send his child to school when he could instead be earning muchneeded money. So he did what many other parents did: he made arrangements for his son to live with and work for a man who originally heralded from their community, in return for a small income.

Nnamdi admits to having mixed feelings about the announcement. Part of him was excited to see the big city of Lagos he had heard so much about, though he says he would have rather seen it after completing his education. Ultimately, however, it was his family responsibilities that drove the boy’s commitment.

25

Annual Report 2014 “My father has 13 children,” he explains. “I am the second child and first son. I know that to eat was difficult in my house and I wanted to help in making money for the family.”

Nnamdi’s life in Lagos was very different than the routine of school. Seven days a week Nnamdi cleaned the apartment he lived in with his employer, and then headed to the shop where he mopped and dusted, stocked the shelves with rice, beans and other items, and helped customers with their purchases.

While the work was tiring, the most difficult part for Nnamdi was seeing his peers.

“I will see children like me going to school and speak with confidence, and inside me I will feel empty and miserable. Because I would like to be like them. I told Mr. Chukwuma that I want to go back to school and be able to speak like those children. He told me that he left school in primary 3 and that I am even lucky to have reached primary 5. He said that

after I have stayed more years in Lagos that I will be speaking good English like him.”

Nnamdi was resigned to the fact that he would be working in Lagos for the foreseeable future. Thus he was greatly surprised when in December of 2014 his employer, Mr. Chukwuma, told him that his father said he should return to Ephuenyim. “At first I thought there was a problem at home and something has happened to my mother or any of my siblings,” recalls Nnamdi. “But when I got back and saw that there was nothing wrong I asked my father why he sent for me to come home.

It was then that he told me that the community selected him to attend training in Ephuenyim Primary School.”

The training that had such a surprising and influential effect on Nnamdi’s father had been organized by Participatory Development Alternatives (PDA) and ActionAid. In 2010, ActionAid had built a block of three

26

ActionAid classrooms in the community to augment the one built by the government, but despite the extra and improved physical space, school enrolment and retention rates remained low, and the quality of teaching poor. In a community that faced poverty on a daily basis, there was minimal understanding of how education could be a long-term solution for their problems and improve their children’s futures. Plus, while a School Based Management Committee had been set-up by the government to monitor and address the quality of education at the school, the community members did not understand its purpose or what duties they were to perform.

ActionAid and PDA sought to change these realities. The three-day training was one of

❝In a community that faced poverty on a daily basis, there was minimal understanding of how education could be a long-term solution for their problems❞ their first steps in building the capacities of community members to increase attendance and improve the quality of education.

Nnamdi’s father was greatly influenced by what he learned during the training. He shared with his son that the idea of the importance and influence of education was further driven home for him when he saw a schoolboy, the same age as his son, stand up and speak.

As Nnamdi explains, “I could tell from all my father told me that night I asked him why he wanted me to come back from Lagos that one of the major reasons that made him send for me was the boldness of Onyibe. He reported one of the teachers in the school who always left school before closing hours during the training. Many people in Ephuenyim admired the courage Onyibe displaced at the training and want their children to be able to speak out like him.”

By the training’s end, Nnamdi’s father had decided to call his son, now fourteen, back from Lagos and re-enrol him in school. Mr. Nweke was also selected to be part of the taskforce set up by the community to ensure that children from Ephuenyim who left school returned back. “I was surprised to see more pupils in the school than when I left my community to go to Lagos,” says Nnamdi. “Also teachers come to school more regularly and on time than before and this makes us to be in school before them.”

As for Nnamdi, he is grateful and eager to make the most of this second chance brought about

by PDA and ActionAid. “I feel happier than I felt when I was in Lagos. Many of the time I was always angry and thought of home while I was in Lagos,” he says.

