The Nigerian Government has deployed its first standardised justice sector platform for tracking cases of violence against women aimed at closing long-standing gaps in Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) data and accountability.
The platform was unveiled during a five-day national validation and capacity-building workshop to review and validate the reporting tools, strengthening reporting standards and building the technical capacity of SGBV desk officers.
Developed by the Federal Ministry of Justice, it is being deployed and operationalised to report cases from the point of reporting to resolution,
The platform is European Union-funded support project to End Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (ESGBV) Programme in Nigeria, implemented by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
Mrs. Melissa Omene, GBV Policy and Strategy Development Specialist, ESGBV Programme, International IDEA, stated that the platform is expected to provide justice institutions across the country with a single system for tracking reported cases.
She added that it would also help in the prosecutions, convictions and pending matters, while generating reliable data for policy and accountability.
Omene noted that Nigeria has made significant progress in establishing laws, policies and institutions to address violence against women and girls, but the major challenge remained implementation, accountability and monitoring.
She said that an assessment of the implementation, enforcement and operationalisation of SGBV frameworks in the FCT, Benue, Kaduna and Oyo States, involving 112 respondents across 32 institutions, identified fragmented data systems.
According to her, the absence of a coordinated justice-sector reporting mechanism are significant weaknesses.
“Institutions continue to collect data using different tools, methodologies and reporting standards, which make it difficult to generate a comprehensive picture of what is happening in Nigeria.
“What happens to cases after they are reported?” she asked.
Omene said that the National GBV Dashboard recorded 4,449 cases of gender-based violence in the first half of 2023, while more than 19,000 reported cases had been documented since its launch in 2020.
She said that only a fraction of the cases resulted in convictions, while hundreds were closed without resolution and many remained pending or stalled within the justice system.
Omene said that the new reporting system would enable the ministries of justice at federal and state levels to generate standardised and comparable data, monitor implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act and relevant laws.
She added that this will also strengthen national accountability processes.
“Reporting violence is only the beginning of a survivor’s journey. What happens after reporting matters just as much as the reporting itself.
“Survivors need investigations, they need prosecutions, they need protection mechanisms, and justice outcomes that are visible, measurable and accountable,” she added.
GIK/APA