Issues of poverty and insecurity in certain regions affected by insurgency, sociocultural factors, and gender disparities contribute to high numbers of out-of-school children and children without access to formal education in Nigeria. The government has put in place policies and programmes to address the lack of inclusion and the needs of the most marginalised, including government expressed commitment to international treaties, policy reforms, civil society engagement, capacity building, collaborations, and partnerships among various stakeholders.

However, challenges such as lack of social audit, insufficient funding and poor implementation of these policies remain a significant obstacle, perpetuating exclusion and hindering the progress of gender responsive and inclusive education.

It is such gaps the Strengthening Social Accountability Project (SSAP) seeks to address. SSAP is led by Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), a coalition of civil society organisations working in the education sector with over 600 members, volunteers and staff who have expertise in advocacy, policy, monitoring, mobilisation, and awareness raising on emerging education issues, especially those of marginalised communities in Nigeria.

The project is a continuation of the efforts made in the previous project phase, implemented between April 2022 – December 2023.

More specifically, the current phase has three overarching aims:

1. To advocate for improved education financing in Nigeria for basic and secondary education in 13 states and FGN by end of December, 2026. 
2. To enhance 300  teachers’ professional development skills    to effectively deliver    basic and secondary education gender responsive pedagogy in 13 states by end of December, 2026.
3. To influence the review of National Curriculum on Basic and secondary Education to be gender responsive and skill based.

To achieve these aims, the project works through several strategic approaches:

• Capacity building of CSACEFA members, as well as CSOs, educators, policymakers, and relevant stakeholders, to enhance knowledge and skills related to inclusive education such as gender mainstreaming and policy analysis.
• Learning Collaboratives dedicated to inclusive, and gender responsive education will be established, such as those implemented in the previous project phase and those related to other EOL grantees. These efforts will enhance cross-learning through sharing lessons learned and best practices to strengthen the collective knowledge.
• Advocacy and influencing actions to government stakeholders and newly elected government officials to advocate for the effective implementation of inclusive and gender responsive practices and drive sustainability of the interventions.
• Social accountability at local, state, and national levels, engaging CSOs that are youth-led, working with women’s rights or persons with disabilities, in monitoring the implementation and progress in achieving inclusive education goals.
• Community mobilisation of education stakeholders and marginalised communities. By actively engaging them in decision making, the project will empower communities to take ownership of inclusive and gender responsive education initiatives and enhance local leadership.

The project will use inclusiveness, gender responsiveness and human rights-based approaches as the overarching strategies, to advocate for the integration of inclusiveness and gender responsiveness as key principles in national education policies and frameworks.

A previous phase of the project was carried out between April 2022 – December 2023. The current project is part of the EOL extension phase of 2024-2026. Read more about the previous phase of the project here.