Funding Organisation: Pyxera Global, USA.

Location: Kaduna and Katsina States, Nigeria

Duration: April 1st – April 30th 2025

Thematic Area: Agriculture – Livelihoods and Resilience of Smallholder Farmers

Project Summary: Rayuwa, meaning "life" in Hausa, is a holistic, demand-driven community development Program designed to enhance the livelihoods and resilience of Nigerian smallholder farmers by investing in both current and future generations of farmers.

Funding Organisation: Centre for Transparency and Accountability Initiative (CATAI) – NHF Fund Support

Location: Borno State, Nigeria

Duration: February – March 2025

Thematic Area: Education

Project Summary: The endline evaluation is designed to establish project impact against the baseline indicators in two key elements: education and protection sectors. The evaluation will focus on six LGAs of Borno state where the Multi-Sectoral Approach Project was implemented.

Funding Organisation: Bridge Connect Africa Initiative (BCAI) – Malala Fund USA

Location: Kano State, Nigeria

Duration: May – June 2024

Thematic Area: Good Governance

Project Summary: The assessment is an effort to analyze the gender-responsiveness of education budgeting and expenditure in Kano state. The main goal is to gather and analyze the education sector budget and the impact of education spending on girls and provide a comprehensive understanding of how budget allocations translate into educational resources and outcomes for girls.

Funding Organisation: Centre for Transparency and Accountability Initiative (CATAI) – NHF Fund Support

Location: Borno State, Nigeria

Duration: May – July 2024

Thematic Area: Education

Project Summary: The baseline assessment is designed to establish baseline indicators to monitor and track changes over time in two key elements: education and protection sectors. The assessment will focus on six (6) LGAs of Borno state, where the Multi-Sectoral Approach Project targeted at the Protection of Women and Girls from Gender-Based Violence in Education Facilities will be implemented

Funding Organisation: USAID

Location: Adamawa (North-East), Akwa-Ibom (South-South), Ebonyi (South-West), Gombe (North-East), and Sokoto (North-West) States. Nigeria

Duration: July 28 – August 31, 2023

Thematic Area: Good Governance

Project Summary: Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) has enlisted the African Center for Innovative Research and Development (AFRI-CIRD) to conduct a Midline Citizens’ Perception Survey in six Nigerian states: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, and Sokoto. Funding for this initiative comes from the USAID-supported “State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness” (State2State) Activity, which DAI is implementing. The overarching objective of the State2State Activity is to drive measurable improvements in the delivery of essential services within the education, health, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors.

Funding Organisation: Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Abuja. Nigeria.

Location: Abuja (FCT), Adamawa (North-East), Bauchi (North-East), Kaduna (North-West), Kano (North-West), Nasarawa (North-Central) States, Nigeria

Duration: October 2021 – January 2022

Thematic Area: Good Governance

Project Summary: The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has engaged the services of Messagewise Limited which is in partnership with AFRI-CIRD to conduct a ‘Taxpayers Perception Survey’. The purpose of the survey is to measure how taxpayers and the public view the Services of FIRS in terms of service delivery, customer satisfaction, the experience of carrying out tax transactions, the use of technology, the FIRS brand, and other related matters.

Funding Organisation: World Bank (WB)

Location: Bauchi (North-East), Bayelsa (South-South), Imo (South–East), Kano (North-West), Nasarawa (North-Central), and Osun (South-West) States, Nigeria.

Duration: September 2021 – February 2022

Thematic Area: Women Economic Empowerment

Project Summary: The strategic objective of the research is to assess the efficacy and impact of the existing NASSP payment system, particularly on women’s empowerment and financial inclusion, and to make recommendations for transitioning into a fully digital payment system that fosters women’s financial inclusion.

Funding Organisation: USAID

Location: Adamawa (North-East), Akwa-Ibom (South-South), Ebonyi (South-West), Gombe (North-East), and Sokoto (North-West) States. Nigeria

Duration: April 5 – 30, 2021

Thematic Area: Good Governance

Project Summary: Development Alternatives, Inc (DAI) contracted the African Centre for Innovative Research and Development (AFRI-CIRD) to conduct a Citizen’s Perception Survey in Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, and the Sokoto States under the USAID-funded “State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness” (“State2State”) activity being implemented by DAI. The State2State is a governance reform Activity that is intended to achieve a measurably improved delivery of basic services in the key sectors of education, health, and WASH.

