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Ending all forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls across the country, got attention from women’s groups, activists and advocates, even as technology-facilitated violence is increasingly impacting women and girls both in rural and urban communities.
Speaking on Thursday at an inter-generational Dialogue Meeting to share and document experiences on the successes of women’s movements and coalition building in Nigeria, on Ending Violence and Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls, EVAWG and TFVAW/G, leading voices highlighted the need to form stronger coalition building, transformative actions involving not only advocacy but changing systems, laws, institutions and cultures.
The discussions also centered on building a feminist intergenerational collaboration movement, leadership, solidarity, and action on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, as well as fostering feminist intergenerational collaboration and movements, among others.
The event organised in Lagos by Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, supported by the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, UNTF, also documented experiences, successes, and lessons learned from decades of women’s movements and coalition-building efforts in the country.
Welcoming the participants, the acting Executive Director, WARDC, Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode said, “Today, we stand on the shoulders of generations of women who dared to challenge violence, inequality, and silence.
“We gather not just to speak, but to testify, to document the power of women’s movements, honour the legacy of feminist resistance, and ignite the fire of intergenerational solidarity.
“As we face the rising threats of TFVAW/G, we do so with renewed unity and unwavering resolve. This space will amplify the voices of those who have fought, are fighting, and will continue to fight for justice, dignity, and freedom,” she assured.
In a session moderated by Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Founder, WARDC, Asmau Leo, of the Centre for Non-violence and Gender Advocacy in Nigeria, CENGAIN, Executive Director, called for the inclusion of women at all levels of decision-making on peace and security, insisting that lasting solutions to conflict, including the fight against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, SGBV in Nigeria cannot be achieved without the perspectives of women.
She lamented the order of the day, “Concerning women’s peace and security, it’s an important area that has been overlooked many times, and that’s why there is no real commitment to development.”
According to her, “At the strategic level, we don’t have anything like women being in the security councils, like the advisory group at the National level. It’s only the Security Chiefs who attend security meetings.
“I have had a series of engagements with the Defence Headquarters, and what I always tell them is that we can provide an Observer group that women should have. When the security chiefs are having a meeting, they can’t all sit down as men and begin to talk about peace when there’s no other perspective.
“But they say, it’s a regimented system, you have to rise through the ranks to become a General before you attend security meetings or become either Chief of Army or Navy.
“I said we don’t need that because it has been ages to come up with this parity.”
Dissatisfied that conversations about women are usually around leadership, women’s empowerment, women’s sexual and reproductive health, and other inclusion issues, she opined, “Without peace, we cannot have development. That’s what experts say, and that is very key, because even though we talk about peace, the men don’t feel like we have any contribution to make.
“I tell you, even at the community level, where most of these conflicts occur, you discover that when there are peace talks or negotiations, you hardly see the men inviting women’s groups to be a part of such negotiations.
“They feel our perspective doesn’t matter because peace is a masculine issue.”
She provided perspectives on the issue of stereotypes surrounding women’s conversations, challenging the perception that when women gather, they merely gossip.
“When women gather, people say they are gossiping. But gossip is really information sharing. In many communities, women are the first to know about threats like attacks long before social media because they talk to each other as they go about their businesses.”
She cautioned against the rise of harassment, blackmail, and sexual extortion through technology, especially targeting young women, “One in three women will face some form of violence in her lifetime. We have lost young women to suicide after intimate images were used to blackmail them. We must educate communities on digital safety and end this culture of silence.”
Funke Baruwa, a gender expert, during her presentation highlighted the importance of x-raying feminist transformative action on ending violence against women.
She noted the emerging challenge of technology-facilitated violence prevalent human rights violations against women and girls in Nigeria.
She listed a few: cyber harassment, online stalking, disinformation campaigns that target especially women leaders, including image-based abuse.
She canvassed for transformative actions to fight the new battle, “We’re going into the era where your pictures or videos can be edited, and people can just upload different things.
She hinted at transformative actions that involve not only advocacy, but also changing systems, laws, institutions, and cultures.
She recommended coalition building. According to her, “When we build group alliances across civil society, the media, and academia, we are indirectly increasing the legitimacy and pressure for change in those institutions.
Advising participants to leverage on technology, Baruwa noted that though it is a double-edged sword, while on both sides, technology can facilitate violence, it’s also a powerful tool for feminist organising as we have seen, it’s a powerful tool for solidarity and storytelling.”
Citing lessons from her cross-border experiences, she noted that inter-generational solidarity is key.
She revealed that, “Young activists bring creativity and digital freedom, older activists bring institutional memory and strategic navigation, while those who live in the middle are the bridge between the young and the old activists.
She identified other challenges that needed to be addressed, such as strengthening civic space, backlash against feminism, and the enforcement of laws.
Sharing further views, “Despite policy progress across the globe, including Africa and the Global south, there is also the issue that confronted us again early this year, funding of women’s rights organisations, starting with the report of UN funding, which would sort of have a ripple effect, with Germany, French, the British, everyone beginning to cut funds and when developing bodies go deep in, it’s down to like 40 percent right now, it’s the women’s rights organisations that suffers and it’s now the movement across the world that has to do more with less.
