No Face, No Case: The Realities of Gender-sensitive Conflict Reporting in Nigeria

Not enough is reported about the impact of violence on women and children in Nigeria. With the evolution of the media landscape, especially with social media and technological advancement, gender-sensitive conflict reporting has largely remained inadequate. News sources, conflict databases and other relevant stakeholders struggle to disaggregate information on violence in Nigeria to show how it specifically affects women and children. Conversations on women’s inclusion have grown sporadically in formal and informal settings, gaining grounds against institutional and cultural impediments. However, the information on how Nigeria’s avalanche of violent conflicts affects women and children is still largely in piecemeal fashion. Where this information exists, it is usually not public. According to the UN Women, the news coverage of armed conflicts is profoundly gendered and largely male-dominated. Therefore, public perception of women and children’s involvement as victims or perpetrators is not known to many.

This edition of the Nextier SPD Policy Weekly examines the inadequate disaggregation of conflict reporting based on gender, the challenges and the way forward.

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