Funding Organisation:USAID

Location: Adamawa (North-East), Akwa-Ibom (South-South), Ebonyi (South-West), Gombe (North-East), and Sokoto (North-West) States. Nigeria

Funding Organisation: USAID

Location: Taraba State.

Duration: January 25 – February 22, 2021

Thematic Area: Conflict, Peace, and Security

Project Summary: Pact West Africa, Nigeria office, commissioned AFRI-CIRD for the performance evaluation of Pact’s Engaging Local Actors to Promote Peaceful Coexistence (ELAPC) Among Farmers and Herders in Taraba State. The endline evaluation is to enable the before and after comparison as a validation of the achievements and successes being recorded and reported, also, to document lessons learned for future programming in a similar project and assess overall project performance. ELAPC was implemented in partnership with key stakeholders, including state and local government institutions, and CSO partners who are trusted interlocutors, have a deep understanding of context and norms, and have also gained the trust of the communities.

Funding Organisation: UKaid

Location: Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna & Kano States.

Duration: September 1st – September 30th, 2020

Thematic Area: Agriculture – Livelihoods and Resilience of Smallholder Farmers

Project Summary: The African Centre for Innovative Research and Development (AFRI-CIRD) was contracted by Propcom Maikarfi to undertake the impact assessment of COVID-19 poster messaging on the behavior of Propcom’s intervention beneficiaries in six (6) out of nine (9) states of the program’s coverage in Northern Nigeria. The impact assessment targeted 810 rural households with an equal gender split in the study selected locations.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Kano State Researcher, Nigeria.

Duration: 2018, 2020, & 2022

Thematic Area: Good Governance (Budget Making Process)

Project Summary: AFRI-CIRD serves as the ‘Kano State Research Implementing Organization’ on the Nigerian States Budget Transparency Survey. SNBTS uses a questionnaire based on the International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey (OBS), which measures budget transparency, oversight of the budget by the legislature and Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), and participation mechanisms throughout the budget process at the national level in over 100 countries.

Funding Organisation: Deutsche fur International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – German Development Corporation.

Location: Edo (South-South), Kaduna (North West), Niger (North Central), Ogun (South West), Oyo (South West), and Plateau (North Central) States - Nigeria.

Duration: November 2018 – April 2019

Thematic Area: Business & Entrepreneurship Development.

Project Summary: This study provides evidence and information about the strengthening of local markets and market institutions in Nigeria, as part of the GIZ Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment in Nigeria (SEDIN) project, which is focused on increasing sustained employment and income generation for the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and general poverty alleviation in Nigeria.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK.

Location: Adamawa (North-East), Gombe (North-East), Kaduna (North-West), Kano (North-West) States, Nigeria.

Duration: March – June 2019

Thematic Area: Agriculture Development.

Project Summary: The study aimed to achieve three major objectives namely: to determine the value of increased yield as a result of using mechanization service; estimate income gained from extra time gained from economic activities and examine the likelihood that displaced labour for land preparation has moved on to do other high income-generating activities.

Funding Organisation: United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Location: Cross River State – (South-South) Nigeria.

Duration: April – June 5, 2019

Thematic Area: Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHRs) – Health.

Project Summary: Mohammed Bello (Founder AFRI –CIRD) served as the ‘Local Evaluator’ on this USAID Commissioned Evaluation in Nigeria. The purpose of this endline evaluation is to provide the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nigeria with a summative assessment of the Saving Mothers Giving Life (SMGL) program implementation and measurable results in Nigeria.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Adamawa (North-East), Bauchi (North-East), Gombe (North-East), Jigawa (North-West), Kano (North-West), and Yobe (North-East) States, Nigeria.

Duration: October 2019 – January 2020.

Thematic Area: Child Labour.

