More Information

• Major or Current Achievements *: Achievements • WANEP-Nigeria’s early warning system has been expanded and consolidated to provide informed analysis and response to conflicts, disasters and humanitarian crises in Nigeria. This has led to a reliable online early warning system otherwise referred to as the National Early Warning system (NEWS). Subsequently, a total of 43 early warning support personnel made up of 37 core monitors and 6 analysts from member organisations were trained and supported to populate and support analysis to the system to facilitate proactive response to disasters and humanitarian crises in Nigeria. This is valuable for both the Network as well as other relevant institutions towards the mitigation or reduction of violent conflicts and humanitarian crises across the country. The strategic importance of the output from the system has enhanced the credibility and reliability of WANEP by various local and international agencies towards conflict prevention, sustainable peace and human security. The experience and success emerging from the operations of the online early warning online system of WANEP-Nigeria has led to the adoption of the system by the entire WANEP structure across its national networks in the West Africa sub region. Presently, its field monitors support the reporting system for WANEP-Nigeria into the ECOWAS Early Warning monitoring system called ‘ECOWARN’ for peace and human security within the West Africa sub region • Since 2002, WANEP-Nigeria has been implementing gender based peacebuilding intervention in communities through the Women in Peacebuilding program. Over the years it has been improved to provide a credible platform for women to address social injustices as well as play critical roles in the balanced inclusion of women in policy changes at all levels of the society. The role of women in peacebuilding has been further appreciated by various levels of social and political actors who have provided personal and organisation support to its intervention through the platform of the Women In Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET). The women in peacebuilding network has built a critical mass of over 1,000 women since inception drawn from women professionals, groups /associations and organisations working at different levels and positions to address abuses and violence against women in the six geo-political zones of the country. The credibility of WIPNET has led to its participation in the development of a national gender policy framework for Nigeria in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. It has also led to the inclusion of WANEP as the only civil society member in the Inter Ministerial Task Force on gender and peacekeeping. Based on the trust and cooperation between the Ministry and the Network, it was contracted to develop the Nigeria country report on behalf the Ministry presented at the year anniversary of UNSCR 1325 held at New York in October 2010. The WIPNET’s work in the Niger Delta region is aimed at strengthening the capacity of women social networks to become active participants in peace and security within their communities. Through its working relationship with NIPRODEV, it has positioned itself to complement their peacebuilding skills with livelihood capacities to enable them build confidence and access opportunities for engendered development within their communities. • Under the Peace Education program, since 2008, WANEP-Nigeria has initiated Peer mediation and peace education program for 90 primary and post primary schools in Delta and Rives States of South South geo political zones. The project led to the training and development of peace clubs in pilot schools. The project now has a critical mass of over 900 students who have been trained and actively participating in dispute resolution mechanisms crisis management in their various schools. The emerging success of the program in the states is its sustainability through capacity building and skills transfer to students as the founding members of the clubs graduate. Thus creating a mass of social agents who contribute to a new culture of dispute resolution and conflict prevention within the states and beyond. WANEP Nigeria is part of the expert committee set up by the regional office of WANEP for the development of a practice guide on peace education for West Africa in 2012. • Through its grant from Oxfam Novib, WANEP-Nigeria was able to embark on the development of a work place policy on HIV/AIDS for the Network. Having successfully engaged all network members to contribute to its development, the policy was approved by the Annual General Meeting of the Network in 2006 as a referral document for all member organisations to address HIV/AIDS issues in the workplace. A follow-up to that is the development of an internal HIV/AIDS policy for secretariat staff of the Network. It has also developed a health insurance scheme on HIV/AIDS for staff of the secretariat. The first draft has been completed and ready for review. The involvement of the Network in HIV/AIDS work place policy has further deepened its appreciation and commitment to mainstream HIV/AIDS policies to all its programs and project activities. At the moment all thematic program areas consider HIV/AIDS as a critical part of peace and human security towards the reduction of the pandemic in Nigeria. In 2010, the Network received additional funds from Commonwealth Foundation, a U.K. based charity to support further sensitisation of private and public sectors on the need for the development of workplace policies to protect the rights of employees. • The Humanitarian Emergency Response and Development (H.E.R.D.) is a project designed, developed and implemented by the Network with the support of Oxfam Novib to facilitate the effective response by civil society to the myriads of humanitarian crises during disasters in Nigeria. Since the commencement of the first phase of the program in 2006, the Network has trained a total of 120 network members on disaster management. These new skills and capacity complement the network’s skill and experience for conflict monitoring to forge a credible bridge for assessment, analysis and information distribution to relevant stakeholders and preventive mechanisms against complex humanitarian crises in Nigeria. The Early warning system developed in the project has enabled the development of information on human security threats as well as directions for response right from the community to the national level as the Network’s contribution to disaster reduction in Nigeria. Information Communication Technology (ICT) is used to generate a warning system that facilitates the provision of information to government