“Above all, I am confident that I can do better than Onyibe did during the training and I can equally go on to become a teacher just as I have always dreamt to be. I had thought when I was in Lagos that I will never become a teacher again, but now if I study hard I am sure I will make it.” î

»

Through advocacy and lobbying, ActionAid’s ENR projects secured new modern health centre

27

Annual Report 2014

28

ActionAid

OBJECTIVE 3 Strengthen people’s ability to hold governments and corporates accountable and Enhance people’s access to quality services PROMOTING RIGHTS IN SCHOOLS ActionAid Nigeria in 2014 operated both within the Local Rights and donor funded project to advance education sector work. Within these projects and programs, one hundred and twenty four (124) schools in eighty five (85) communities have been sensitized on the promoting rights in schools (PRS) programme. PRS has been translated into local language in one LRP to further advance greater understanding and wider acceptability which will further increase the awareness in more schools and the wider community. Success on adopting the PRS by a school or community means significant progress recorded on two or more of the 10 core education Rights in the PRS program. For example, this could refer to improvements recorded or number of actions taken by government to ensure that education is free and also efforts made to have quality trained teachers.

ADVOCATING EDUCATION RIGHTS IN EMERGENCIES We also, in our work, witnessed significant rise in the activities of the militant movement and insurgents group Boko Haram. Although their attacks have been predominantly in the North Eastern part of Nigeria, the kidnapping of over two hundred (200) Chibok school girls no doubt affected previous efforts made by government and development partners in ensuring more girls enrol into school. In responding to this, we are worked with our local rights partners, education relevant

networks and other groups to consistently draw the attention of the presidential initiative in the north-east (PINE) and the global community to this issue, and shared perspectives through campaigns and community-based related actions on how to make schools safer for girls and boys.

WORKING WITH OTHERS TO ADVANCE EDUCATION RIGHTS In advancing education in Nigeria, ActionAid supported and worked with over 30 Civil Society organizations in 2014. Specifically, we have set up over 8 major national coalitions in Nigeria, including the Civil Society Coalition of Education (CSACEFA), with over 500 members across Nigeria. We supported the emergence of a network on delaying early marriage in Nigeria.

We work with female professionals in the legal, medical, education and media profession in 5 states and at the national level five (5) states across Nigeria. We provided special orientation of these professional women to understand the issues, from HRBA perspective. Training and mentoring these professional women and allowing them chance to exercise their various expertise during advocacy visits to people in authority, gave us tremendous results.

ActionAid Nigeria involvement in National education networks remained very strong in 2014. Global Action Week is one of the major focal points for the education movement. It provides every national and regional education campaign with an opportunity to raise the profile

29

Annual Report 2014 of challenges of ensuring quality education. In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria was involved with sensitizing the citizens on education and disability, our perspective on this continues to emphasize equal rights and equal opportunities. About 1265 students (Female 423 & Male 842) were mobilized and sensitized.

Our Girls campaign (BBOG). ActionAid Nigeria commemorated the International Youth Day with a youth forum on “youth and mental health” in collaboration with Activista, Gede Foundation and Parent Against Drug Abuse in Nigeria (PANDAN), reaching 50 males and 13 females.

WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE & ACTIVISTA TAKING ACTION

A youth forum on Illicit financial flows and sustainable development organized by Activista youth corps members was also held. The Activista protested and acted in solidarity with students of Lagos State University (LASU) over school fees increment involving over one thousand three hundred and seventeen (1,317) LASU students and Activista. The actions include production and distribution of pamphlet and picketing of the State Governor’s office.