Project Summary: This study is an attempt by PM to understand more practically the issues around the use of child labour in its targeted implementation areas spanning across different segments of the market system. Also, PM is seeking to understand those deeply rooted cultural norms, values obvious practices that engender child labour, and to seek plausible ways to reduce or realign these practices in a more meaningful and sustainable way. Additionally, PM is interested in the demarcations that exist between child labour and the transfer of tacit knowledge (using international standards) among household members, especially between adults and children. This is important knowing that PM intends to be implementing interventions across stable, conflict, and post-conflict areas within Northern Nigeria.

Funding Organisation: Malala Fund.

Location: Borno (North-East) and Kaduna (North-West).

Duration: November 2019 – January 2020.

Thematic Area: Education & Girl Child Development.

Project Summary: This study is an attempt to provide empirical and verifiable baseline data on the amount charged as hidden fees in public primary and secondary schools in Borno and Kaduna States. Also, establish the impact of hidden fees on girl’s access to education in the states.

The purpose is to understand the forms of hidden fees being paid by parents, and how much they cost, which will enable Gulmakai Network Nigeria to engage with key stakeholders on how to address the issue of hidden costs related to attending schools, which is one of the primary barriers preventing children from accessing their right to free basic education in the states.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Adamawa (North East), Bauchi (North East), Gombe (North East), Jigawa (North West), Kaduna (North West), and Yobe (North East) States, Nigeria.

Duration: June – September 2019.

Thematic Area: Disability Development.

Project Summary: The study sought to explore the cultural, social, and economic issues faced by people living with disabilities that hinder participation within their communities, determine the coping strategies that PWDs have adopted to participate in their communities, explore difficulties and vulnerabilities that PWDs face in conflict and post-conflict areas, especially for marginalized groups such as women, children and the elderly, document experiences of PWDs within PM interventions, other developmental/external bodies, as well as the public sector in Northern Nigeria and explore ways of integrating PWDs within their wider communities and create linkages with those without a disability.

Funding Organisation: Malala Fund

Location: Bauchi (North East), Kaduna (North West), and Kano (North West) States, Nigeria.

Duration: June – July 8, 2019.

Thematic Area: Education & Child Development.

Project Summary: This baseline study provided evidence and information on the barriers to the rights of education in Nigeria. The baseline is meant to support the design and implementation of an education project by the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) with support from Malala Fund, aimed at providing solutions to the low education enrolment for the girl child, high rate of school dropouts, and finally to ensure state governments take appropriate actions to promote free and quality basic education for all, especially for the girl child. The baseline provides information for three states- Kaduna, Kano, and Bauchi states. The African Centre for Innovative Research and Development (AFRI-CIRD) used a mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) approach to data collection.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Adamawa (North East), Bauchi (North East), Gombe (North East), Jigawa (North West), Kano (North West), and Yobe (North East) States, Nigeria.

Duration: August – November 2019.

Thematic Area: Nutrition.

Project Summary: This study is an attempt by PM to understand how the income gained by program beneficiaries of its several interventions affects dietary choices among households. It also aims to understand the roles of both men and women (i.e. spouses, single and female-headed households, etc.) in decision-making and control over how income is spent on food, types of food consumed, and frequency of feeding amongst others. Findings from the study are expected to inform the planning and development of interventions as well as the measurement of impact.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Kaduna State, North West Nigeria.

Duration: 19th December 2017 – 19th January 2018.

Thematic Area: Agriculture and Rural Development.

Project Summary: This intervention aimed to address household vulnerability by strengthening a household’s ability to maintain healthy poultry stock which speaks directly to the household’s resilience. The intervention also aimed to train village-based vaccinators who would act as free agents, earning an income from vaccinating chickens in their local communities. AFRI-CIRD led the qualitative data collection on this final evaluation of the ‘Poultry Health Intervention’ for the Propcom Maikarfi program. AFRI – CIRD recruited senior researchers and survey enumerators who collected data for this evaluation. In the recruitment AFRI – CIRD ensured enumerators had solid language proficiency in English and Hausa languages; understand socio-cultural and religious affiliation and are very much aware of the local, cultural, and religious sensitivities. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs), and survey questionnaire administration. A total sample size of 800 households was surveyed during the data collection.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Kaduna State, North West Nigeria.

