Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) - CSOs Network
Posted on 16/10/2026
WEEK 1 CONTRIBUTION: THE IMPACT OF FUNDING CONSTRAINTS ON EVALUATION, LEARNING AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN WEST AFRICA
Funding and resource constraints have significantly affected the scope, frequency, depth and inclusiveness of monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) across West Africa. In Nigeria, where many civil society organizations depend on project-based donor funding, uncertainty in funding often translates into reduced evaluation budgets, fewer field visits, limited staffing, inadequate data management, and diminished opportunities for communities to participate meaningfully in assessing interventions intended to benefit them.
From the perspective of Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA), these challenges are particularly important in health systems strengthening, universal health coverage (UHC), climate action, humanitarian response, and community-led development. Evaluation is sometimes treated as a secondary project cost rather than an essential management and accountability function. Consequently, organizations may prioritize immediate service delivery while reducing investment in determining whether interventions are effective, equitable, sustainable and responsive to beneficiaries’ needs.
A practical example is AHOA’s experience in citizen monitoring of development projects under a UN Democracy Fund-supported initiative in the Niger Delta. The project engaged more than 1,600 monitors across 81 local government areas in nine Niger Delta states. Such extensive geographical coverage demonstrates the value of community-based evidence in identifying implementation gaps, strengthening citizen participation and promoting public accountability. However, sustaining this approach requires resources for training, transportation, data collection, verification, communication and feedback to communities. When resources are inadequate, monitoring coverage, verification quality and the timeliness of reporting can suffer.
Similar challenges arise in malaria programming and vulnerability assessments involving internally displaced persons and refugees in northeastern Nigeria. In fragile and humanitarian settings, insecurity, difficult terrain, population mobility and the vulnerability of affected communities make reliable evidence particularly costly to generate. Reducing monitoring resources in these contexts risks excluding precisely those populations whose needs are least visible in routine administrative data.
Funding constraints also affect learning. Organizations may collect information to satisfy donor reporting requirements without having sufficient resources or time to convene reflection sessions, document lessons, share findings or translate recommendations into programme improvements. Accountability can consequently become predominantly upward-facing, focused on funders rather than equally responsive to communities and local institutions.
My central observation is that resource constraints do not simply reduce the quantity of evaluation; they can fundamentally change whose experiences count, which questions are investigated and how evidence informs decisions.
AHOA’s experience reinforces the need to protect essential evaluation functions, prioritize high-value questions, strengthen community-generated evidence and integrate monitoring and learning into programme implementation. Even where comprehensive evaluations are unaffordable, organizations must preserve minimum standards of independence, methodological credibility, inclusion, transparency and feedback.
The ultimate test is not how much an organization spends on evaluation, but whether the evidence it generates helps improve outcomes, use resources responsibly and demonstrate accountability to the people it serves.
RE: Evaluation under pressure : Strengthening evidence use, accountability and learning amidst funding constraints (Joint EvalforEarth-ALNAP discussion)
Nigeria
Dr. Uzodinma Akujekwe Adirieje
CEO
Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) - CSOs Network
Posted on 16/10/2026
WEEK 1 CONTRIBUTION: THE IMPACT OF FUNDING CONSTRAINTS ON EVALUATION, LEARNING AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN WEST AFRICA
Funding and resource constraints have significantly affected the scope, frequency, depth and inclusiveness of monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) across West Africa. In Nigeria, where many civil society organizations depend on project-based donor funding, uncertainty in funding often translates into reduced evaluation budgets, fewer field visits, limited staffing, inadequate data management, and diminished opportunities for communities to participate meaningfully in assessing interventions intended to benefit them.
From the perspective of Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA), these challenges are particularly important in health systems strengthening, universal health coverage (UHC), climate action, humanitarian response, and community-led development. Evaluation is sometimes treated as a secondary project cost rather than an essential management and accountability function. Consequently, organizations may prioritize immediate service delivery while reducing investment in determining whether interventions are effective, equitable, sustainable and responsive to beneficiaries’ needs.
A practical example is AHOA’s experience in citizen monitoring of development projects under a UN Democracy Fund-supported initiative in the Niger Delta. The project engaged more than 1,600 monitors across 81 local government areas in nine Niger Delta states. Such extensive geographical coverage demonstrates the value of community-based evidence in identifying implementation gaps, strengthening citizen participation and promoting public accountability. However, sustaining this approach requires resources for training, transportation, data collection, verification, communication and feedback to communities. When resources are inadequate, monitoring coverage, verification quality and the timeliness of reporting can suffer.
Similar challenges arise in malaria programming and vulnerability assessments involving internally displaced persons and refugees in northeastern Nigeria. In fragile and humanitarian settings, insecurity, difficult terrain, population mobility and the vulnerability of affected communities make reliable evidence particularly costly to generate. Reducing monitoring resources in these contexts risks excluding precisely those populations whose needs are least visible in routine administrative data.
Funding constraints also affect learning. Organizations may collect information to satisfy donor reporting requirements without having sufficient resources or time to convene reflection sessions, document lessons, share findings or translate recommendations into programme improvements. Accountability can consequently become predominantly upward-facing, focused on funders rather than equally responsive to communities and local institutions.
My central observation is that resource constraints do not simply reduce the quantity of evaluation; they can fundamentally change whose experiences count, which questions are investigated and how evidence informs decisions.
AHOA’s experience reinforces the need to protect essential evaluation functions, prioritize high-value questions, strengthen community-generated evidence and integrate monitoring and learning into programme implementation. Even where comprehensive evaluations are unaffordable, organizations must preserve minimum standards of independence, methodological credibility, inclusion, transparency and feedback.
The ultimate test is not how much an organization spends on evaluation, but whether the evidence it generates helps improve outcomes, use resources responsibly and demonstrate accountability to the people it serves.