ActionAid Nigeria has a deliberate and strategic plan to involve the youths in its country programmes and actions. In Nigeria, there are ActionAid facilitated platform through which young people are organized to take action. Examples include Girls club, ACTIVISTA, STAR circles, etc In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria trained one thousand three hundred and twenty one (1,321) youths including the Activista on Taxation and sustainable development during the National Youth Summit on Tax. This was followed by the Activista Organising for Change Camp in which 15 females and 29 males from 9 Activista cells participated. These interactions deepened the knowledge of youths on tax, Women’s unpaid care work, political education, safe cities for women and organizing within the Activista cell structures. ActionAid Nigeria local rights programmes (LRPs) in Kogi, FCT, Ondo, and Kaduna have been organizing around youth’s education, multiple taxation, sustainable agriculture and political education with both technical and financial support from AAN. Consequently, the Activista cells have grown stronger and are taking sustained independent actions in their cells such as the free Holiday Coaching that took place in FCT, Lagos, Ondo, Gombe and Benue concurrently, during which a total of forty eight (48) Activistas volunteered and two thousand three hundred (2,300) students were reached.

The Inspire programme on Entrepreneurship and Political Education that took place in Lagos and Benue Activista cells, the Nyanya Environmental Campaign involving 25 Activista, and social media actions on International youth Day, Day of the Girl Child, Day of the African Child and the Bring Back

YOUTH ADVANCING RIGHTS USING THE SOCIAL MEDIA During the 2014 World Food Day commemoration, about four hundred and five thousand eight hundred and fifty six (405,856) accounts were directly reached and more than nine hundred and twenty one thousand six hundred and thirty four (921,634) impressions were made during a Tweet conference, sensitizing youths on the role of the small holder farmers and supporting them to take actions to pressure the government to invest more in sustainable agriculture.

Activistas youth platform continued to advocate for rescue of the Missing Chibok girls by participating in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in Abuja and across the globe through numerous social media actions. Over fifty four thousand five hundred and ninety two (54,592) accounts were reached directly, and seventy six thousand eight hundred and eighty five (76,885) impressions were made during a Tweet conference marking the International Day of the Girl Child. This action saw youths from all over the country and abroad demanding for safe schooling environments and economic empowerment for the girl child. î

30

ActionAid

OBJECTIVE 4 Enhance human security and livelihood for the poor and excluded EBOLA AWARENESS In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria activated a massive country wide response to Ebola Emergency by putting together a comprehensive response plan and designed materials for sensitization across over two hundred (200) communities in the Local Rights Programme Communities. The overall goal of the Plan was to prevent the spread of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) and reduce the risk of infection through sensitization and dissemination of appropriate information on the disease. The information, Education, & Communication (IEC) Materials produced and interactive sessions convened on EVD were very helpful in directly reaching about six thousand (6,000) people (men 1500, women 2000, girls1300 and boys 1200). While it is good to note that Nigeria has since been declared Ebola-Free, ActionAid remained resolute at ensuring measures remained in place to combat EVD and its ravaging trail in the West Africa Sub-region is completely halted.

HUMANITARIAN RELIEF ADMINISTRATION Nigeria in recent times has witnessed increased occurrence of conflicts and disasters. They range from attacks by terrorist groups and other ethnic militias to politically induced conflicts. The change in climate has also increased the occurrence of natural

disasters like flooding, rain storms and famine.

The capacity of government institutions and communities to respond to these crises remains weak coupled with largely uncoordinated humanitarian response from the development community.

In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria responded to massive displacements of people in two of our communities worst hit by the impact of the insurgency in Gombe state, North East Nigeria. Outcome of violent communal clashes caused by disputes between farmers and nomadic cattle herders contributed to killings and massive displacement of people in Kogi state, North Central Nigeria. Linking immediate relief intervention with long term durable solutions, ActionAid Nigeria supported hundred and seventy eight (178) households affected by these two incidents in Kogi and Gombe states. With the average household size is estimated at seven persons (07), it can be safely estimated that over one thousand two hundred and sixty four (1264) persons received food and non-food items as support from AA in these locations in 2014.

STRENGTHENED COMMUNITY-BASED DISASTER RISK REDUCTION In 2014, we supported orientation and community reflections on issues around conflict assessment and sensitivity, and peace-building. This is in response to history

31

Annual Report 2014

A Women’s peer education group meeting in Ebonyi State

of unrest and bickering among a cluster of communities in Ondo LRP. The intervention by ActionAid facilitated a peace accord and culture of tolerance among warring parties in Ondo LRP which ushered an era of peaceful coexistence.

