The State Partnership for Accountability, Responsiveness and Capability (SPARC) is a six year governance support project in Nigeria, supporting the strengthening of policy and strategy processes, public finance management (PFM) and public service management in five states.

A Mokoro consultant, Andrew Bird, led a team from DFID undertaking an annual review of SPARC to assess progress in the transition from inception to full implementation, and to validate the proposed future direction of the SPARC programme.

The Review Team examined progress with the State Level Programme coordination arrangements, particularly SPARC’s role in medium term planning and budgeting activities and in establishing monitoring and oversight functions, as well as SPARC’s progress in supporting wider replication of reform, and progressing gender and social exclusion recommendations.