Niger
Context
Niger is an impovrished landlocked country in the Western Sahel with an overwhelmingly rural population. The authority of the state is challenged in many parts of the country: in some remote, rural areas, the state has a very limited presence. This leaves customary governance actors as the only existing rule of law and provider of public goods.
Niger faces a security crisis along its borders with Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali. Violent armed groups continue to attack security forces and civilians, which has led to states of emergency being announced or extended in various regions of the country. The situation deteriorated in 2022, giving rise to new concerns such as the increase in cattle thefts and kidnappings in the communes of Gabi and Guidan sori. A special military operation ‘Faraoutar Bishiya’ was deployed in these areas. Despite these challenges, Niger has a lengthy history of dialogue as demonstrated by its effective management of Tuareg uprisings in the past. The nation has worked to institutionalize dialogue-base approaches with the view to addressing security issues in a more comprehensive manner. In 2022 the government intra- and intercommunal conversations for peace, reconciliation, and social cohesion in various regions to prevent recruiting by terrorist organizations.
Regions
The Just Future Alliance and its local partners are active in 4 regions, primarily located in the West of Niger: Maradi, Tillabéri, Tahoua and the capital city region, Niamey.
Activities in 2022
Focused on enhancing the ability of CSOs and CBOs to monitor local security situations and trends, and protect civilians by launching an Observatory for Security Sector Governance, carrying out a study on military operations and the protection of civilians, strengthening the dialogue between civil society and state actors and including more women and youth in discussions on security.
JF partner, Timidria has continued L&A work on the revision of the law 2003-25 criminalizing slavery, focusing on the challenges of the implementation of the law. This has resulted in the integration of all the recommendations in the draft of the new law. Timidria also prepared a position paper on the effectiveness of the district courts submitted to the Ministry of Justice.
JF partners
successfully engaged with national, regional, and local authorities, including
traditional leaders, to work on inclusive policies. The JF partners also
organized parliamentary workshops and multi-stakeholder dialogues on peace and
security issues, which resulted in recommendations for more inclusive actions.
OUTCOMES
- State security institutions collaborate with communities in conflict zones, consult with the most excluded constituencies, and develop a mechanism of accountability better service
- Primary stakeholders’ capacities are strengthened, and they take ownership of local and regional security governance mechanisms
- Needs and aspirations of communities are addressed by security governance actors, which adopt measures to include most excluded constituencies in the decision-making bodies of the security apparatus
Interventions
- Create communication channels between key security actors and communities
- Strengthen capacities of communities and CSOs on lobbying & advocacy, monitoring, evaluation
- National and regional lobby & advocacy
- Technical support
- Training of security actors on human rights standards
- Supporting media for greater transparency and accountabilit
- Access to justice services for the most excluded constituencies improved
- Collaboration and coordination between statutory and customary justice actors strengthened
- Primary stakeholders equipped to advocate for the inclusion of most excluded constituencies
Interventions
- Promote and strengthen exchange between various justice actors
- Support local CSOs, community leaders and local authorities to promote application of formal justice for conflict resolution
- Technical support to judicial institutions on reforms and policies to improve accountability
- Training justice actors (customary, statutory and religious) to comply with human rights standards
- Support creation of community accountability systems
- Strengthen capacities of communities and CSOs on lobbying & advocacy, monitoring, evaluation
- Supporting media for greater transparency and accountability
- Create relationships with international organizations for international advocacy
- Facilitate access of rural communities to courts and legal services (transport, mobile courts)
- Primary stakeholders equipped to advocate for the inclusion of most excluded constituencies
- Local, regional and national actors implement ratified national, regional and international commitments on inclusion
- Most excluded constituencies, local and national authorities access consultative spaces to facilitate and monitor inclusion
- Primary stakeholders are sensitized about rights of most excluded constituencies, processes of inclusion and involved in advocacy and influencing actions
- Sharing lessons learned for sustainability of achievements
Interventions
- Strengthen capacity of youth and women’s associations
- Establish networks of young mediators to participate in political decision-making
- Support mentoring initiatives to bring young people and adults together
- Use media to engage in dialogue with young people