She recommended, “We need to invest in feminist movements. We need core, flexible, and long-term policies; this is vital for sustainability.
“We also need to strengthen cross-border solidarity, and make sure that our meeting is where we can share strategies, legal precedents, and advocacy tactics regionally, and globally as well as push accountability from parliament to government and technology.”
Dr. Charmaine Pereira, a feminist scholar who also addressed the women’s groups highlighted alliance in pursuing the agenda, encouraging them to give attention to organisational infrastructure, such that membership and leadership, cohesion, and resources are properly harnessed.
Pereira pointed out that cohesion amongst the members must to be seen as sharing a clear agenda.
According to her, “In terms of membership and leadership, cohesion, capacity, the ability to be able to do the things. Some of them, as in this instance here, in any kind of mobilising, there are going to be areas of knowledge that are needed.”
Referencing her point, she cited the case of Black Lives Matter as a cause with a clear agenda.
She canvassed for politicizing violence against women by getting it into the National Agenda.
She further mentioned other ways of pursuing the agenda by putting pressure on governments to act through the legislature in the interest of women.
“So you need people with that expertise, and it helps if there’s experience as well, that’s capacity, and the cohesion will also refer to the ability for different groups to collaborate.
“The more collaboration there is, the more cohesive the coalition is. It’s also important that the coalition should be autonomous, when there’s a level of autonomy over key decisions.
“There is a need for alliance if you are engaging the States, as we were, but often even if it’s with some other bodies, it can help to be anonymous. But you need to think about the politics of that alliance, because it can affect decision-making and the ability to really pursue the agenda.
Speaking on the coalition management, “This has to do with things like coordination of activities. Here, the secretariat plays a key role. They have to be well placed in terms of their ability to pursue the agenda.
“They need to communicate clearly with the different members of the coalition, so that everybody is aware of what’s going on, so that nobody feels that some people know more than others.
Regarding funding, she advised groups on full disclosure of resources to pursue the coalition’s agenda.
“Transparency in the amount of funds, where they are coming from, how they are to be used, and so on, so that everybody is on board, as it can affect the management of any coalition.
“There’s another really important element, and that is, the coalition has to be mutually beneficial for the Secretariat as well as the member organisations or individuals.
She mentioned that the violence that is perpetrated against women and girls has to do with them being seen as not conforming to rigid gender norms.
“From an early age, girls, boys are expected to behave in a certain way, and if they’re not, there are sections of different kinds, and so on.
“If there’s actually progress in really eliminating violence against women and girls and gender nonconforming, it cannot really happen without a more fundamental transformation of the normativity around compulsory heterosexuality, and this has a bearing on the kinds of messaging that can and could be made when attempting to subvert or change the algorithms surrounding technology-facilitated gender-based violence, she said.
Also, addressing participants, Bunmi Dipo-Salami, Executive Director, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, extolled the existence of openness on how coalition are being organised, and wants them to display a sense of ownership, documentation, and mentorship of others.
According to her, “Defeating violence against women requires mentorship, intergenerational collaboration, and male engagement.
“Mentorship is key. We must build an army of responders because we are at war. There is a need for rural and urban outreaches to ensure no woman is left behind.”
Recognising the role of male allies in shifting cultural narratives and the importance of intersectional organising, she reasoned that “men listen to men and some men want to end violence against women, we must identify them and learn strategies from them. We must break silos, bring in new voices, and organise effectively so every woman, from rural to urban spaces, has ownership of this movement.”
In her presentation, Executive Director of TECHHerNG, Chioma Agwuegbo explained that online abuse affects women differently across cultural and personal contexts.
She stated, “Non-consensual intimate image abuse looks different for different people. For one woman, it could be a sex video leaked online, while for another, simply sharing her photo without consent. Our responses must be survivor-centred and intersectional.”
She called for policy reform, survivor-led safety initiatives, and movement solidarity: “We need to come together. We are always stronger together, demand accountability, equip survivors, and push for online safety laws. This is not just a woman’s issue, it is a societal crisis and we must all rise to confront it.”
Mrs. Aisha Yesufu, Co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, called for women to stop operating on the margins of politics and begin taking positions of real power.
“This is the time to say we need to occupy every one of those positions, not just in civil society but in the executive and legislative arms of government.
She expressed that many advocates and activists shy away from politics because it is seen as “dirty,” leaving space for entrenched interests to dominate.
In her words, “Politics and activism are the same; they’re both about the greater good. The only difference is the approach. Unfortunately, when activists get into politics, we become still and lose ourselves. We must begin to change this narrative by moving beyond token roles.”
She also faulted the practice of relegating women to symbolic posts.
“We cannot sit down like this when they are looking for people to clap for them, and then they call you ‘woman leader’. Stop that nonsense. Don’t call me a woman leader. I am a leader.”
Speaking about the feminist struggle, Yesufu criticised the culture of women who degrade themselves to gain approval and linked it to systemic conditioning from childhood and religion.
“We’ve been taught that women can’t lead, but leadership should be about servant-hood and impact, not gender.