Kogi state is one of the states adversely affected by 2012 flood incidence in Nigeria, a social audit on disaster management was earlier conducted in this state and the outputs widely shared for policy changes. Again, twenty five (25) persons representing community based organizations and government emergency response agencies received orientation and practical training on community based disaster risk reduction in Kogi state, where ActionAid is working to strengthen accountability in disaster management.

In Nasarawa, a research on sexual violence in conflict situation was carried out and a publication that provides sectoral guide and recommendations for policymakers and implementers was produced.

BUILDING SOLIDARITY WITH GOVERNMENTS AND STAKEHOLDERS IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT To enhance institutional capacity for response and risk reduction, about sixty (60) persons drawn from at least seven (7) Government Agencies were trained on Conflicts Assessment, participatory vulnerability assessment (PVA) and Early Warning Systems. The training objective is to build the capacity of staff of selected federal and state government agencies, NGOs and media organisations on conflicts risk, participatory vulnerability analysis and early warning.

ActionAid Nigeria supported the drafting the Nigeria Migration Policy-2014 as coordinated by IOM Nigeria. The organization participated in Global Early Recovery cluster mentoring initiative aimed at improving capacity in the emergency reform and recovery sector. Our international commitment was summed up in the review of the Global Partnership Framework of AAI emphasizing on conflict sensitive partnership model in doing collective business.

32

ActionAid In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria maintained its membership and remained active in the country level sectoral working groups. These included the protection (PSWG), Camp coordination and management (CCCM-WG) and the emergencies preparedness and response (EPRWG).

IMPROVING ACCESS TO FARM LAND AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS FOR SMALL HOLDER WOMEN FARMERS Mobilising and supporting Women Small Holder Farmers to form their own platforms empowers them to have the space to directly engage with duty bearers on their issues with direct evidence from their members on how government policies are impacting on them. In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria worked to strengthen the over two hundred and seventy two small holder women farmers groups in ninety six (96) communities located in twenty five (25) local government areas across seven (7) states. Efforts were focused on strengthening the smallholder women farmers’ national advocacy platform that was established in 2013. We supported various trainings of smallholder women farmers and their groups in the area of agriculture budget monitoring and advocacy, climate resilience sustainable agriculture, participation in validation meetings, etc. and supported their local, state, national and international advocacy engagements.

Researches, analysis and documentation were also carried out to provide basis and evidences for their advocacy initiatives.

ENHANCING CLIMATE RESILIENT SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE (CRSA) PRACTICE IN NIGERIA In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria through the Local Rights programmes (LRPs) supported Climate Resilience Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA) trainings across seven (7) LRP states. Three hundred and forty eight (348) farmers were directly trained through community focused decentralized trainings across the seven (7) states while additional five hundred and forty two (542) women trained indirectly through step-down trainings. These numbers were reached through a change in the approach of administering the trainings. In the past the training programme was usually centralized and convened at just one place but we decentralized the training and cascaded the experience through supporting step down and practicals.

According to the farmers, the changes brought about through practising agro-ecology have been remarkable. Of note is the increase in their farm produce. Also, the farmers have been able to effectively conserve their farm land from the devastating effects of oil exploration in the oil producing states. ActionAid Nigeria has changed its approach based on lessons learnt from centralised training to decentralised community based trainings. This has increased the number of farmers reached and has provided hands on experience for the farmers.

33

Annual Report 2014

34

ActionAid

Challenges The achievements of 2014 were made in the face of a number of challenges.

The greatest challenge to our work continues to undoubtedly be the lack of funding, particularly non-restrictive funding. With limited and restrictive funds from donor countries and donor agencies, we are forced to operate with minimal resources and staff. This means that the number of people we can reach with our programs and the issues we can effectively impact are limited.

