Follow The Money (FTM), Connected Development’s (CODE) home grown initiative, has emerged winner of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Mobiliser Award! While making the announcement 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, mobilisers, connectors, storytellers, communicators, visualisers and includers from across the Globe! While receiving the award, FTM Founder and Chief Activist, Hamzat Lawal, dedicated the award to all 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, “This recognition shows that our little efforts to promote social accountability and advocate for better service delivery in marginalised communities are not in vain. “We are so honoured by the show of love and we thank everyone for their immeasurable support. This win is for Nigeria. We are honoured that our work and impact stood out from among thousands of brilliant applications from all over the world,” Lawal added. According to Mitchell Toomey, Global Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign, “Our winners 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 mobilisation & accountability movement in Africa, it has advocated, visualised and tracked USD 10 million meant for social development across African grassroots communities, directly impacting over 2,000,000 rural lives.