PROTECTING OUR COMMUNITIES (2019-2024)

Nigeria

About the Protecting Our Communities Initiative

Protecting Our Communities Initiative (POCI) supported Nigerian communities at the center of complex land use conflicts and rising insecurity.

POCI was an initiative of Karuna Center and four Nigerian partner organizations. The project was implemented across six Local Government Areas in Kaduna, Zamfara and Benue states.

POCI worked within 18 core communities to establish locally-rooted peacebuilding systems. The goal is to support communities’ capacity to prevent violence and address the root causes of conflict, now and in the future. A key focus of the project is on strengthening relationships between farmer and herder communities—and, in its final year, fortifying the capacity of our community-based partners.

“We never knew there could be such a thing as mediation between farmers and herders, as all we did was fight each other. Now we have found the logic on how to live and work peacefully because this organization has trained us how to. Now the herders even give us manure to use on our farms, while we give them hay from our farms for their cattle.”

– a farmer and POCI participant in the town of Nahuce, Zamfara, Nigeria

Acting Fast to Prevent Violent Conflict:

Early Warning-Early Response (EWER) committees identify, track, and resolve local incidents that could spark broader conflict. To tackle problems like bandit attacks, they also build relationships with local security forces. The EWER committees have resolved over 1,109 incidents to date across all 18 project communities.

As armed bandit attacks increased across much of North West Nigeria during 2023, our team suspended program activities in a few participating communities in the most impacted areas, for a limited time, to reduce the risk to community members and staff. However, the communities found their work of identifying and addressing early warning signs so valuable that they chose to continue to meet and hold dialogues independently, despite our caution. POCI’s peacebuilding systems were designed to be used by and for community members, and during this brief period of higher risk, they addressed over 40 incidents.

Strengthening Communities:

Dialogue facilitators within each community are building relationships of trust across ethnic and religious divides—and collaborating with EWER committees to resolve disputes. Community dialogue facilitators have held more than 500 dialogues to build trust and problem solve — including topics such as farmer-herder relations, land disputes, drug use, inter-religious conflict, and managing harmful rumors.

After years of practice, POCI community dialogue facilitators have become highly skilled at guiding challenging conversations on a range of topics. During the 2023 elections, none of the participating communities experienced politically-fueled violence. Local facilitators attributed this to the success of the project dialogues in deepening understanding and trust across religious and ethnic divides.

Peace Education:

The project holds regular call-in radio shows and shares success stories over social media—allowing a much broader community to learn about and discuss themes related to building peace. Community drama performances further educate and engage community members about the project’s peacebuilding systems.

Uplifting Community Leadership:

Community-based peacebuilders are uniquely positioned to understand and navigate complex regional conflicts. POCI’s statewide and interstate forums have brought the project’s community peacebuilders together with a range of leaders and decision-makers to discuss sustaining and expanding the project activities.

In August 2024, we co-convened POCI’s Third National Conference on the Management of Farmer-Herder Relations, focused on policy and building stakeholder networks. POCI is also working with national governmental agencies to incorporate the project’s model into national planning for strengthening farmer-herder relations and early warning-early response systems.

Building Resilience:

Psychological trauma can be widespread in communities impacted by violent conflict and insecurity. The Protecting Our Communities Initiative has provided counseling to more than 650 people impacted by trauma, and trained 153 peer counselors. Photo above: participants practice mindfulness through weaving.

Through POCI dialogues, Nigeria’s major associations of farmers and of herders have built strong relationships at the state and local level. They are now holding joint advocacy visits across three Nigerian states to promote their mutual interests with government officials, traditional rulers, and security agencies.

Invest in sustainable peace

You can support these initiatives to develop peace in communities impacted by conflict, with a gift to Karuna Center today. Thank you!DONATE

Program Stories

A NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FARMER-HERDER RELATIONS IN NIGERIA

Video highlight: Justina Namigba, an Early Warning-Early Response (EWER) Committee member, discusses POCI’s impact on community life — from security issues affecting the community, down to the personal and home level: