Moments, Memories, and Milestones, OrderPaper’s achievements in 2023 have been released in a 42-page report!
OrderPaper, Nigeria’s foremost independent parliamentary monitoring organisation and policy think tank, has celebrated its milestones and achievements in 2023.
Described as a loaded and fun-filled year, the organisation detailed its achievements in the outgone year, in a 42-page report, titled ‘Moments, Memories and Milestones.’
The report, released on Tuesday, across various digital media platforms, highlights significant achievements and impactful moments in OrderPaper’s drive to bridge the gap between citizens and the legislature. It storifies the move that further shows its commitment as a crucial force in shaping Nigeria’s legislative landscape, for transparency, accountability, and good governance.
Speaking on the report, Founder/Executive Director of OrderPaper, Oke Epia, thanked partners, stakeholders, and critics who helped the team with funding, technical support, and positive recommendations throughout the year.
“We are proud to say that OrderPaper is a public trust. The mandate we bear and the work we do are solely to advance the public interest – from public awareness and citizen engagement, policy advocacy and reforms, and legislative strengthening and accountability, we breathe, eat, and sleep all things parliament! And, as you would find in this annual report, 2023 has been a loaded year for us,” he said.
The report details innovative programmes and initiatives of the organisation that have left a lasting mark on various areas of legislative governance such as the induction of Nigeria’s first-ever Most Valuable Parliamentarian (MVP) Hall of Fame, which spotlights exemplary legislators in the National Assembly.
Other noteworthy projects listed in the document include successes from the Growth Initiatives for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) project aimed at enhancing public finance management to drive positive change in Nigeria’s fiscal landscape.
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The report also highlighted the Validating the Office of the Electorate on Representation (VOTER) project which saw a successful monitoring and observation of the 2023 legislative elections. The exercise, covering over 80% of the 360 federal constituencies, involved 418 Active Citizens Engaging the Legislature (ACEs), as part of OrderPaper’s novel Legislative Accountability and Constituency Engagement (Leg’ACE) programme.
The milestones report detailed the VOTER project, which is in recognition of the importance of citizen engagement for accountable governance, and OrderPaper’s invitation to participate in the Orientation Programme for members of the 10th National Assembly which birthed the launch of some legislative strengthening and accountability products. They include:
The Stewardship Profile Enhancement and Engagement Database (SPEED), a platform that empowers individual legislators for transparent public engagement, and the implementation of Stewardship Tracking for an Accountable Representation (STAR), a citizen-focused initiative to monitor campaign promises.
The RemTrack platform which monitored remediations and engaged the public on extractive industries throughout 2023, and the OrderPaper Parliament Engagement Nigeria (OPEN) Space, a citizens’ parliament meet-up on X (formerly Twitter) which featured 28 experts in 9 events, reaching 2000 listeners and generating 5000 impressions. These were all captured in the document.
Aside from effectively fostering informed and timely discussions on legislative matters in the year, OrderPaper also celebrated its convening power; which led to a successful run of the Promoting Open Parliament for Upscaling Legislative Accountability (POPULA) project in 2023. As the Convener and Secretariat of the Nigeria Network of Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations (NNPMO), the civil society organisation, along with other members, OrderPaper made great progress in promoting conversations around open, accountable, and inclusive parliament through impactful events, media and civil society roundtables, fiscal responsibility dialogues, and advocacy visits to key stakeholders.
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As a testament to its impact, OrderPaper received significant validation and multiple recognition such as a commendation by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; appointment of its Founder/ED to the National Steering Committee (NSC) of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Nigeria, and his recognition as Nigeria’s Most Influential Think Tank CEO of the Year 2023 and an invitation by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN), to resource an international seminar.
Successes from OrderPaper’s commitment to providing reliable parliamentary data and valuable insights for effective civic engagement, evident in the production and dissemination of well-researched knowledge products are also detailed in the document.
The organisation’s engagements with critical stakeholders, including the National Assembly, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, and Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), were noted to have been instrumental in advocating for a transparent, accountable, and representative parliament through inclusion and policy reforms. OrderPaper further stated that its partnerships with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the MacArthur Foundation, The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and many key stakeholders, have been instrumental in driving impactful projects.
“We regard the moments, memories, and milestones we are proud to boast of in 2023 as inspirational and stepping stones to greater achievements in the coming year,” Epia remarked.
“We thank our partners, stakeholders, and critics who have powered us on with funding, technical support, and constructive advisories throughout the year. We also thank users of our products and services, and indeed, our admirers and everyone who has contributed to the success stories compiled in this document,” he added.
