Connected Development’s home-grown initiative, Follow The Money, has emerged winner of the 2019 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Mobilizer Award!
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This announcement was made at the SDG Global Festival of Action currently holding in Bonn, Germany. The SDG Action Awards Global Project Leader, Laura Hildebrandt, said that the award showcased some of the greatest innovators, mobilizers, connectors, storytellers, communicators, visualizers and includers from across the Globe.
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Expressing delight about the recognition, Follow The Money Founder and Chief Activist, Hamzat Lawal, dedicated the award to rural grassroots communities across Africa and to the CODE team for their resilience in promoting the Follow The Money mission even in the face of insurmountable pressure. Hamzat added that “this recognition shows that our little efforts to promote social accountability and advocate for better service delivery in marginalized communities are not in vain.
We are honoured by the show of love and we thank everyone for their immeasurable support. This win is for Nigeria. We are elated that our work and impact stood out from among thousands of brilliant applications from all over the world,” Lawal added.
The Follow The Money Founder further stated that “young people in Nigeria are carrying out remarkable projects that are geared towards nation building, yet communicating the impact of their works to the global community seems to be a challenge. With this UN SDG award, I am committed to helping passionate and driven youth get the needed recognition for their works. We all have a role to play in showcasing unique innovative talents in Nigeria to the global community.”
According to Mitchell Toomey, Global Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign, “The 2019 winners are the most impactful, transformative and creative SDG Action drivers. They dared to believe and act for change. They are perfect examples of the wonderful humanitarian work that is happening around the world led by thousands, if not millions, of people.”
Follow The Money which started in Nigeria over seven years ago, has chapters in Kenya, The Gambia, Cameroon and Liberia. As the largest social mobilization & accountability movement in Africa, it has advocated, visualized and tracked USD 10 million meant for social development across African grassroots communities, directly impacting over 2,000,000 rural lives.