The Conflict Prevention, Crisis Response and Resilience (CPCRR) Programme has reached 19,814 direct beneficiaries in Zamfara State and trained more than 160 people on strategic communication, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) West Africa has said.
David Alechenu of CDD West Africa disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the Project Steering Committee meeting of the CPCRR Programme, which brought together government officials, development partners, implementing partners and community representatives to review the programme’s progress and impact.
Alechenu said strategic communication remained a major component of the programme’s peacebuilding and social cohesion efforts, noting that the project had used radio, jingles and drama to take peace messages to communities.
He said radio was identified as an important platform because of its wide reach, while peacebuilding jingles were produced in Hausa and Fulfulde to ensure the messages were accessible to the targeted population.
“We want to see communication as one of the backbones of how we intend to go about peacebuilding and social cohesion, and also how we want to amplify the work that we do,” he said.
According to him, the programme also produced episodic drama skits and conducted community-level drama performances to help residents understand the effects of conflict and promote peaceful approaches to resolving disputes.
Alechenu said more than 160 people, including journalists, media practitioners, traditional and religious leaders and government officials, had been trained on strategic communication and the dangers of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.
He explained that the training had encouraged participants to verify information before sharing it, stressing that unverified information could worsen tensions within communities.
“We’ve seen how a lot of people have also informed themselves about not just sharing messages but making sure that what they are sharing is true or false,” he said.
Alechenu added that the programme had recorded improved social cohesion, with women and youths showing greater confidence and participation in community activities and decision-making.
He stressed that women’s involvement was particularly important because decisions made at community level could affect women and children in ways that might not be immediately considered by male leaders.
He cited a case in which a borehole was constructed close to a traditional masquerade ground, making it difficult for women to access the water because of restrictions around the area.
“If that woman was in that particular forum where the decision was taken that the borehole should be situated there, that particular incident would not happen,” he said.
Alechenu said dialogue had also emerged as a preferred means of resolving disputes, based on feedback from communities involved in the programme.
“Dialogue is very key and is one of the preferred ways anybody wants to resolve conflict,” he said.
He further said local peace structures had become more functional, with Community Peace and Resilience Committees, early warning and early response systems, traditional institutions and security actors working together to respond to emerging threats.
According to him, the programme has recorded 19,814 direct beneficiaries across peacebuilding, livelihood, climate change, mental health and psychosocial support, displacement tracking and strategic communication activities.
He said the programme’s wider community reach could be estimated at nearly 60,000 people, considering the indirect impact of beneficiaries sharing knowledge and messages with others.
However, Alechenu identified insecurity, climate and economic pressures, poor network coverage, low literacy, uneven gender representation, youth migration and the sustainability of local peace structures as major challenges.
He called for stronger government ownership and integration of community peace structures into state and local government systems to ensure that the gains recorded under the programme are sustained beyond its implementation period.
Earlier, Amr Taha, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, International Organization for Migration (IOM), said northwest Nigeria continued to face compounding challenges driven by armed banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder conflicts and climate-related shocks.
Taha said IOM had reached almost 70,000 beneficiaries through its conflict prevention and resilience interventions, stressing the need to continue and expand the programme.
The European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Gautier Mignot, said the EU had invested more than €5 million in the CPCR project and was working on a broader €25 million intervention to address insecurity in northwest Nigeria, including Zamfara.
Governor Dauda Lawal, who was represented by the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Yahya Zakari, also appealed for sustained support as the current phase of the programme winds down.
He said continued investment was necessary to consolidate the peacebuilding gains recorded in the state and prevent communities from relapsing into conflict.
“An investment in peace in Zamfara is an investment in the stability of the entire Northwest,” the governor said.