The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has launched a four-year project to strengthen citizens’ participation in governance and their ability to influence public decisions.
The People Influence & Action (PIA) Project, supported by Christian Aid under its People in Action Signature Programme, was launched on Tuesday, September 15, in Abuja.
The project will run from August 2026 to March 2030 and will be implemented at the national level as well as in Kano, Kaduna and Plateau states.
Speaking at the launch, CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani, said the project would focus on strengthening civic agency, collective action and inclusive governance.
He said meaningful change could only occur when citizens were not merely consulted but were able to influence decisions, organise collectively and hold public institutions accountable.
“This is at the heart of the PIA project. The project recognises that civic space, citizen power and inclusive governance are interconnected,” Musa-Rafsanjani said.
He said the project would create conditions for people to influence decisions affecting their lives through civic participation, evidence, advocacy and responsive governance systems.
Barriers to citizen participation
CISLAC’s PIA Project Manager and Senior Programme and Gender Officer, Dorcas Asaolu, who introduced the project, presented its objectives and implementation strategy.
She identified limited citizen participation, poor awareness of public decision-making processes and weak collective organising as some of the barriers affecting civic participation in Nigeria.
Asaolu also identified limited knowledge of state budgets, the effects of inflation, public policies and service delivery as challenges to citizens’ participation in governance.
She said civil society organisations and other civic actors also faced challenges in working together, with organisations sometimes carrying out similar activities separately despite having common goals.
“We are saying that is also a barrier,” she said. “You might be doing the same thing I’m doing, but we’re not in the same room.”
Asaolu also spoke about the challenges citizens face in holding public institutions accountable.
According to her, women, young people, persons with disabilities, informal-sector workers and people in underserved communities may face different barriers to participating in decision-making.
“We don’t need to be confrontational with the government. Instead, we need to come from a collaborative approach,” she said.
She said the project would enable people experiencing poverty and exclusion to exercise greater political, economic, social and territorial power.
It will also focus on inclusive governance, civic space, access to rights and resources, and citizens’ influence over decision-making.
Asaolu said the project would support citizens to monitor budgets and public spending and generate evidence for advocacy on better services.
Project builds on previous work
CISLAC also plans to expand a model previously implemented in Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa states, where citizens engaged local governments on the use of locally generated revenue for community priorities.
Dorcas said the model had allowed communities in some major markets to negotiate with local governments on using part of the revenue generated from their communities for priorities such as market security, fencing, access roads and electricity.
The PIA Project will focus on five areas, including civic space and evidence generation; civic agency, organising and participation; public finance, tax justice and service delivery accountability; citizen-state dialogue and institutional accountability; and civic and media mobilisation.
CISLAC said it would conduct participatory assessments of civic space, power relations, gender equality and social inclusion in the target areas.
The organisation will also map relevant actors, gatekeepers and allies and support communities to generate evidence on public spending, service delivery, participation and resource governance.
The project will also provide civic education, rights awareness, protection awareness and organising support.
Four-year plan
CISLAC said the project would be implemented in phases.
The first year, from August 2026 to March 2027, will focus on baseline analysis, setting up platforms and strengthening capacity for evidence generation.
The second year will focus on testing accountability tools such as scorecards, civic space monitoring and dialogue platforms.
The third year will focus on institutional engagement, evidence use and learning across the states.
In the final year, CISLAC plans to document the project’s outcomes, strengthen sustainability and position the model for complementary funding.
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