Community Forum Sustainability Review

This reports summarizes a process to improve performance management and accountability that emphasized participatory data collection and use in Northern Nigeria. Private sector actors at State, LG and school and community level were encouraged to collect data and use it for purposes of advocacy, capacity building, and accountability. At the local government level, community participation was encouraged through a series of forums in which representatives from school staff, parents, business and religious leaders collectively reviewed data on the performance of their primary school education system, established areas for support, and assigned responsibilities. Although successful with support from project funds, it was unclear if the process would survive after the project. This report summarizes a survey of forum participants and is divided into three sections: (i) a short discussion of the data collection process; (ii) a summary review of survey results; and (iii) recommendation for three key areas of sustainability – roles and responsibilities; financing and formalization of the process.