Paper short abstract:

This paper shares the findings of a research project examining 20 years of continuous UK government assistance to four Nigerian States. It examines how successive governance programmes, operating in different political contexts, exercised their power and to what extent they supported local agency.

Paper long abstract:

The Learning, Evidence and Advocacy Partnership (LEAP) project, under a grant to the Overseas Development Institute, has undertaken research on 20 years of UK governance programming in Nigeria.

The research adopted a combination of 'realist synthesis' evaluation methods and process tracing to examine "Whether, how, under what conditions and for whom have UK-funded State level governance programmes in Nigeria contributed to sustained changes in governance and related changes in health and education in the Northern States of Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Yobe since 2000".

This very rare time-frame provides a unique opportunity to look back at how aid was provided to assist State actors (governor, legislators, civil servants, civil society at state and local levels, media), how it evolved and how support to policy, planning, budgeting, monitoring and advocacy impacted not only governance but also health and education sectors.

The research critically examines what politically-smart, locally-led programming has meant in practice, and how political economy factors (not only the local context but of the donor itself) shape what local governance, health or education changes can be influenced through external support.

The DSA paper will focus on how these programmes exercised their power (through funding/technical assistance, by 'activating' causal mechanisms (e.g. based on trusted relations), how they conceptualized local agency and locally-led change, and to what extent they did support local agency.

It will also reflect on the research process itself, conducted remotely due to Covid-19, in particular whose voices were heard and how to document changes over 20 years.