Human Rights Obligations in Nigeria’s National Social Investment Programs: Monitoring and Accountability

This research examines the human rights dimensions of Nigeria's national social investment programs, including the Conditional Cash Transfer, N-Power, and School Feeding programs, assessing their governance, targeting, and accountability mechanisms against a rights-based approach to development. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has affirmed that social protection systems must be anchored in human rights principles of non-discrimination, participation, transparency, and accountability. The study employs a professional program monitoring methodology, conducting an analysis of program beneficiary targeting criteria, grievance mechanisms, and outcome equity across five states spanning diverse geopolitical zones: Kaduna, Ogun, Cross River, Niger, and Imo. Primary data are gathered through focus group discussions with program beneficiaries, government social protection officers, state program coordinators, and civil society program monitors. Secondary data include the program evaluation reports of the World Bank and UNICEF Nigeria from 2022 to 2024. Findings reveal significant targeting errors, exclusion of the most vulnerable populations due to documentation requirements, absence of functional grievance mechanisms, and lack of gender-disaggregated program monitoring data. The study proposes a human rights monitoring framework for Nigerian social investment programs and recommends independent third-party program evaluation. Keywords: social protection, human rights-based approach, social investment, accountability, Nigeria.