Duration: 19th December 2017 – 28th February 2018.

Thematic Area: Agriculture and Rural Development.

Project Summary: AFRI – CIRD was responsible for the huge quantitative data collection process on this final evaluation of the Babban Gona intervention in Northern Nigeria. AFRI-CIRD recruited, and with support from WYG trained enumerators and supervisors on this evaluation. AFRI – CIRD ensured the overall quality and protection of data collected on this evaluation. 800 households were targeted in two different LGAs of Kaduna State; serving as treatment and comparison locations. Fieldwork reports were written and submitted to WYG after the data collection. Babban Gona is an agricultural business franchise model that came with it a unique business model of strengthening rural farmers towards improved and quality yields by training the farmers on good agricultural practices (GAP).

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Kano State, North West Nigeria.

Duration: 27th April 2018 – 2nd May 2018

Thematic Area: Agriculture and Rural Development.

Project Summary: AFRI-CIRD was contracted by Upper Quartile/WYG UK to collect qualitative data on this final evaluation on the ‘Syngenta Impact of the PrOpCom Maikarfi Programme on farmers’ beneficiaries. The final evaluation leveraged on qualitative approach including focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs). Senior and midlevel researchers were recruited by AFRI – CIRD trained and supervised to undertake the qualitative data collection. A moderator and a scribe role were assigned amongst the team. Amongst the stakeholders interviewed include; agronomists, Syngenta agro-products dealers and retailers, and village promoters (VPs). FGDs were conducted with a sample of both male and female farmer-beneficiaries purposively selected in Kano State. Qualitative reports were written and submitted to WYG for incorporation into the larger report.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK

Location: Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina States, North West Nigeria.

Duration: 6th February 2018 – 4th March 2018

Thematic Area: Agriculture and Women Economic Empowerment (WEE).

Project Summary: AFRI-CIRD was responsible for the qualitative data collection on this final evaluation of the ‘Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) Impact of PropCom Maikarfi Programme across the various interventions. Senior and Midlevel researchers were recruited, trained, and supervised by AFRI – CIRD in the delivery of this final WEE data collection. A total of six (6) Senior and Mid-level female researchers delivered the data collection under supervision. The evaluation leveraged qualitative data collection approaches. This includes focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs). In total, 10 FGDs and 16 KIIs were conducted during data collection across the respective states. AFRI – CIRD employed NVivo 12 in the analysis of the qualitative data and reports were written.

Funding Organisation: International Labour Organization (ILO).

Location: Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria.

Duration: 01 November – 30 November 2018

Thematic Area: Agric – Business & Entrepreneurship Development.

Project Summary: This ‘Needs Assessment for Cooperative Development with a Focus on Cooperative Promotion in Vegetable Value Chain’ was jointly implemented by AFRI – CIRD and GRA, where AFRI – CIRD undertook data collection, initial analysis and contributed to the general report. The assessment aims to better understand the current situation of cooperatives and other similar organizations in Jere Village of Kachia Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State (their capacities, strengths, weaknesses, and needs). It did also payed attention to cooperatives' opportunities and challenges in succeeding in vegetable value chains with a focus on vegetables such as pepper, garden egg, okra, and tomatoes. The study collected qualitative data through FGDs and KIIs. These were processed and analyzed using NVivo 12.

Funding Organisation: DFID UK.

Location: Kano State Researcher, Nigeria.

Duration: March 2018 – March 2019

Thematic Area: Good Governance (Budget Making Process).

Project Summary: The Nigerian States Budget Transparency Survey uses a questionnaire based on the International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey (OBS), which measures budget transparency, oversight of the budget by the legislature and Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), and participation mechanisms throughout the budget process at the national level in over 100 countries. This multiple-choice questionnaire was completed in all 36 Nigerian states – AFRI – CIRD being the Kano State research implementing organization. The data collection process was conducted from March 2018 to March 2019.