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Enhancing the Accountability of Justice Sector Actors

Enhancing the Accountability of Justice Sector Actors in the Mitigation of Corruption in Nigeria

The insidious prevalence of corruption in the judicial sector, remains a major obstacle hindering the fight against corruption in the country. Thus, the imperative of establishing a well-functioning and accountable justice system is pivotal to addressing corruption effectively, which in turn is important for national development. Against this backdrop, CLEEN Foundation has began the implementation of a 2 year project on “Enhancing the Accountability of Justice Sector Actors In the Mitigation of Corruption in Nigeria” with support from the John D. and Catherine .T  MacArthur Foundation. CLEEN by this new project seeks to consolidate efforts on enhancing the implementation of the ACJA, 2015 and deepening the tools for accountability developed and initiated under phase one of it’s ACJA project for purposes of improving accountability of justice actors and transparency in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. The project also builds on the gains of the second phase of the project on digitalization of court proceedings on corruption related cases in Nigeria using uwazi web platform. CLEEN Foundation has thus scaled its ACJA and justice reform interventions to eight (8) more states namely, Edo, Delta, Bauchi, Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Kwara and Cross River.

CLEEN Foundation has been a game changer in contributing appreciably to decrease levels of judicial sector corruption in Nigeria and has several years of experience within the justice sector through series of MacArthur funded justice-based projects to promote accountability and transparency in the system through the sustenance, consolidation and replication of the gains of her past intervention(s). Specifically, under the MacArthur Funded and initiated 1.0 ON Nigeria programme which focused on the implementation of the ACJA, 2015 to reduce corruption, CLEEN has contributed substantially through technology and strategic stakeholder partnerships to the implementation of the Act and now through this new project, seeks to enhance and deepen the tools developed and initiated under the phase one of the projects for purposes of improving accountability and transparency in Nigeria’s criminal justice system which was highlighted as necessary in the end of project evaluation report; CLEEN by this intervention will continue to deepen the data collection process on the administration of criminal justice that was initiated under phase one of the project and will continue to build the capacities of frontline criminal justice actors for positive impact on the criminal justice system.

The overarching project goal is to contribute to the reduction of corruption, promote judicial transparency in processing corruption cases and enhance accountability among practitioners in the criminal justice system in Nigeria. Specifically, the project is aimed at improving the compliance level to the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 in Nigeria through (i) strategic stakeholder engagements, (ii) tracking of compliance level against the backdrop of the minimum standards and documentation of court proceedings on corruption-related cases in strict compliance to the provisions of ACJA/ACJL and (iii) deepening and institutionalization of continuous learning on the ACJA/ACJL. The Intended outcomes from the project include:

  • Reduced low-level corruption in the criminal justice system through increased access to more corruption-related judgments uploaded and downloaded on the Uwazi platform;
  • Produced policy briefs on the improvement and compliance level of criminal justice actors on the provisions of the ACJA/L;
  • Improved compliance to the Administration of Criminal Justice Act provisions by criminal justice actors in Nigeria;
  • Enhanced knowledge and capacity of the personnel (including a considerable number of female personnel) of the Nigeria Police and Correctional Services on the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and the Correctional Services Act 2019;
  • Availability of empirical and reliable data on the compliance level of criminal justice actors to the provisions of ACJA/L in Nigeria.
  • More corruption-related judgments are uploaded and downloaded on the Uwazi platform;
  • Reports on the compliance level of criminal justice actors to the provisions of ACJA/L in Nigeria produced;
  • Increased utilization of CLEEN Mobile ACJA App through the number of downloads of CLEEN Mobile ACJA App.