In 2014, ActionAid Nigeria has made attempts to remedy this by launching Community Sponsorship, a regular giving program. It is still in its infancy stage, but it is hoped this will relieve some of the financial tensions in the coming years.

Similarly, donor agencies have changed their funding priorities to focus on areas in which ActionAid Nigeria does not necessarily prioritize. The pool of money we compete for has thus become smaller and more competitive.

A lack of finances restrict our work in yet another way: the deep and generational poverty of those people we seek to reach proves to challenge our efforts. With such entrenched poverty, long-term planning is not something − and it is a challenge to convince some families and communities to send their children to school rather than the farm or to abstain from marrying off their daughters as children and adolescents. It is for this reason that ActionAid interweaves skills training / economic empowerment activities into the majority of their programming. EGBEK, for example, provided mother’s with training on the making of fishing nets, etc. in addition to sensitizing them on the need to send their children, especially their daughters, to school.

In certain areas of our work, the low capacities of those we work with challenged our efforts in making tangible policy changes. The Tax Power Campaign, for example, focused on mobilizing youth to take action against harmful tax practices but a great investment first needed to be made in raising their knowledge on this technical issue to a level that they were comfortable…

For our work in risk and disaster management it was also noted that the relevant government’s capacities in these areas were low, delaying action.

Although ActionAid has a strong, lengthy history of working closely and effectively with government MDAs, certain ministries and individuals in the government still have a misperception of ActionAid as being confrontational which has impeded our ability to effectively engage with these duty bearers.

The number of people we could reach, where we could go and the impact we could have was also challenged in 2014 by the security situation in the country.

People were afraid to congregate in large groups due to threats of bombs in crowded areas. Women and girls especially were afraid due to the reports of kidnappings. Travel of our own staff to one of the states where we operate was also temporarily restricted due to the insurgency in the North Eastern region. î

35

Annual Report 2014

Lessons Learnt Throughout the year we experienced key lessons that have positioned us for better impact in the coming year. Some of the key lessons learnt have been our collaboration with key partners at the state, local government and community levels in the design and implementation of community level activities which helped improve the quality of services provided. It also reduced the cost of implementation at the community level and provided projects with the continuity that is needed for sustainable development. It is only through partnership and participation that communities will get a sense of ownership and will, therefore, feel motivated to operate and maintain the system.

One of the critical learning in our women’s right programme is the inclusion of men as male champions in the process of advancing the rights of women and girls which has helped to achieve a positive buy-in of men and boys in advocating for women’s and girls’ rights in the communities. We actively involved male champions in our local rights programme communities to champion the rights of women and girls. This contributed to number of critical mass of people advocating and promoting the rights of women and girls in the communities. Additionally, women and girls now have a better understanding of their rights and are able to engage decision makers both at the community and local government levels. This resulted in the increase in number of advocacy and other actions they have undertaken to demand for their rights in these communities.

We also learnt that mobilizing and supporting small holder Women Farmers to create their own platforms empowered them to have the space to directly engage with duty bearers on issues that affect them and demand for their rights. This engagement has yielded positive results as small holder women farmers now have access to farm inputs and quality services.

Another key learning was the training of women politician and young women on politics which has greatly helped with mentoring of younger women, raising rights consciousness, and building increased interest in politics by young women. This has also resulted in young people showing keen interest in influencing governance more.

We observed that there is a disconnect between the communities and the policy makers. Hence, this informed our decision to work with female wing of professional bodies that have direct influence with the government and are willing to work with the communities to advocate for change in the communities. Our work has been majorly in the area of advocating for girls education. We built the capacity of these professional bodies to understand the issues from HRBA perspective. Training and mentoring these professional bodies and bringing their various expertise to bear in the advocacy work, has given us tremendous results. î

36

ActionAid

Our work with women and girls is aimed at enhancing their access to decision-making processes Before & After intervention

0.7% of women participation

Policy

Organisational Priorities

25%

of women participation

Community Sponsorship Launch Empowering women groups

In July 2014, we launched a new fundraising initiative - COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIP, a unique organised programme that allows Nigerians to participate in a regular donation to community development initiatives through ActionAid. This also resulted in broadening our sponsorship unit.

