Women Mediators demand Women Participation In Peace and Security in Nigeria

In commemoration of the 2025 International Women’s Day themed ‘for ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality Empowerment #AccelerateAction’, The Network of Nigerian Women Mediators and CLEEN Foundation in collaboration with UN Women have held a webinar, on “Empowering Women Mediators in advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Climate Security in Nigeria”.

 

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It featured various presentations on ‘Empowering Peace: The Critical Role of Women in Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Nigeria’, highlighting key achievements of women mediators in Nigeria, as well as lessons learnt, challenges, and proffered recommendations to strengthen women’s mediation.

The co-coordinator of the Network of Nigerian Women Mediators, Hajiya Lantana Bako Abdullahi, in her opening remarks, commended the UN Women for the laudable contributions and support since inception of the Network in 2019.

She enumerated some of the gains from this ongoing collaboration to include the mapping of women mediators’ capacities in Nigeria and development of women mediators database.

She further charged women mediators and partners to continue to support the mission of the network towards conflict prevention and promoting sustainable peace.

Spotlighting the journey of Women, Peace and Security agenda in Nigeria, National Programme Officer, Women, Peace and Security Programme, UN Women, Amina O. Akano-Bello, explained that, the webinar was a collective reflection on progress made, challenges limiting progress and way forward, since the year 2025 marks a pivotal moment for the global movement toward gender equality, the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), even as Nigeria joins the international community to celebrate the women’s month.

“Strategic actions must be taken to ensure women’s meaningful representation and participation in peace processes including mediation and negotiation as prescribed by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security unanimously adopted in 2000.”

Akanno-Bello added that the webinar was building on the outcome of the 2nd Annual forum of Women Mediators in Nigeria held in 2024, with support from the Government of Norway where the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) architecture convened, Women Mediation Networks from Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Gombe, Adamawa and Bauchi States, as well as Mixed Observers Team (MoTs) and Community Safety Platforms from Borno and Yobe states whose experience sharing has informed the development of learning briefs, and strategic tools.

The strategic tools : framework for the development of a comprehensive roadmap; communication and visibility strategy; Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning (MERL) framework and advocacy briefs when utilised is expected to facilitate the integration of the Network of Women Mediators at the State and National level, amongst others.

 

At the forum, co-coordinator of the Network of Nigerian Women Mediators, Professor Joy Onyesoh who presenting the learning brief, said the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in Nigeria has been a critical step towards promoting women’s participation in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

“Women mediators have played a crucial role in this process, leveraging their unique skills and perspectives to promote peace and security in the country.”

She stressed that Women Mediators need to leverage technology, in an era of artificial intelligence in amplifying women’s voices and promoting their inclusion in peace processes.

A professor of Criminology, the chairperson of Women Mediators in Kaduna state, Prof. Hauwau E. Yusuf, and the president of Nigerian Network on Women, Peace and Security in the ECOWAS Region (NOPSWECO), Dr. Lydia Umar, in their contributions highlighted the active role women mediators in collaboration with HeforShe and Media WPS Network, are playing in peace sensitisation, curbing youth restiveness,promotiing peaceful narratives and advocating for women’s inclusion in peace processes.

They emphasised the need for women mediators to be professionalised, recognised and engaged in formal peace processes within Nigeria and beyond to enhance their legitimacy.

key recommendations made at the forum include the need to acknowledge and promote women’s significant contributions and leadership in peacebuilding. The need to empower women mediators to leverage the Network of Women Mediators’ platforms and their deep contextual knowledge of WPS issues for popularising and promoting the effective implementation of National, State and Local Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security.

They also called for improve women’s participation in decision making, in both elective and appointive positions and increase funding for Women Mediators’ Networks.

The forum also urged policymakers to institutionalize women’s participation in peace negotiations, emphasizing the need for inclusive and gender-responsive mediation frameworks, strengthening of women’s Engagement in formal Peace Architecture at the Local, Subnational and National-level, amongst others.

Team lead of WPS programme, UN Women, Mr. Peter Mancha, in his remarks lauded Women Mediators for their contributions to peacebuilding, stressing the need for women mediators to continue to work with strategic partners including government, peace architectures, civil society organisations, communities and private sector to build sustainable peace.

He charged them to document and share their achievements including stories of dispute resolved to ease exchange of best practices and learning around strategies that have proven to be effective in gender responsive peacebuilding within and beyond Nigeria.

The landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (2000) was the first to link gender equality with international peace and security.

UNSCR 1325 recognises the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls and calls for the integration of gender perspectives in peace and security processes.

 

Nigeria has so far developed and implemented two generations National Action Plan (NAP) to translate the international WPS agenda into concrete actions at the national level.

The implementation of 1st and 2nd NAP on WPS in Nigeria has recorded remarkable achievements including the establishment of functional Women Mediation networks at the state and national levels to provide platform for a pool of women mediators to actively and meaningfully engage in peace processes.

 

The Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs has developed and validated Nigeria’s 3rd National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), that will be launched soon.

The third NAP including Mechanisms to enhance its implementation, monitoring, and reporting was developed using a multi sectoral approach, different sectors of government, academia, media, communities and civil society organisations were actively involved in the process, enhancing it’s legitimacy and ownership for implementation.

Webinar participants noted that while laudable achievements have been recorded in the promotion of women’s role in mediation over the years, women mediators still face systemic barriers, including limited access to decision-making spaces, and inadequate funding for grassroots peacebuilding initiatives, patriarchy and entrenched social norms, insecurity and Climate change issues and impact.

Participants included representatives of national and state-level women mediators’ networks, Women, Peace and Security experts, civil society organisations, state ministries of women affairs, formal peace architecture, academia, media, CLEEN Foundation, and UN Women.

The webinar aimed at strengthening women’s mediation and utilisation in Nigeria.