Overview
Through the FCDO funded Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation programme (NSRP) the British Council has managed a process of designing and delivering safe spaces, through the establishment of peace clubs and building platforms for multi-stakeholder responses to violence against women and girls in conflict affected areas of Nigeria.
With the help of peace club today, young boys and girls can come out and speak their mind frequently to the society at large.
The Peace clubs are coordinated by local CSOs who recruit and train the local facilitators who gain the trust of the young participants. A key aim of this safe spaces approach is to break the cultural of silence around violence against women and girls and to facilitate action to both prevent and respond to VAWG. While the original programme focused on girl-only spaces, a key decision made during the inception phase was to include boys and young men.
The Women Peace and Security networks (WPSNs) which have been supported through the programme at federal and state level bring together key women-focused civil society actors and organisations and support them to work together and engage with government structures and the wider community around the development and implementation of the National Action Plan on women, peace and security.
By supporting women’s participation in peace-building processes and by building trust between civil society, government and state agencies, we believe that conflict is more likely to be managed non-violently and that peace is more likely to be sustained.