Develop Social Protection Financing strategies and fiscal spaceanalyses for state governments of Kaduna, Zamfara, Jigawa and Kano

As part of the wider Educate a Child Programme (EAC) funded by the Qatar Foundation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Education and Social Policy sections have been implementing the Educate a Child Cash Transfer Programme (EAC-CTP) in Nigeria since 2016. EPRI designed the programme for UNICEF. The EAC-CTP is being implemented by the governments of Kebbi State and Zamfara State, through the Programme Implementation Unit (PIU) with technical support from EPRI. The programme aims to increase school enrolment and attendance rates for boys and girls, as well as to enhance the socio-economic wellbeing of beneficiary households.

In 2021, the focus of the support from EPRI was on reviewing the programme processes. As part of this support, EPRI facilitated a three-day programme review meeting and refresher training. The review meeting and refresher training consisted of two parts, namely (i) a general review of programme processes and (ii) a refresher training for the PIU. The training and review meeting were both conducted as a combination of in-person and remote interactions.

The review meeting brought together stakeholders from the UNICEF Education, Social Policy, Supply and the Finance sections, members of the PIU from both Kebbi and Zamfara States, representatives of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which is the programme Payment Service Provider (PSP) and EPRI. The review meeting’s focus was to review programme processes, identify challenges and potential mitigations measures and agree on a way forward. The refresher training emphasised data collection for programme monitoring, the programme GRM, the payment process, and digital tools in the programme processes. The figure below depicts a group picture of a selection of both in-person and virtual participants.

Policy Advisory
Nigeria