Nigeria launched its second National Action Plan for the Implementation of UNSC1235 and related resolutions (NAP) on 9 May 2017, for the period between 2017 and 2020. The updated NAP was developed by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development with the support of Nigerian Stability Reconciliation Programme (NSRP), the European Union and UN Women. In the course of the implementation of the first NAP (2013-2017), several gaps were observed and formed the basis, among other reasons, to review the plan in order to incorporate emerging issues in Nigeria (i.e.: non-inclusion of violent extremism and limited consideration of post-conflict and reintegration issues), as well as address the gaps identified in the first NAP (i.e. absence of crisis management and recovery strategies, ambiguous language and inadequate monitoring and evaluation architecture). The reviewed NAP (2017-2020) is robust and detailed. It has clear implementation, monitoring and evaluation strategies and reporting pathways.
Since its independence in 1960, thousands of Nigerians have lost their lives in various levels of armed conflicts and violence. As a nation, Nigeria faces several challenges including an economic crisis triggered mostly by low oil prices, a resurgence of militancy in the Delta over economic grievances, an uptick in agitation in the Southeast by pro-Biafra nationalists, and ongoing conflicts over land use in the Middle Belt. The conflict in the North East caused by Boko Haram since 2009, has resulted in massive loss of lives, property and livelihoods. Many people have become perpetually internally displaced. Nigerian women have paid a heavy price in the long and violent conflicts that have been ravaging the country especially in the past two decades. Nigerian women have endured unprecedented levels of sexual violence and assault, along with related HIV infection, involuntary pregnancies and health complications as a result of abuses, increased food insecurity, and forced several women to flee from their homes. Over the last few years, gender-based violence and abductions of women have been escalating under the activities of the group Boko Haram, including the April 2014 abduction of more than 270 girls from a Nigerian school in Chibok. Following the abduction, international security meetings on countering Boko Haram were held in London and Paris but failed to include Nigerian women’s civil society organisations.
In its national review for Beijing+25, Nigeria reported that WPS-related achievements from 2015-2019 included (pg. 14):
- Implementation of aspects of UNSCR 1325. E.g. inclusion of women in councils of traditional rulers and periodic gender training for security sector agencies.
- Social investment budget formally introduced into government budget
- Marginal upsurge in women’s political participation