Local Government, Social Protection Architecture, and Vulnerability Reduction in Nigeria: Toward an Integrated Sub-National Framework

This dissertation develops an integrated sub-national framework for analyzing and strengthening the role of local government in Nigeria's social protection architecture, with particular focus on vulnerability reduction among households experiencing multidimensional poverty, disability, forced displacement, and climate-induced livelihood shocks across six geopolitical zones. Nigeria has made significant investments in social protection through programs including the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme, the National Home Grown School Feeding Program, and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program, yet these programs are predominantly designed and administered at the federal and state levels, with local governments playing minimal and poorly defined roles despite being the governance tier closest to beneficiary communities. Employing the Social Protection Systems Approach, the Adaptive Social Protection Framework, and the Subsidiary Principle of Governance, this study conducts a multi-method research design combining a survey of 360 social protection beneficiaries and officials across twelve states, forty key informant interviews with federal and state program managers, and a systematic mapping of local government social protection roles and financing. Secondary data includes social protection program evaluation reports from the World Bank Nigeria Social Protection and Jobs Program, UNICEF social protection assessments, and comparative literature on local government social protection roles in Ghana, Kenya, and Brazil. The dissertation's original contribution is an Integrated Local Government Social Protection Role Framework specifying the constitutional, administrative, and fiscal conditions enabling effective local government participation in Nigeria's social protection system. Findings are expected to demonstrate the critical, currently unutilized potential of local government as the primary last-mile social protection delivery institution. Keywords: Local government, social protection, vulnerability reduction, Nigeria, integrated framework.