Our work
Six programme areas, one purpose.
We keep our work concentrated where rights, resilience and peace intersect. Below is what each programme area covers, and the projects we have carried out under it.
Conflict management and peacebuilding
Every kind of human right is infringed in the course of violent conflict, and women and children are hurt worst by it. That is why we work on conflict: early warning and prevention, managing conflict when it comes, and building peace that holds afterwards.
The 18th Annual Conflict Management Seminar and Workshop, Ogomudia Hall, Nigerian Army College of Logistics, Lagos, 14 to 16 May 2018. Theme: building Nigerian Army capacity for responsive conflict management.
Democracy, Peacebuilding and Conflict Management for the Nigerian Military
An annual five-day seminar and training workshop for the Nigerian Army, Air Force and Navy, running since the mid 2000s. It exists to mainstream peacebuilding into peacekeeping operations, and to entrench conflict management into how military personnel are trained. It succeeded: conflict management and peacebuilding are now part of the training curriculum of the Nigerian Army College of Logistics. Our manual, Introduction to Conflict Management and Peacebuilding for the Military, is used to facilitate the training each year.
Capacity Building in Conflict Management for Enhanced Participation of Community Women
A multi-year programme equipping community women with the skills to intervene in conflicts in their own communities, across all six geopolitical zones. It involved training for community women and civil society organisations, setting up Early Warning Systems, inaugurating Women Peace Forums, and publishing an abridged comic version of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820.
Strengthening Capacities and Linkages for Effective Early Warning and Early Response in Lagos State
We strengthened the existing early warning team in Lagos State and built a working relationship between that team and state security agencies, so that conflict could be spotted and answered before it escalated. By the end of the project, government had been sensitised on why early warning and early response matter, and was actively liaising with the early warning team to monitor the elections in Lagos State. Our handbook, Early Warning and Early Response to Conflict, came out of this work.
Enhancing Peace in the Niger Delta
We trained community women, youth and traditional leaders in non-violent conflict management in Amai, Ukwuani Local Government Area, and Oleh, Isoko Local Government Area, Delta State. We presented the findings at a public forum at the Orchid Hotel in Asaba, joined by HRM Monday Ossai, Dr/Chief Kate Aduba and Dr. Joseph R.P. Golwa, Director-General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution. The project report carries ISBN 978-37736-3-1.
Community Healing and Dialogue Skills for Civil Society Organisations, Plateau State
Building the capacity of civil society organisations to run their own community healing and dialogue programmes in Plateau State, so that people there could heal from the conflicts they had lived through and hold on to peaceful coexistence.
In-School Peace Education
Peace education programmes and peace clubs in schools in the Niger Delta, so young people learn non-violent approaches to conflict and real dispute resolution skills. We train teachers in selected primary and secondary schools, who in turn train their students in peer mediation. Peace clubs and mediation centres have been formed in the beneficiary schools.
Promoting Tolerance and Peaceful Co-existence Amongst Displaced and Host Community Women
Building the capacity of 60 community women in conflict management and peacebuilding, to promote tolerance and peaceful co-existence between displaced and host community women in Amai community, Delta State.
Active Non-Violence Approach in Peacebuilding, Calabar
A one-day awareness programme for 20 civil society organisations working on women's issues in Calabar, Cross River State, so they could adopt non-violent approaches to intervening in conflict. It expanded the collective role of women in peacebuilding and in decision-making across Calabar.
Capacity building with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps
Conflict management and peacebuilding training for officers and men of the NSCDC, alongside resource persons from our team.
Taken together, this work has changed how women's role in peace is understood at community level. Women no longer see themselves only as victims of conflict, but as peacebuilders and agents of change where they live.
See these programmes in the gallery →Civic and political education
People cannot claim rights they do not know they have. We sensitise citizens, especially young people and women, on their civic and political rights and responsibilities, so that participation and representation in governance are real rather than nominal.
Pre-election community outreach with traditional leaders
Community forums bringing together traditional rulers, community women, youth and candidates ahead of an election, ending in a public commitment by traditional leaders and participants to peaceful elections.
Vision Nigeria
A live phone-in radio programme on civic and political education, educating citizens, especially young people, on civic and political issues and what they mean for human rights. Broadcast on the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, covering around 15 states.
Women’s rights
We work on the protection and promotion of the rights of women in difficult circumstances, including widows, internally displaced women and refugees. Our programmes are tailored to the provisions of CEDAW.
Strengthening Capacity for Women’s Participation in Peace and Security
Expanding the space for women's participation by building the capacity of civil society organisations across four states, to promote the inclusion of women in peacebuilding and decision-making. It produced an abridged comic version of the UN Security Council Resolutions dealing with women, peace and security.
Early Warning Teams and Women Peace Forums
In every state where we ran the community women programme, we established an Early Warning Team, as the apparatus for spotting and answering conflict before it turns violent, and a Women Peace Forum, a networking platform where women in conflict-affected areas share experience and shape decisions in their communities.
CEDAW and gender awareness training
Training on CEDAW and gender awareness for Gender Focal Officers in Asaba, Delta State, and sensitisation on gender issues in two focus communities of Aniocha South Local Government Area.
Non-violent peacebuilding for women in Calabar
A training of trainers programme for representatives of civil society organisations working on women's issues in Calabar, Cross River State.
Children’s rights
We promote and protect the rights of children in difficult circumstances, working on juvenile justice, child trafficking, child labour, and general awareness of what a child is entitled to.
Delta State Children’s Parliament
We established and strengthened a 32-member children's parliament in Delta State and built its members' capacity in parliamentary processes. Those children then advocated for the wider population of disadvantaged children, on child abuse, trafficking and harmful practices, and for the passage of the Child Rights Act.
Child Labour Free Home Campaign
An awareness and sensitisation campaign against child domestic labour in Nigeria, marking the World Day Against Child Labour.
Literacy and life skills for prison inmates
Literacy, numeracy and life skills for women and young people in prison, to prepare them for life after custody. Piloted at Ikoyi Prisons, Lagos.
Child rights and responsibilities training in schools
Training sessions with students on their rights and their responsibilities, delivered in schools directly.
Support for orphans and vulnerable children
A consultative meeting with secretaries of Community Development Associations on information and strategy for leveraging resources for orphans and vulnerable children, covering healthcare, education and recreation through caregivers and the associations themselves.
Youth empowerment
We work to reorient young Nigerians, targeting behavioural change around drug abuse, crime, and how conflict gets handled. We are currently exploring peacebuilding and development as a way to re-channel young people, particularly in the Niger Delta, into useful work while they take on peacebuilding skills.
Peace clubs in schools
Establishing peace clubs within schools in Delta State, run by students trained as peer mediators.
Youth training in non-violent conflict management
Young people from Ukwuani community, Delta State, trained in non-violent conflict management skills as part of our Niger Delta peacebuilding work.
Disaster management
Preparing communities and institutions for disaster before it arrives, and strengthening the people who have to respond when it does.
Emergency and disaster preparedness education for schools
Teaching schools how to prepare for and respond to emergencies.
Disaster management capacity for the military and other stakeholders
Building disaster management capability among the military and the other institutions that carry the response.
Trauma healing
Conflict, loss and illness leave marks that outlast the event. Our work in this area aims at establishing a psychosocial centre for trauma and psychological healing, for people living with HIV and for widows among others.