About Covid-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP)

This project seeks to advocate for accountability, transparency, and open governance while strengthening civic awareness and ensuring that targeted governments use COVID-19 intervention funds effectively in 7 African Countries. With CTAP, Actions for Development and Empowerment (ADE) will advocate for accountability, transparency, and open governance while strengthening civic awareness and ensuring that targeted governments use COVID-19 intervention funds effectively. The project will address the poor information access in the accountability of COVID resources, the effects of COVID-19 on socio-economic development and make policy recommendations for improvement in the fiscal transparency and accountability in the management of COVID funds.       

CTAP is a project sponsored by Skoll Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Global Integrity in partnership Connected Development (CODE) and Follow The Money International which is currently the largest social mobilization & accountability movement in Africa that has advocated, visualized and tracked over USD 15 million for social development across African grassroots communities, directly impacting over 4,000,000 lives. Home-grown Nigerian initiative with its chapters in Kenya, Gambia, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Malawi is holding governments to account for improved public services and accountable spending of public funds. 

Follow The Money (FTM) is a network of activists, social workers, lawyers, journalists, development consultants, researchers, data analysts, that are signed up on our social mobility platform (www.ifollowthemoney.org) and use media platforms like twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, mainstream media to amplify voices of marginalized communities. 

As nations of the world tackle the plague of Coronavirus, with funding for African countries amassing in millions of dollars, it has become expedient to demand accountable spending of the money to block financial leakages, ensure funds do not end up in personal pockets and ultimately advocate for an improved healthcare system in the continent. CTAP is an initiative that seeks to advocate for proper accountability and transparency of funding, interventions and finances targeted at combating COVID-19. 

Through Follow the Money, CTAP seeks to:

• Set up an online open data platform that curates and tracks all financial and material donations to fight against Covid-19 in Africa 
• Provide support to Pan-African partners to understand the current situation in focus countries especially transparency and accountability mechanisms as regards the use of COVID-19 related funding
• Advocate and collaborate with governments in focus countries to provide and institute proper accountability along with procurement measures for all financial cum material donations received. Various expenditures of Covid-19 financing will also be made public, thereby promoting open government partners across the board. 
• To analyse the post-COVID19 environment and its impact on marginalized and vulnerable communities 

The CTAP believes that response to pandemics should prioritize the participation of the affected communities at all stages, including needs assessments and provision of palliatives procurement and delivery of items, program reviews, and evaluations, etc. 

Recall ADE had urged the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health in Cameroon to aggregate and centralize data on all contributions and donations. This is an important approach to quenching fake news that may be intended to sway citizens against the government. 

Follow The Money Cameroon will pursue accurate dissemination of information to avoid fake news and misinformation. The team across the 7 African countries will mobilize community-driven interventions through a special Covid-19 Community Response Toolkit.  

• Open contracting approach to regulate and monitor emergency COVID-19 procurement in various countries 
• Create an online public repository of received funding, their sources, amount, area of intervention and other relevant information.  
• Ensure that emergency procurement have a structured reporting framework for all signed and concluded contracts be made public 
• Ensure and establish a framework while collaborating with businesses and CSOs to establish real-time procurement monitoring.