TOWARDS A WORLDWIDE INFLUENCING NETWORK: CITIZENS’ VOICE, NORMS AND ATTITUDES: FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN NIGER RESULTS OF THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP OF OXFAM NOVIB AND SOMO WITH THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN THE NETHERLANDS JUNE 2020 Acknowledgements ________________________________________________ 4 Executive summary ________________________________________________ 5 Objectives of the report & evaluation questions ______________________________________ 5 Finance for Development in the Niger project and its activities __________________________ 5 Findings _____________________________________________________________________ 6 Limitations ___________________________________________________________________ 7 Recommendations ____________________________________________________________ 7 1 Introduction _____________________________________________________ 8 1.1 Strategic partnership _________________________________________________ 8 1.2 Project Overview Finance for Development in Niger _______________________ 9 1.2.1 Target groups ___________________________________________________________ 10 1.2.2 Activities increasing the citizens’ voice, shifting norms and attitudes ________________ 10 1.2.3 Country context for Niger __________________________________________________ 11 2 Evaluation questions ____________________________________________ 13 3 Evaluation design _______________________________________________ 15 3.1 Evaluation design ___________________________________________________ 15 3.2 Sampling approach _________________________________________________ 15 3.3 Sampling changes between the baseline and endline _____________________ 16 3.4 Target and comparison groups _______________________________________ 17 3.5 Analysis techniques _________________________________________________ 17 3.6 Reader’s note on results figures and tables _____________________________ 18 4 Findings _______________________________________________________ 19 4.1 Socio-demographic & socio-economic profile of respondents ______________ 19 4.2 Citizens’ voice in F4D _______________________________________________ 19 4.2.1 Actions and activities related to raising the citizen’s voice ________________________ 19 4.2.2 Anti-Corruption Clubs (CACs) and Citizen Participation Cells (CPCs) _______________ 24 4.2.3 Enabling environment for raising the citizens’ Voice _____________________________ 26 4.2.4 Preliminary conclusions ____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.3 Attitudes on F4D ____________________________________________________ 29 4.3.1 Tax evasion ____________________________________________________________ 29 4.3.2 Redistributive tax policies__________________________________________________ 31 4.3.3 Citizens’ participation in local budget processes ________________________________ 33 4.3.4 Capacity to influence _____________________________________________________ 35 4.3.5 Attitudes around expressing voice ___________________________________________ 36 4.3.6 Preliminary conclusionss __________________________________________________ 37 4.4 Knowledge on F4D Topics ___________________________________________ 40 4.4.1 Taxes and budget processes _______________________________________________ 40 4.4.1 Preliminary conclusions ____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.5 Attitudes towards empowerment ______________________________________ 42 5 Conclusion _____________________________________________________ 44 5.1 Citizens’ voice _____________________________________________________ 44 2 5.2 Attitudes & Knowledge ______________________________________________ 45 5.3 Limitations ________________________________________________________ 45 5.4 Conclusion ________________________________________________________ 46 6 Recommendations ______________________________________________ 47 7 References _____________________________________________________ 48 Annexes ________________________________________________________ 49 Annex 1: SP F4D MEAL Framework _______________________________________ 49 Annex 2: Sampling overview _____________________________________________ 50 Annex 3: Technical Notes _______________________________________________ 52 Annex 4: Detailed Regression Model Results _______________________________ 54 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report is based on the information provided by hundreds of people interviewed in the regions of Maradi, Tahoua and Tillabéri during October and November 2019. First and foremost, we want to express our gratitude to all who participated in the evaluation. Their willingness to give their time and discuss their knowledge and opinions with the interviewers made this evaluation possible. Overall, this resulted in valuable information for the programme implementation and will serve as endline data for evaluating the impact of this programme. This evaluation was achieved through the extensive contributions and expertise of the entire Greater Responsibility for Finance for Development team, the partner organizations Association nigérienne de lutte contre la corruption (ANLC) and Le Réseau des Organisations pour la Transparence et l'Analyse Budgétaire (ROTAB), Oxfam staff in Niger, the Impact Measurement and Knowledge team and of course the interviewers. The interviewers were trained by Oxfam staff during an endline workshop organised by Oxfam in Niger in October 2019. In January 2020, Oxfam and partner staff contributed to a reflection session on the preliminary results of the analysis presented in this report. The endline survey is part of a strategic partnership between the Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs, Oxfam Novib and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OBJECTIVES OF THE REPORT & EVALUATION QUESTIONS This report presents the findings of the impact evaluation of the outcome areas of increasing the citizens’ voice, and shifting norms and attitudes for the Greater Responsibility for Finance for Development (F4D) project in Niger1 working to promote measures against tax evasion and avoidance and pro-poor fiscal policy. This project is implemented as part of the Strategic Partnership – ‘Towards a Worldwide Influencing Network’ – of Oxfam Novib, the Center for Research on Multinational Enterprises (SOMO) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This impact evaluation report presents an analysis of data from the baseline survey, fielded in February and March 2017, and the endline survey, fielded in October and November 2019. The objective of this study was to determine to what extent the activities of the project had contributed to increasing the citizens’ voice and shifting attitudes and knowledge for individuals in the targeted communities. The impact evaluation is part of both the larger monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) framework of the Strategic Partnership and the F4D project. The MEAL framework ensures that relevant, high quality and comparable data are collected for all seven outcome areas. Each outcome area has one or more methodologies for tracking the progress in that outcome area. Impact measurement through research surveys and Stories of Change showed changes in the citizens’ voice and shifted attitudes and knowledge. The desired impact of the F4D project in Niger is a country in which vulnerable citizens, especially women and young people, benefit from the respect, protection and promotion of their rights to political participation and basic essential services, thereby reducing inequalities in Niger. To contribute to this goal, the project works to ensure that more public resources are available for development through an increase in the participation of vulnerable groups in a more efficient, transparent management, and fairer mobilization, of public resources at the local and national levels. More specifically, this involves helping citizens to raise their voice, to take action to demand their rights, to increase their knowledge and awareness of finance and development issues and to shift their attitudes towards finance and development. FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN NIGER AND ITS ACTIVITIES The F4D project in Niger organizes the following activities to help citizens to raise their voice and take action, to shift norms and attitudes and to build knowledge. The project organizes media campaigns and Women’s and Youth Events to raise awareness among women and young people about active citizenship, tax policy and good governance. The F4D project organizes actions at weekly markets to raise awareness among sellers and buyers of their obligations to collect and pay taxes on certain purchases. Public accountability sessions organized by the project provide citizens with the opportunity to hold mayors and other commune-level public officials to account for the use of public funds. The project also engages and influences religious and customary leaders, as well as elected officials and civil society organizations. Exchange meetings with religious leaders provide the project with an opportunity to encourage these leaders to support the greater participation of women and young people in decision-making at the household and community levels. Multi-actor dialogues are organized between local- and national-level officials, elected office-holders, community and religious 1 From this point onwards, the Greater Responsibility for Finance for Development project is referred to only by the abbrevia- tion F4D (Finance for Development) project. 5 leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations