This research project involved learning from a collective impact initiative for unarmed civilian protection launched in 2017, in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. Using quantitative and qualitative research on local violence reporting from newspaper archives; focus group discussions, and a video documentary with the members of the Jos Stakeholders Centre for Peace (JSCP) network, this project contributed new theoretical and empirical insights on enhancing civilian protection through unarmed collective action in the area of community security. Prominently, the research included partner organisations and collaborators in Nigeria to promote grassroots advocacy, capacity building, and knowledge dissemination around unarmed civilian protection (UCP) in Maiduguri, Borno state, where civilians have witnessed both state and non-state directed violence due to the Boko Haram insurgency. A growing normalisation in state-insurgent relations since 2015 has created the opportunity to build the self-protection capacities of local communities. Towards this end, the novelty of the project was three-fold. First, it encouraged inter-regional learning of the collective impact model in UCP. Second, it built the capacity of the people at the grassroots, and those in positions of local power and influence through workshops, mobile video projection and community discussions around UCP in Maiduguri, Borno state. Third, it developed the local capacity in Maiduguri to arrest conflict escalation and mitigate both state and non-state armed violence directed against civilians, through unarmed community security initiatives.

RESEARCH TEAM

• Sukanya Podder, King’s College London, UK (principal investigator)
• Pwakim Jacob Choji, Youth Initiative Against Violence and Human Rights Abuse, Jos, Nigeria (co-investigator)
• Allamin Foundation for Peace & Development, Nigeria (project partner)

PROJECT DATES

1 November 2022 – 31 January 2024

RESEARCH OUTPUTS

Article in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine

Podder, Sukanya, ‘Unarmed civilian protection through collective impact: The Jos Stakeholders Centre for Peace (JSCP), Plateau State, Nigeria’, Humanitarian Exchange, 82:11, 2023.

Short Film: Inter-regional learning on UCP in Nigeria

This short learning video captures insights from an intergenerational and collective impact model adopted by the Jos Stakeholder’s Centre for Peace in Jos, Nigeria, to reduce violence in the context of two communities, Angwan Damisa and Balakaze, that have witnessed several episodes of communal conflict. The insights could help other Nigerian communities adapt the model to reduce or prevent violence in their specific context, such as in Maiduguri where ex-Boko Haram fighters and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are returning and changing the composition of the communities.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

The Jos-based model of intergenerational collaboration through multi-stakeholder driven collective impact has had the following lessons to offer for the practice of civilian protection.

The project findings point to the diversity of local capacities that exist for civilian protection that is inclusive and collaborative in nature. In our presentation of the learning video and discussions with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders (n=23) in Maiduguri we found similarities with the Jos model, although these were less deliberate in including a youth-focused, intergenerational and collective impact design.

One of the areas of success in Bala Kaze and Angwan Damisa was collaboration between security agencies (police) and the community leaders. This collaboration included reporting on violent and crime-related incidents. The Breaking the Borders (BtB) Ambassadors who were trained unarmed
defenders of the community would arrest miscreants and hand them over to the police for further action.

The BtB included members of different age groups and their ability to use unarmed methods of civilian policing presented an improvement on localised jungle justice methods. In both communities youth involvement in drug abuse and high levels of unemployment were cited as a trigger for localised fights at the stream dividing the two villages. This area of cooperation between formal security agencies/police and the civilians had mixed results in the Tudun Wada community. Some level of complicity between criminals and the police was observed; miscreants were often released without repercussions when the local community leaders attempted to hand them over for selling narcotics or for any other localised crime-related issues.

This variation in the success of the collective impact model suggests that cooperation with the formal security agencies and their willingness to work with local communities is a significant factor in defining the success of civilian protection methods in the area of community security provision.

Finally, the success of civilian protection methods in arresting conflict escalation and maintaining inter-community peace in Angwan Damisa and Bala Kaze does offer important lessons around when unarmed civilian initiatives can become sustainable, locally led, and locally maintained networks for security and protection. They suggest that state agencies need to become willing collaborators and supporters of these initiatives. Local arrangements need to include different age groups and genders.

Following the video screening at the Maiduguri workshop, the five communities whose members took part (communities of Gangamari, Kawar Maila, Limanti, State Low Cost and Old Maiduguri (n=150, 45 F, 105 M), were encouraged to launch an informal civilian protection network and a WhatsApp group to report on civilian protection-related developments.

The sustainability and effectiveness of these networks are likely to be variable and could benefit from the adoption of a more deliberate organisation structure grounded in collective impact-type design. The communities in Maiduguri would benefit from adopting intergenerational collaboration and not just dialogue, as we found that the collective and inclusive decision-making model that was adopted in the case of the Jos network was more effective than one that is consultative or based on elders directing younger members of these networks on proposed routes of action.