By Isaac Aregbesola
The Conflict Research Network West Africa (CORN West Africa) on Wednesday unveiled a new digital platform, Nigeria Peacework (NPW), aimed at making peace efforts across the country visible, connected, and searchable.
The platform, developed under the Nigeria Peace Act and funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, aggregates structured data on peace actors, initiatives, and peace-related events across Nigeria.
Executive Director of CORN West Africa, Dr Timipere Allison, in his remarks, said the platform could help shift peace practices in Nigeria towards coordinated prevention.
He said that the platform was a response to the gap in documenting peace efforts in Nigeria, “where violent incidents and insecurity trends are routinely tracked, but peace initiatives often go undocumented.
“Nigeria has developed sophisticated systems for documenting violence. Building comparable systems for documenting peace are the next steps toward strengthening resilience”.
Allison, who was represented by Obinna Chukwuezie, an official in CORN West Africa, said ”people work every day to prevent violence and manage tensions, but much of that work remains undocumented, disconnected, and often too invisible.
“The NPW platform aims to strengthen relationships and fieldwork by helping stakeholders see who is doing what, where, and with whom, to coordinate better, reduce duplication, and build on what already works.”
Allison emphasised that the platform’s success depends on peace actors across Nigeria choosing to use, shape, and own it.
“We hope that, together, we can move from fragmented, episodic intervention towards coordinated prevention and cumulated learning, so that peace becomes as visible, measurable, and strategically supported as violence has long been.
“The NPW platform is an open-source digital platform designed to make peace efforts visible, connected, searchable, and learnable,” he said.
In his remarks, the Nigeria Peace Actors and Initiatives in Data (NPAID) Project Officer, George Biesmans, explained that the platform emerged in response to the dominant narrative focused on conflict and violence.
He said that the platform was to promote peace initiatives and shed light on often-overlooked peacebuilding efforts across the country.
“The Nigeria Peace Web emerged in a context where the discourse is heavily focused on conflict and violence.
”The platform aggregates data on peacebuilding events and actors nationwide, aiming to shift the narrative from conflict to peace.”
Biesmans stated that the NPW had two main objectives: to shift the discourse away from conflict and violence, and to fill the peace data gap by providing systematic knowledge on peacebuilding efforts.
“We want to put the spotlight on instances of peacebuilding actors and initiatives that are taking place every day.
“The platform uses a hybrid model, combining automated data collection and user contributions, allowing peace actors to share lessons learned and best practices,” Biesmans said.
Omolara Raji, Head of Programmes and Operation, CORN West Africa, said the organisation worked with relevant agencies to achieve its aim of promoting peace.
“We are working with Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), the Institute of Peace Research, we also work with stakeholders who are from universities, and also other civil society organisations.”
Jaye Gaskia, Chair of the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) Knowledge, Innovation, and Resource Hub, described the platform as a web-based resource where at a glance one can see and track efforts being undertaken across the country.
“It is to help monitor who are the peace actors and what kind of impact those initiatives are having, whether they are formal or informal, whether they are at government level or at community level.
“So it’s going to be like a unified source for information, for researchers, for the media, for citizens, anybody interested.
“It’s also going to be a resource that can also promote shared learning, so that when people are doing something somewhere you can actually also get, you can learn from what they are doing and use it”.
Others speakers at the event include representative of European Union, representatives of the Diplomatic Corp, representative of IPCR and other peace actors.