The new fundraising initiative has allowed us stretch our creativity to device various means to recruit supporters who will donate regularly to support the work we do.

We successfully recruited a celebrity campaigner in the person of Dakore EgbusonAkande who is helping to raise ActionAid’s profile through the media and a production of a Direct Response TV advert, which we launched in the last quarter of the year. Î

Women Peer Education groups

Helped 1260 women across 7 states create Business plans

Women owned businesses

Girls in school Before & After

Women owned businesses increased by over

40%

37

Annual Report 2014

Voices from the field ❝ The unique involvement of male champions in our women’s rights work to advocate for the rights of women in their communities have taught us that empowering men as advocates of women’s rights can go a long way in influencing community leaders to take decisions that impacts positively on women’s lives, like eliminating harmful widowhood practices, which we experienced in Ujaba community, Iglamela local government of Kogi state.❞ Hajara Adamu

Women’s Rights Programme Officer

❝ Our innovative approach of working with female professionals to act as inspiration for girls to enroll and continue to stay in school till they complete the universal basic education is very impressive for me.❞ Laban Onismus

Education Programme Advisor

❝ Introducing the Reflection Action (RA) Methodology into our community work is helping us generate unique data around the most pressing needs in the communities where we work and these data have become the key thrust of our advocacy and campaign work.❞ Jummai Lawan Musa

Impact Assessment and Shared Learning Manager

❝ Providing support to smallholder women farmers through evidence based advocacy and media engagements has enabled them gain more support from their state governments and this has strengthened our policy engagement spaces in these states.❞ Blessing Egumamhe

Food & Agriculture Programme Officer

38

ActionAid

Financial Report STATEMENT OF INCOME OR LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2014

NOTES

2014

2013

N

N

Grants

5

1,434,983,991

1,169,450,770

Other Income

6

100,316,463

28,637,859

1,545,300,454

1,198,088,629

Total Income

Direct charitable expenditure

7

659,842,387

433,958,554

Management and administrative costs

8

556,142,387

529,789,705

Depreciation

9

800,000

2,396,876

1,216,785,149

966,145,135

318,515,305

231,943,494

Total expenses Net surplus for the year Other comprehensive income Re-measurement Gain on defined benefit plan (Note 13)

62,595,273

Reclassified adjustments for gain included in The income statement Other comprehensive income for the year

Comprehensive surplus for the year

The attached notes 1 to 20 form an integral part of these financial statements

62,595,273

381,110,578

231,943,494

39

Annual Report 2014

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION AS AT YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2014

ASSETS Non-current assets Property, plant and equipment Current assets Receivables Prepayments Cash & cash equivalent

2014

2013

N

N

9 10 11

TOTAL ASSETS

800,000 554,933,234 14,699,205 370,057,086

394,906,212 6,833,993 164,156,243

939,689,525

566,696,448

939,689,525

566,696,448

752,645,795

371,535,217

752,645,795

371,535,217

132,580,994

169,431,537

132,580,000

169,431,537

LIABILITIES AND RESERVES Reserves Accumulated fund

12

Non-current liabilities Emloyee defined benefit liabilities

13

Non-current liabilities Current liabilities Payables

14

1,198,462

1,31,835

Other liabilities

15

53,099,274

23,797,859

TOTAL LIABILITIES

187,043,730

195,161,231

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND RESERVES

939,689,525

566,696,448

SIGNED ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD MEMBERS BY:

Ojobo Atuluku Country Director FRC/2015/NBA/00000013654

Oluwole Elegbele Director of Finance & Operations FRC/2014/ICAN/00000009875

1A Adeboye Solanke Street, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria