As we come to the end of a very exciting and eventful year, we at Connected Development (CODE) wish to appreciate the year-long journey we undertook with you in serving and impacting our communities, hand-in-hand! 
Founded in 2012 to empower marginalized communities in Africa, we have strengthened local communities by creating platforms for dialogue; engendered informed debate; and built capacities of citizens on how to hold their government accountable, through #FollowTheMoney.
As our impact stories have increased, so has our vision, and our ever-deepening sense of responsibility. Therefore, it is with pleasure at our shared achievement, and fulfilment at the completion of yet another remarkable year, that I bring you this message.
The year 2018 was great for us. Perhaps, considering that what defined our drive from inception is the utilization of digital platforms, one of our major milestones this year is ifollowthemoney.org, which has greatly expanded the movement and made it user friendly.
This year, we clocked 6; ran 35 campaigns across 35 communities in 21 states cutting across a population size of 900k. Through this, we tracked an estimate of NGN700m budgeted for projects in communities across the WASH, primary healthcare and education sectors.
We also strengthened our programmatic focus on the Extractive Industry, which over the decades has defined the trajectory of livelihood concerns especially in the Niger Delta region. In April, we partnered with @NRGInstitute to Convene CSOs on Oil and Gas Payments to @FRNigeria
Since September 2018, in partnership with @cislacnigeria and @oxfaminnigeria, we started a conflict and fragility project focused on raising awareness on #BHRng operations by actors in the value chain of the oil&gas sector while dealing with host communities in the Niger Delta.
The community outreaches enabled us to witness firsthand, the environmental, social and health hazards host communities are exposed to due to oil exploration, while also collecting community stories that were amplified through various media platforms in Nigeria
Starting with @UnilagNigeria, we toured cities & villages; engaging policy makers, stakeholders & beneficiaries, on the effects of artisanal mining activities in Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The documentary - Perspective, was produced by @RefinedCreative & funded by @OSIWA1
In line with our social mobilization ambition alongside the quest to have citizens take ownership of #FOllowTheMoney model to address the sustainability concern of our processes, we organized community gatherings across 5 northern states of: Yobe, Adamawa, Borno, Plateau and Kano
We organized capacity building for Borno SUBEB; as well as Ondo & Kaduna SUBEB and SBMC members on data management, basics of Monitoring and Evaluation; and social accountability. In addition, we made high-level courtesy calls to the chairman of Lagos, Yobe, Kaduna & Kano SUBEBs
In partnership with @EiENigeria, with funding from @TrustAfrica, we screened the “Human Cost of Corruption”, a documentary on Machina community in Yobe State, deprived of primary healthcare due to corruption at Border Communities Development Agency with 2017 capital projects
We collaborated with @MalalaFund to implement a mega campaign #AmendUBEAct. While the amended bill was passed by @SenateNGR, it is yet to be passed by @HouseNGR. However, the fight continues to ensure increased funding for equitable access to quality education for all children
We collaborated with ECP @perlnigeria to supervise a civil society led field monitoring exercises on the National Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP) across the country, visiting over 10 states and monitoring the social programme’s effectiveness.
In the international space, we were at the @g0vtw Summit 2018 sharing exciting impacts of our #FollowTheMoney Initiative which led to increased interest in adopting the Follow The Money in Asian countries such as Myanmar.
We flagged off @fwatamkwanja in partnership with Slums Information Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC) and #FollowTheMoney the Gambia in partnership with @GambiaParticip8. In 2019, #FollowTheMoney Liberia will be launched!
We are therefore glad that our efforts, girded by your invaluable support, have played a significant role in making our communities a better place to live, and set our government on a sustainable pathway towards good governance and adherence to international best practices.
Thus, It is great to see our hard work being rewarded. @HamzyCODE was named among the 100 most influential people in digital government by @apoliticalco - apolitical.co/lists/digital-…
As our esteemed co-achiever, your support has played a major role in ensuring that we could gain every yard of the above mileage. Hence, you are indispensable in our future impacts in our immediate and virtual communities.
Relentlessly, we shall keep delivering timely community services and digital innovations, while remaining focused on the vision that set us off and united us with your platforms.
Regards #NigeriaDecides2019, our focus shall be on providing a fulcrum of information and data for robust interaction and debate so that citizens shall find the resources to make informed decisions; so that post-election outputs from political office holders can be easily tracked
We look forward to a new year where more digital spread is achieved because of our realization that internet connectivity and virtual spread serve as great incentives to citizen participation.
Therefore, we thank everyone at CODE for their persistence and commitment over this past year. It is to their loyalty, diligence and expertise that we owe our remarkable success.
Special thanks to @luminategroup, @macfound, @OSIWA1, @oxfaminnigeria, @indigotrust, @FordFoundation and most importantly, YOU - as well as many other helpful platforms, for supporting our work, and empowering rural communities across Africa.
We look forward to working with you throughout 2019 and beyond, responding to the needs of our society and catalyzing a positive change in the world.
We wish you a Peaceful, Happy and Prosperous New Year ahead!
~ @HamzyCODE & @ojonwa
We wish you a Peaceful, Happy and Prosperous New Year ahead!
~ @HamzyCODE & @ojonwa
