Women suffer disproportionately from conflicts and wars around the world. They frequently witness unspeakably awful atrocities, including murders, sexual assaults, kidnapping and sexual slavery, forced marriage, and mutilations (including forced pregnancies and HIV/AIDS).

In Nigeria, women have experienced untold mental, emotional, and physical suffering as a result of the Boko Haram uprising in particular, as well as ethnic-religious disputes, and violent clashes among nomadic pastoralists and some agrarian communities.

It is crucial that peacebuilding efforts recognise the hardship experienced by women during times of conflict when creating long-lasting solutions. But it is also crucial that women are not seen only as victims. In fact, Nigerian women are actively seeking to take up leadership roles and tackle the effects and causes of protracted, violent conflict in their communities.

However, women’s participation in peacebuilding in Nigeria has unfortunately been neglected and imbalanced. This is because women have very little or no representation in government or access to formal mechanisMS