and nongovernmental organisations with focus on disaster management. In that way, a chain of response mechanisms is initiated towards effective disaster management in Nigeria. Through the projects, the existing relationship between NEMA and Red cross has been enhanced as well as the relationships with Nigerian security institutions, ECOWAS, UNHCR, Save the Children, U.K. in addressing the issue of disaster and humanitarian emergency in Nigeria. Through support from the Early Warning and Response Design System (EWARDS) of USAID West Africa, WANEP-Nigeria was able to kick-start its crises lines which consists of the provision of phones and post paid SIMS with free data internet access to support the work of its field monitors for the early warning system in 2010. These crises lines have since been supported and sustained by Oxfam Novib. Through the NEWS, WANEP has continued to analyze and disseminate EW information to relevant state and non-state actors on issues of conflict and disaster across Nigeria communities. Its monthly early warning bulletin and annual risk index is the first by any civil society organisation in Nigeria that captures quantitative and qualitative analysis of proximate conditions for disasters and humanitarian crises. • Since 2010, WANEP-Nigeria through the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), has been engaged in multilevel dialogue process to address the protracted conflict in Jos Plateau State. In partnership with the institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Network has successfully convened and facilitated the first key stakeholder meeting consisting of the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Plateau State, the President of JNI Plateau State, the special adviser to the governor of Plateau State on peace and conflict, Yakubu Gowon Foundation and other key stakeholders in Jos. This subsequently led to the first dialogue session in Jos with key leaderships in the communities participating for the first time together in a roundtable dialogue. The meeting also had in attendance UNDP, the administrative head of “Operation Rainbow” in Jos and the Special Task Force. WANEP-Nigeria is also the fist civil society organisation in Nigeria working in the Jos conflict to convene all the legislators of the Plateau State House of Assembly at Abuja to deliberate on the conflict of Jos. The commitment of stakeholders to the process has led to an inter ethnic platform by the leaderships of all the seven critical communities in the Jos to address the insecurity in Jos Plateau. The Network is currently working with the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) under the Justice and Security Dialogue project to continue the dialogue process in Jos Plateau by improving the relationship between citizens and security providers as well as their collective abilities to jointly identify and address local security issues. • Through support and partnership with Oxfam GB, WANEP-Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Environment, has been training and building the capacity of Agro producers in Nigeria under a project titled “Capacity Building for Farmers on Climate Change Adaptability in Agriculture” since 2011. WANEP-Nigeria became an obvious choice for this project based on its already existing humanitarian intervention and risk analysis on threats to human security in Nigeria. It has worked with its member organisations to develop a training manual on climate change adaptation for agro producers. Also it has already trained more than 90 master trainers who planning the logistics for the step down trainings in Katsina, Nassarawa and Plateau States of Nigeria. The current project is a research on the “Impacts of Investments on Agriculture and Climate Change Adaptation on Small Scale Farming in Nigeria”. This research complements past initiatives of WANEP-Nigeria in partnership with Oxfam GB. WANEP-Nigeria has been an Oxfam GB’s partner of since 2007 working on mitigating the risk to the livelihood and production of small-scale farmers in selected states in Nigeria. Specifically working on mitigating agro-pastoralist conflict, developing disaster risk reduction skills as well as on climate change adaptation as it relates to climate change. • Under the Democracy and Good Governance project, WANEP concerned about the implications of violence and security threat anticipated in the 2015 elections, embarked on a monitoring and analysis of risk factors over a period of 6 months (July – December 2014) that has potentials of destabilising the polity and creating widespread violence in the scheduled general elections. The risk factors were identified and informed by a comparative assessment of the interacting factors of pre 2011 presidential election violence and current factors escalating tensions for 2015 elections. A total of 21 broad based indicators that highlights observable actions that raise violent threats were developed as data monitoring and reporting tools to inform analysis and generate a trend or pattern of these risk factors towards understanding their relationship and also how it is likely to reinforce the predictions of widespread violence during and after the elections. Some of these indicators include disruption of political rallies, negative and inciting statements by political actors, negative messages through the media, complaints over voter registration e.t.c. Therefore the data is evidence based from reported or observable events based on pre-determined indicators as it occurred across the monitored states in Nigeria. A total of 26 States were monitored and analysed for this report. These include, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Nassarawa, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Zamfara, Ebonyi, Oyo, Bayelsa, Jigawa, Borno, Delta, Ondo, Yobe. The selection of these states was based on the presence of existing monitors of WANEP for the National Early Warning System. WIPNET on the other hand worked in collaboration with other women organisations under the Women Situation Room Nigeria to respond to concern to women who understood the need for an enabling environment to ensure effective and adequate women’s participation and representation in the elections in 2015.
• Functional Board *:
• Number of Board Members *: 7
• List Expertise of Board Members *: ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST, LEGAL LUMINARIES, COMMUNITY MOBILISER, PEACE AND CONFLICT EXPERTS
• Organisational Strategic Plan *:
• Head of Organisation *: BRIDGET OSAKWE
• Name of Contact Person *: BRIDGET OSAKWE
• Position of Contact Person *: NATIONAL NETWORK COORDINATOR
• Number of Staff *: 12
• Number of Males *: 5
• Number of Females *: 7

News

Events