A Nigerian, Nonyelum Adanma Ujam, has been honoured with the Dean’s Prize for Outstanding ALM Capstone at Harvard’s Extension School. This prestigious award, which recognises the highest level of academic excellence, celebrates Ujam’s exceptional scholarship while completing her Master’s degree in Global Development Practice. Ujam’s award-winning thesis, titled “Improving Access to Basic Education: A Development Plan,” was inspired by the Alternate School Programme. This government initiative was developed during her tenure as the Special Adviser to the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development. Reacting to the award, Ujam via her LinkedIn said: “The focus of my work was improving access to basic education in Nigeria, primarily targeting underserved and unserved communities. Primary education in Nigeria is compulsory and free, as provided by the Federal Government’s Universal Basic Education Policy (1999). “My capstone explored the use of social intervention programmes as a means of incentivising school attendance, as a whole community approach to learning – from the parents, to community leaders and members. In effect, the entire community is encouraged to support school attendance. “This work started during my time as Special Adviser to the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, through an initiative called the Alternate School Programme. “A critical component of my capstone is the M and E framework that I designed, which adapted the United Nations SDGs targets and went further to localise the indicators, as a means of mainstreaming the SDGs, thus accelerating progress and enabling clearer reporting. Within the scope of the project, 8 of the 17 Goals are impacted, as well as 26 targets and 32 indicators. “It will be remiss not to mention the generosity of my client, the Ilmi Children’s Fund, which allowed me to achieve this remarkable success. “I am very passionate about deepening access to education and it’s potential socio-economic impact. Improving lives and livelihoods is the goal, driving inclusiveness and ensuring sustainability is the ambition. I hope that we can begin to rethink formal education to cater to social, cultural and religious nuances because truly, no one deserves to be left behind.” Source: Vanguard