Client: DFID
Value: £12.8

The Growth Employment in States (GEMS3) programme in Nigeria is a 5-year project funded by DFID and has a value of £12.8 million. It started in August 2010 and is scheduled to be completed in July 2015.

The British Council is working in partnership with Adam Smith International (Lead) to deliver the project. The project involves working in partnership with the Federal Government (FGN) and four State Governments in Nigeria. GEMS3 is part of a larger programme funded by DFID and the World Bank to help create a platform for future private investment, growth and jobs. GEMS3 focuses on the states of Kano, Lagos, Kaduna and Cross-Rivers.

The focus of GEMS and the work of the ASI/ BC consortium provide assistance in areas such as land reform; tax reform; investment promotion and facilitation; and the dissemination of lessons learnt to a larger number of Nigerian states.

The British Council is responsible for providing technical assistance to help improve access to land - lack of access to land being one of the greatest constraints for entrepreneurs and investors. Activities include designing and installing effective systems for making serviced land available; developing simple and transparent procedures for investors to acquire title; and simplifying procedures for obtaining planning consent and construction permits. The British Council has provided: two long-term consultants managing this component for the British Council; a long-term Nigerian consultant to manage activities in Lagos state; together with a number of short-term consultants in various areas.

Client: DFID
Value: £8.5m

			Design of a “thematic” research programme within a structure and supporting apparatus appropriate to social science/governance and sufficiently responsive to policy needs in the region;
			Development of a model for a collaborative graduate programme that would involve a self-selecting group of committed African universities in partnership with one or two international schools;
			A strategy for the use of grants, scholarships, training and fellowships to support the participation of individuals and organisations in the above activities;
			A proposed organisational design and development strategy for an African body that would manage and sustain the above on a permanent footing.

Client: DFID
Value: £0.5m

The Africa Capacity Building initiative (ACBI) was established to coordinate the UK Government efforts to build capacity in Africa and to share UK public sector skills and knowledge with African governments. The Leadership Mentoring Scheme will play a key role in meeting the objective of the ACBI in that its primary purpose is to enhance the leadership skills of those involved.  It has also the objective of increasing DFID’s work among other government departments. The overall objective of the project is to develop, run and monitor a mentoring scheme that links senior civil servants in the five selected African countries with counterparts in the British Civil Service. The British Council is part of a consortium with Public Administration International and the Institute of Governance and Management at Warwick Business School and has responsibility for effective in-country oversight of mentoring partnerships in four countries, together with lead responsibility for monitoring and evaluation.

Client: USAID
Value: £0.6m

The aim of the project is to establish a technical advisory group which in turn will serve as a Parliamentary Task Force, building on the earlier USAID/DFID-funded Parliamentary Strengthening programme. The specific project objective is to improve the internal management systems, including practices and procedures, operating within Parliament. The work of the Task Force will be based on priority needs identified through the Office of the Speaker, prioritising work on: Parliamentary Research; Parliamentary Committees; Administration; and the Deputy Speaker’s Office. The British Council technical advisory team will be ‘embedded’ within Parliament, helping to build institutional capacity and ensure that the changes promoted by the advisory team will be implemented within existing Parliamentary structures.

Client: DFID
Value: £60,000

British Council Nigeria was contracted to conduct consultations in preparation for DFID’s new Country Assistance Plan (CAP) and Country Partnership Strategy with the World Bank. The consultation exercise focused on how DFID will work in Nigeria in the next 3-5 years, looking at issues such as: how best to work at state level; how best to support conflict reduction in Nigeria; how best to work on issues of social exclusion and inequality; and how to support Nigerian citizens to hold their government to account. The British Council team met with senior government officials, including Permanent Secretaries of key federal-level ministries, Development Partners and Civil Society representatives and prepared a series of outcomes reports, a synthesis report and an aid analysis and donor matrix for future planning purposes.

Client: DFID
Value: £3.9m

The British Council has been working in collaboration with Harewelle, the Government of Lesotho, CARE and Khalapa Development Agency on a DFID project to provide direct support to the Government of Lesotho’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), specifically in two areas: food security and job creation. Under the job creation component the British Council has developed an enabling legal and regulatory framework and improved institutional capacity building within the Ministry of Trade. The project management team has improved food security through developing infrastructure and access to markets as well as linking project activity to related initiatives such as HIV/AIDS and Governance; for example by raising HIV AIDS awareness in the informal employment sector.

Client: DFID
Value: £4m

The British Council in Sierra Leone managed a Project Management Unit and developed relationships with government and civil society decision makers for the delivery of DFID’s Governance Assistance Programme. As part of the project, The British Council provided assistance to the development of Sierra Leone’s first PRSP through capacity building support to the Poverty Alleviation Strategy Co-ordination Office and National Statistics Office. Through the Governance Assistance Programme, the British Council also supported development and delivery of a suite of related projects, including the Law Development Project, the Anti-Corruption Project and the Media Project.

Client: DFID
Value: £2.6m

The NGF was designed as a successor programme to the Good Governance Fund that had been managed by the British Council since 1997, with the purpose of strengthening the capacity of civil society, parastatals, the legislature and the judiciary to hold government to account”. The NGF became an important component of DFID’s efforts to improve the ability of civil society organizations to influence pro-poor policy change within the Nigerian government. Under the fund, support was provided to diverse actors pursuing improved governance across all aspects of governance, including legal and prison reform and human rights education. The British Council was responsible for establishing the fund, establishing criteria for selection, initiating and supporting the applications process, appraising applications, administering the funds, and monitoring and evaluating individual projects.

Client: DFID
Value: £3.5m

The British Council managed the DFID-funded component of the World Bank’s EMCAP project which had as its aim to assist the Government of Nigeria in strengthening key aspects of economic management as part of a broader effort by the Government to improve economic governance and the tools for economic management. The project supported and strengthened capacity building efforts and assisted in furthering the good governance and anti-corruption stance of the government. Working with government stakeholders including the Federal Office of Statistics, British Council technical assistance included capacity building for strengthened procurement practise, and conducting technical, financial and legal reviews of public sector bodies.

Client: DFID
Value: £0.6m

The purpose of the project was to improve implementation of economic management for poverty elimination through strengthening the capacity of the National Treasury, the Department of Public Enterprises and the Department of Trade & Industry to advise the Government on the design and implementation of reforms necessary to achieve its economic and social targets. Key areas of work focussed on supporting macro- economic policy, privatisation of industries, support to decentralisation of government, communication with civil society and support to public finance. British Council worked in partnership with the South African Treasury, the Department of Public Enterprises and the Department for Trade and Industry.