About the NDR
The Nigerian Democratic Report (NDR) www.ndr.org.ng is an independent online news portal and media resource managed by the International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria. NDR was first created in 2013 and used as IPC’s online engagement platform ahead the 2015 general elections through the Democratic Governance for Development (DGD) II project, which was funded with contributions from the European Union, UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Korea International Cooperation Agency and the UNDP.

Towards the 2019 elections, NDR, with funding by the European Union was redesigned/updated to produce model electoral and democratic governance reports under Component 4b: Support to the media of the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) project.

As an action under ‘Component 4b: Support to the media of the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) project’, the NDR operated as an independent online news portal to disseminate model reports, investigative stories, features and analysis on cross cutting issues about Nigeria’s 2019 electoral process, including issues credible elections, enhanced democratic governance, political and electoral reforms, transparency and accountability, management of the electoral process by the electoral bodies, citizens participation and issues of inclusivity affecting Women, People living with disability (PWDs), Youths and the electoral process as well as issues on conflict transformation, hate speech, etc.

However, ahead of the 2023 elections, NDR expanded its scope as an activity under Component 4: Support to the media of the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria-Phase 2 (EU-SDGN II) project, to cover broader and diverse reportage of the 2023-2027 electoral process and related democratic governance through model reports.

Scope of coverage
Under the expanded scope, the reports on NDR entailed the coverage and publishing of model, in-depth and incisive news reports, stories, interview, features and analysis on cross cutting issues about Nigeria’ electoral process. The NDR shall pay particular attention to the reportage of issues that enhances credible elections, democratic governance, INEC, political and electoral reforms, transparency and accountability, citizens participation, issues of inclusivity affecting Women, People With disability (PWDs), Youths and the electoral process as well as issues on conflict transformation, hate speech, etc, encompassing the electoral processes of the 2023 and the 2027 elections.

The NDR is also complementing other activities under the ‘Support to Media’ component of the EUSDGN II project which is being implemented by the International Press Centre (IPC) and Institute for Media and Society (IMS) and also contributes to the overall mandate of ‘Strengthening the media for fair, accurate, ethical and inclusive coverage of the electoral processes and elections in Nigeria’.

This also includes engendering the overall goal to “Support the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria with the media (broadcast, print and online media) helping to facilitate the key ingredient of credible elections through engagement and professionalism in coverage and reportage of the electoral processes.”

NDR as a model reporting portal publishes special news reports, interviews, articles, research materials etc, are to serve as resources that can be used to engage the electoral process and ensuring that the media plays a vanguard role in the electoral process towards deepening democracy and development in Nigeria.

The output from NDR shall include:
• Publishing of topical model, investigative and citizens’ driven reports to enable informed opinion by citizens.
• Providing interaction for citizens’ engagement with media reportage of the elections, particularly including stories centered on Women, PWDs and Youths.
• Ensures substantial coverage of political, democratic and governance developments across the geo-political zones, including citizen-driven stories around electoral issues in grassroot communities.
• Contributing to curbing of fake news, ETC.