The Kids & Teens Resource Centre (K&TRC) is a registered non-governmental organisation in Nigeria established in December 2002 to advance, promote and support efforts of government and all other stakeholders involved in the development of children and young people. K&TRC has been working with children and young people for the past 14 years and have made remarkable impacts in the lives of young people in communities through service provision, information sharing, capacity development, mentoring and participatory community development.

For this project K&TRC is the lead organisation for a consortium of four organisations in Mali, South Africa and Kenya.

1. ARCAD SANTE PLUS: Formerly known as ARCAD-SIDA Mali, the Association for Community Resilience towards Access to Development and Health PLUS (ARCAD Santé PLUS) is a Malian community-based organisation created in 1994. ARCAD Santé PLUS is a recognized public-interest organisation since 2016 and has been a key partner of the State of Mali since 2000 in the implementation of the Malian initiative for access to antiretroviral treatments (ARV) and in the decentralisation of HIV services across the country.
2. ACCOUNTABILITY INTERNATIONAL, South Africa: Accountability International has a 12 year long history working in partnerships and collaborating with dozens if not hundreds of partners. As an organisation they have worked to popularise accountability, been a leader in participatory action research for human rights in Africa and as a think-tank are steeped in learning and experimenting. AI brings expertise in Participatory Action Research, a broad spectrum of human rights knowledge and experience and a strong network of marginalised people.
3. SOCIETY FOR AIDS IN AFRICA in Ghana: Founded in 1989, the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA) is a non-government, non-profit making, civic and community oriented organisation with the overall goal of mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS, TB as well as Malaria in the African continent, through various activities. SAA envisions an African continent free of AIDS, TB, Malaria and emerging infections, where the communities are empowered, with no stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, key populations and their families and where there is social justice, and equity to accessing treatment, care and support.
4. PEER REVIEW FORUM in Nigeria: The Peer Review Forum is an organisation working towards ensuring accountability of all stakeholders responding to the HIV epidemic in Nigeria towards the goal of elimination of AIDS in Nigeria by 2030. It was inaugurated in 2016 with the institution of a platform to bring together all stakeholders to discuss the status of the HIV response annually. As a watchdog for the Nigeria HIV response, its mission is to amplify the diverse voices of communities, by ensuring that the voices inform and drive the HIV programmes in Nigeria.

Design Phase (6months)

The project Full circle tax watch for all aims to empower young people (but with a specific focus on gender minorities and persons with disabilities) across Ghana, Nigeria and Mali with the skills to improve (social) accountability around fiscal issues, most especially taxation and public budgeting as a means to improve their access to comprehensive (particularly healthcare and education).

Long term, the project partners aim to promote greater inclusion of marginalised communities in fiscal policy-making and practices monitoring dialogues. The idea is to both: (i) expand the institutional support for inclusion of marginalised people to proactively engage with tax policy reforms and budget monitoring; and (ii) improve the understanding of budget and fiscal monitoring, pro-poor tax policy, efficient tax collection and public budget allocations by organisations addressing the health and education needs of marginalised populations in project countries.

To accomplish this, the project is:
1. Conducting research (participatory action research) in two areas: (a) current fiscal (both taxation and budget) policy and practice monitoring initiatives in Ghana, Nigeria and Mali through the lens of marginalised groups to highlight inclusive and exclusive policies and practices, and (b) to research the current budget expenditure on marginalised communities (particularly by the Global Fund’s Country Coordinating Mechanisms).
2. Developing advocacy briefs based on research findings and recommendations and then pre-test these materials.
3. Conducting face to face advocacy meetings, using briefs, with in-country stakeholders and national authorities on tax and budgeting.
4. Creating knowledge-sharing workshops to improve knowledge of stakeholders working in existing budget monitoring initiatives, to improve their inclusion of youth, gender minorities and people with disabilities in their projects. And for marginalised people to learn about tax and budget policy and practices at national, provincial and municipal levels.
5. Advocacy Campaign: Run a seven-month advocacy campaign in each country, built on the knowledge gained through the research, advocacy briefs, knowledge sharing, and link and learn events.

Implementation Phase (18 months)

The project aims to promote greater inclusion of young people’s voices and priorities in the formulation and oversight of budgetary and tax policy processes and issues in Nigeria, Mali and Ghana. The project will empower young people to self – advocate, generate evidence-based research and policy recommendations. The evidence-based research and policy recommendations to influence and catalyse the creation of and access to open political spaces, processes and participation for young people.

Lessons learnt and innovations from the design phase have informed the development of the Implementation phase of the project. This second phase will be implemented in Nigeria, Mali and Nigeria.