CORN West Africa Urges Better Documentation of Peacebuilding Efforts

CORN West Africa Urges Better Documentation of Peacebuilding Efforts

FELICIA ONAH, Abuja

The Conflict Research Network West Africa (CORN West Africa) has called for stronger documentation and visibility of peacebuilding activities across Nigeria as it unveiled a digital platform designed to track peace initiatives nationwide.

The call was made during a recent high-level User Engagement Dialogue and Peace Actors Networking Forum on the Nigeria Peace Web (NPW), held in Abuja.

The event brought together peacebuilding practitioners, policymakers, researchers and development partners to review and provide feedback on the Nigeria Peace Web, a digital platform designed to map peace actors, initiatives and peace-related events across the country.

Speaking at the forum, the Executive Director of CORN West Africa, Timipere Felix Allison, said that while Nigeria’s conflicts are widely documented, peace efforts often receive little attention in research and policy conversations.

“Violent incidents, armed actors and insecurity trends are routinely tracked through global monitoring systems,” Allison said. “However, the same cannot be said of the peace landscape.”

He added that numerous groups across the country are actively working to prevent violence but their efforts remain largely unrecorded.

“Across Nigeria, community mediators, faith leaders, traditional authorities, women’s networks, youth groups and civil society organisations work every day to prevent violence and manage tensions. Yet much of that work remains undocumented, disconnected and largely invisible,” he said.

According to him, the Nigeria Peace Web was created to bridge this gap by providing an open-source digital platform where structured data on peace actors, initiatives and events can be collected and accessed by policymakers, researchers and development partners.

The platform is being developed under the Nigeria Peace Actors and Initiatives in Data project with funding support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through the Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria programme implemented by Tetra Tech International Development.

Participants at the dialogue included representatives of civil society organisations, research institutions, government policymakers, state peacebuilding commissions and members of the diplomatic community.

Stakeholders welcomed the initiative, describing it as a potential tool for improving coordination, knowledge sharing and evidence-based peacebuilding in Nigeria.

Discussions at the forum also highlighted the need for clearer definitions of what constitutes peace activities.

Participants noted that peacebuilding efforts could include mediation, reconciliation initiatives, dialogue platforms, peace education programmes and community development projects aimed at reducing tensions.

Stakeholders further stressed the importance of strengthening data verification processes on the platform to ensure credibility and reliability. Suggestions included adopting transparent verification methods, multi-source validation and moderation systems to ensure quality control.

Another key issue raised was the need to capture grassroots peace initiatives often carried out informally within communities.

Participants emphasised the roles played by traditional leaders, religious institutions, youth groups and local mediators whose contributions frequently remain undocumented.

To address this gap, stakeholders proposed community-level reporting mechanisms and offline documentation tools that would allow information from local communities to be uploaded to the platform.

The forum also explored how the Nigeria Peace Web could serve as a national knowledge hub, enabling organisations to identify who is working in specific locations, reduce duplication of efforts and identify areas where interventions are most needed.

Speaking at the event, CORN West Africa’s Head of Programme, Omolara Raji, thanked participants for their contributions and encouraged stakeholders to actively use and shape the platform.

“If the Nigeria Peace Web is to succeed, it will be because peace actors across Nigeria choose to use it, shape it and own it,” she said.

“Our collective goal is to move from fragmented, episodic peace interventions toward coordinated prevention and cumulative learning, so that peace becomes as visible, measurable and strategically supported as conflict has long been.”

The Nigeria Peace Web is currently being piloted in Plateau, Kaduna and Katsina states, with plans to expand the initiative to all 36 states of the federation.

CORN West Africa said improving the documentation and visibility of peace initiatives remains critical to building more coordinated, sustainable and evidence-driven peacebuilding efforts across Nigeria.