Follow the Money, BudgIT, Global Integrity Launch COVID Africa Tracking Website
- In a bid to provide African citizens with access to evidence on COVID resources, a website has been launched to fill the gap
- The website features COVID analysis and research resources for seven focus countries; Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Malawi
- It also highlights COVID's status in the seven countries and features knowledge centres on human-angle stories curated by citizens
PAY ATTENTION: Join Legit.ng Telegram channel! Never miss important updates!
FCT, Abuja - Leading social accountability initiatives, Follow The Money and BudgIT, with learning partners Global Integrity, have launched a comprehensive user-friendly COVID-19 Fund Africa website as part of the COVID-19 Transparency & Accountability Project (CTAP).
The new initiative was announced at a press briefing organised by the anti-corruption groups in Abuja on Monday, July 5, and attended by a Legit.ng reporter.
Source: Getty Images
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read the best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app
A user-friendly and interactive website
Legit.ng checks reveal that the COVID Africa Tracking website has flexible navigation and functionality that allows visitors to access all data on COVID in Africa.
They include; intervention resources, funds allocations, palliative distributions, accurate number of cases, data on COVID funds, vaccine management, and government's responsiveness.
Follow The Money founder, Hamzat Lawal said at the briefing:
“Our primary goal for designing the website is to improve citizens' use of data for advocacy and government engagement in a manner that promotes transparency, accountability, and open governance.”
On his part, BudgIT's executive director, Seun Onigbinde said:
“In tracking government's level of responsiveness, we have shown, through data on the CTAP website, overarching issues such as discrepancies in palliative and cash transfer distributions, substandard healthcare compounded by the pandemic, the disintegration of COVID data, vague procurement processes, and blatant corruption by government officials.”
A one-stop online resource for COVID-related information
Built with a focus on user's experience, the one-stop website has some of these attributes;
1. Live updates on COVID data on a daily basis from all over Africa
2. Data display to provide face-level information on the total number of COVID fund allocations to Africa and COVID cases.
3. Resource filters which allows citizens to easily narrow down to the country or specific resource portfolio by clicking the African country they would like data on
4. Research and papers on COVID tracking and government's responsiveness in Africa
5. Rapid response functionality allowing the site to be compatible with all browsers and mobile devices.
Recall that Connected Development (CODE), the parent body of Follow The Money, recently called on the National Assembly to convene a public hearing on how COVID-19 funds were expended in Nigeria.
Lawal, Follow The Money founder, made the call at the launch of CODE's 2020 annual report in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He stated that the National Assembly has a duty to find out how the funds raised by the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) in 2020 were utilised and implemented.
Legit.ng had earlier reported that Follow The Money tracked N96.7 billion COVID-19 funds both at the federal and state levels in Nigeria.
Lawal revealed this at a national town hall meeting in Abuja attended by a Legit.ng reporter in December 2020.
The theme of the meeting was: Dialogue on strengthening accountability measures for COVID-19 intervention funds.
Source: Legit.ng
