The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has launched a four year project aimed at strengthening citizen participation, collective action and accountability in Nigeria.
The People Influence & Action (PIA) Project was launched on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, in Abuja with support from Christian Aid under its People in Action Signature Programme.
The project will run from August 2026 to March 2030 and will be implemented nationally, with activities specifically focused on Kano, Kaduna and Plateau states.
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Project To Strengthen Citizen Influence
Speaking at the launch, CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani, said the project was designed to move citizens beyond simply being consulted to having a meaningful role in decisions that affect their lives.
He said civic participation, collective action and accountable institutions were central to achieving lasting change.
“This is at the heart of the PIA project. The project recognises that civic space, citizen power and inclusive governance are interconnected,” Auwal Musa Rafsanjani said.
He explained that the initiative would create opportunities for citizens to influence public decisions through civic participation, evidence based advocacy and engagement with government institutions.
Barriers To Citizen Participation
The PIA Project Manager and Senior Programme and Gender Officer at CISLAC, Dorcas Asaolu, said the project was developed in response to several barriers limiting citizens’ participation in governance.
She identified low public awareness of decision making processes, limited knowledge of state budgets and public policies, the impact of inflation and weak collective organising among civic actors as some of the challenges.
Dorcas Asaolu said civil society organisations sometimes work on similar issues without sufficient coordination.
“You might be doing the same thing I’m doing, but we’re not in the same room,” she said.
She said the project would therefore encourage stronger collaboration among civic organisations and communities working towards common objectives.
Dorcas Asaolu also noted that women, young people, persons with disabilities, informal sector workers and people living in underserved communities often face additional barriers to participating in decision making.
She said the project would seek to address these barriers while strengthening citizens’ ability to engage public institutions.
“We don’t need to be confrontational with the government. Instead, we need to come from a collaborative approach,” she said.
According to CISLAC, the broader objective is to enable people experiencing poverty and exclusion to exercise greater political, economic, social and territorial power while improving access to rights, resources and decision making processes.
Citizens To Monitor Budgets And Public Spending
Under the project, citizens will be supported to monitor public budgets and spending and generate evidence that can be used to advocate for improved public services.
CISLAC also plans to build on a model previously implemented in Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa states, where communities engaged local governments on the use of locally generated revenue.
According to Dorcas Asaolu, the approach enabled communities in some major markets to engage local authorities on directing part of the revenue generated from those communities towards priorities such as market security, fencing, access roads and electricity.
Five Key Areas Of Implementation
The PIA Project will operate through five major workstreams.
These include civic space and evidence generation; civic agency, organising and participation; public finance, tax justice and service delivery accountability; citizen state dialogue and institutional accountability; and civic and media mobilisation.
Under the civic space component, CISLAC plans to conduct participatory assessments examining civic space, power relations, gender equality and social inclusion across the target areas.
The organisation will also identify relevant actors, gatekeepers and potential allies while supporting communities to generate evidence on public spending, service delivery, participation and resource governance.
Four Year Implementation Plan
CISLAC said the project would be implemented in phases over four years.
The first phase, running from August 2026 to March 2027, will focus on baseline assessments, establishing platforms and strengthening capacity for evidence generation.
The second year will focus on testing accountability tools, including scorecards, civic space monitoring and dialogue platforms.
The third year will deepen institutional engagement, evidence use and learning across the participating states.
The final year will focus on documenting outcomes, strengthening sustainability and positioning the model for complementary funding.
Through the project, CISLAC aims to strengthen the ability of citizens and civic organisations to organise, generate evidence, engage government and influence decisions affecting their communities.
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