Community and Traditional Institutions’ Engagement in Peace Programming: Learning from North-East Nigeria

Insurgency, banditry, and related conflicts in North-East Nigeria have led to the loss of lives, population displacement and social stress. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimates the number of deaths directly related to the conflicts to be 350,000, while 314,000 people died from indirect causes. This consequence of the conflict has attracted several local and international interventions for peace and recovery. For instance, the  Early Recovery Programme for the North-East in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, funded by the government of Norway, is being implemented by the UNDP.

Also, the Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project of the International Development Association is being implemented in the region. These and several other international interventions add to the work of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), a Federal Government intervention institution for rebuilding the North-East and different state government recovery programmes in the affected states. The interventions are, in good part, peacebuilding initiatives to support security efforts in the region. In the light of the multiple peace efforts, a study that explored the perspectives of the affected communities on the peacebuilding interventions in the North-East by the Kukah Centre reported some of their core findings could be grounded on the role and importance of traditional institutions in peace programming.

Hence, this edition of the Nextier SPD Policy Weekly considers the values of engaging communities and traditional institutions and harnessing the outcome of the engagement for sustainable peace in North-West and Central Nigeria, using the North-East as the case study.

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