Final Performance Report: Nigeria Northeast Connection

The program aimed to support peace and reconciliation among key actors in the region, with a focus on addressing the root causes of conflict and promoting community-led initiatives. The program's operational environment was characterized by ongoing conflict between herders and farmers, as well as tensions between local communities and the Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR) in Adamawa state. Creative Associates International, Inc. (Creative) worked with local stakeholders to establish the Traditional Peace Arbitration Committee (TPAC) as a key mediator in managing conflicts between herders and farmers in Larmude. Creative successfully intervened to end the prevailing grievances and conflict between DSR and local communities in Adamawa state. As a result of this initiative, the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, paid a special visit to the region and committed $10 million to host communities to improve DSR's corporate social responsibility through various projects. Throughout the life of the program, Creative facilitated 1,117 events, training, and activities aimed to support peace and reconciliation among key actors in the BAY states. USAID financial assistance reached 55 CSOs, which assistance helped local stakeholders conduct strategic advocacy across program communities. Creative trained 21 nascent organizations and enabled them to implement capstone projects responding to the needs of their communities. The program also built and strengthened 242 groups using the USG funding dedicated to resolving conflict and its drivers in Northeast Nigeria. Some of these groups have received equipment to sustain results in their communities. USAID funding helped Creative provide technical assistance to 88 trauma healing programs targeting vulnerable social groups such as women, IDPs, and ex-insurgents. Creative also supported 88 trauma healing activities in BAY states, training 180 community members and social workers in Psychosocial First Aid (PFA) and therapeutic counseling to serve as community caregivers. In partnership with local governments, community caregivers set up 12 listening centers across the three states, aired radio programs, and distributed trauma skits on social media. To amplify women's contributions to peacebuilding initiatives and processes, Creative supported, trained, and provided engagement opportunities for 3,044 local women to participate in substantive roles in the peacebuilding processes across the BAY states. The program perceived this as a great milestone in giving women more space in a male-dominated society. The program also established the Peace Ambassadors Platform in the Wuro Barka community that engages youth in productive livelihood activities protecting young people against violent extremist groups. The Peace Ambassadors Platform initiative allows youth to take contracts from various farming activities, and youth are paid afterward, allowing them to have some income for their families. Twenty-eight percent of the woman beneficiaries have taken initiatives and are playing substantive roles in their communities' peacebuilding processes. Past women's engagement was limited to assisting as a silent voice rather than taking any speaking and leadership role.