SPESSE is a multi-sectoral project, involving various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. It therefore requires systematic cross-ministerial and institutional coordination, collaboration, learning and teamwork. The Project has five implementing agencies (IAs), each with an implementation unit, which is responsible for the day-to-day running of and reporting on the project’s component which applies to it. The IAs are:
- National Universities Commission
- Federal Ministry of Finance
- Federal Ministry of Environment
- Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Affairs
- Bureau of Public Procurement
The National Universities Commission (NUC) is the lead coordinating agency and houses the Independent National Facilitation Unit (INFU), as part of its oversight role. The INFU is responsible for establishing and maintaining the Project management systems, which include project-related policies, reporting, financial and procedural systems, budget allocations, information management, and overall project progress monitoring and evaluation. The Unit will also reinforce Centre-level with activities such as facilitating capacity building/training programmes, providing monitoring tools, benchmarking performance criteria, and supervising circular developments.
The NUC, through the INFU, will be responsible for designing curricula for programmes in the SPESSCEs, developing digitisation tools, executing the campaign for change programme, and supervising the design and roll-out of all Certificate, Post Graduate Diplomas, and degree programmes in the Centres of Excellence. It will also determine eligibility criteria for the acceptance of students into the PES programmes, supervise the implementation of academic programmes at the Centres of Excellence, and monitor and evaluate the implementation of all academic activities in the Centres.
The Federal Ministry of Finance (FMOF) is responsible for the overall coordination and monitoring of Project implementation. The Ministry is also responsible for the disbursement of funds, to the NUC and through the NUC, to the ACEs. The FMOF has the responsibility of coordinating bi-annual or ad hoc meetings with all implementing agencies.
The Federal Ministry of Environment (through its Environmental Assessment Department), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) are accountable for specific aspects of project implementation. They liaise with the INFU regarding the technical content of the curricula (in their specific fields) for academic programmes in the Centres, particularly, short (Track A) courses. The three ministries are also responsible for supervising the delivery of these short courses as well as coordinating the certification of students and trainees.
In addition to the roles outlined for the three MDAs, the FMWA is responsible for building the capacity of the Technical Working Group (TWG) on Social Development, for strategic planning, monitoring social standards practice and certification. The TWG was constituted by the Federal Government of Nigeria and comprises all anchor ministries with social development agenda, namely FMWA, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD), Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment (FML&E), and Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMW&H).
