The dRPC has 32 years of working in the space of Democracy, Social Justice and  Good Governance with funding from the Dutch Government; the Global Survivors Fund, Geneva; Metropolitan Group, US; the Ford Foundation and other development partners. The dRPC approaches work in this core programming, Democracy, Good Governance and Security in Nigeria by working on 5 tracks: –

1. Expanding women’s political leadership, participation and representation in national and state assemblies
2. Capacity strengthening of local civil society organisation
3. Research on Democratic Values
4. Increasing survivors’ access to restorative justice for crimes of sexual and gender-based violence
5. Increasing access to justice for women and girls

 Our Impact and success stories in the DGG space:

Expanding policy-making spaces for CSO inclusion, accountability, and transparency is a key object of the dRPC’s work in the DGG space. Our guiding objective in the DGG space is to empower local stakeholders, rights holders and interlocutors with the capacity for research, advocacy and project management skills to engage government, at all levels, to transform barriers to inclusion and to demand accountability, transparency and quality service delivery. Since 1993, dRPC has trained more than 13,000 thousand Nigerian CSOs to engage government with information and data on policy issues and demands. The dRPC worked with and strengthened the capacity of community-based organizations; youth organizations; faith-based organizations; women’s groups; and range of other groups. Groups supported by the dRPC are active participants in National Technical Working Groups (TWG) for Women in Climate Change in the agricultural sector; and also active in the Family Planning, Nutrition and Nutrition TWGs. Groups trained, funded and mentored by the dRPC have convened thousands of media engagements and advocacy visits to call for policy change; they have made technical inputs in to health, climate change, education, and security policies and expanding the Nigerian policy making space.  

Increasing survivors’ access to restorative justice for crimes of sexual and gender-based violence

Since 2015 the dRPC has designed and implemented high impact context specific interventions to raise awareness and catalyze government actions to protect survivors of conflict related sexual and gender-based violence. The dRPC’s rolled out the Conjugal Slavery in War (CSiW) project with funding from the SSHRC, Canada, Partnership Grant (2015–2020). The project aimed to document cases of forced marriage in conflict zones, provide historical context, and influence justice and reparation efforts. The project collaborated with community-based organizations across Africa to strengthen capacity and deepen understanding of conjugal slavery as a tool of war. The project focused on conflict situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Uganda, and Mali. In Nigeria, the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) served as the project partner in Nigeria.

Key activities of the project include capacity building for local organizations; evidence-based research and knowledge production;  conferences and workshops.

Survivors’ Hearing for reparations for conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo:

The dRPC partnered with the Global Survivors Fund and other grassroots organisations from 12 African countries to organise the Survivors’ Hearing for Reparations for conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, from 22-24 November 2021. The event provided a platform for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to share their testimonies, views, perceptions, and reflections on reparations, participation, and the co-creation of reparations. The event culminated in the production of the Kinshasa Declaration on the Rights to Reparation and Co-creation for Survivors and Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, 2022. 
https://www.globalsurvivorsfund.org/fileadmin/uploads/gsf/Documents/Resources/Kinshasa_Declaration/GSF_Kinshasa_Declaration_EN_Nov2022_WEB__1_.pdf.

Currently (2022-2025), the dRPC is implementing the Nigeria Global Reparations Study (GRS) with the support of the Global Survivors Fund. The study, the first of its kind, seeks to identify the reparations needs of survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) in Nigeria and to identify opportunities for delivering reparations through judicial and administrative processes. The key objectives of the project are:

1. To increase understanding and awareness of the right to reparation among CRSV survivors, including self-awareness by survivors themselves.
2. To generate deeper insights into survivors’ needs, perceptions, and expectations regarding individual and collective reparations and interim reparative measures through a participatory, survivor-centred approach.
3. To build momentum and provide a strong foundation for the development and implementation of survivor-centric reparations in Nigeria.

The study fills critical programming and knowledge gaps by generating findings to shape future reparations programs by amplifying survivors’ voices, engaging key stakeholders, and advocating for justice and redress for CRSV survivors in Nigeria. The study documents survivors’ perspectives on reparations and makes practical, context-specific recommendations targeted at national and subnational policymakers.

Increasing Access to Justice for Women and Girls

The dRPC holds that access to justice for women and girls reduces inequality, contributes to the inclusivity of the social and political order, strengthens the rule of law, and contributes to peace and development. With funding from the Ford Foundation, the dRPC is currently (2024-2025)  working to strengthen the capacity of Sharia Court Judges in Northern Nigeria to use correct and accurate jurisprudential Islamic precepts and injunctions in making judicial determination on legal matters where women and girls are often at a disadvantage. This project has a key objective of equipping and strengthening Muslim Opinion Leaders (MOLs) to educate, inform, sensitise and guide Sharia Court Judges to interpret faith-based jurisprudential bases with updated and accurate information for just and fair judgements which protect women and girls against crimes of sexual and gender-based violence. The dRPC conducted a milestone training of 40 Sharia Court Judges from Kano and Kaduna states in August 2024 where the dRPC engaged MOLs as trainers to correct misperceptions and increase knowledge on Islamic jurisprudence.

Improving access to justice, including restorative justice for women and girl survivors of SGBV

Since 2022, the dRPC has been working to map out and generate evidence on barriers to criminal and restorative justice for crimes of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria’s zones of complex humanitarian emergencies. With funding from Global Survivors Fund (GSF), the dRPC conducted the most comprehensive longitudinal and multi-stakeholder consultative study on access to justice for survivors in Nigeria’s Northeastern states. The Study’s findings have been validated and the full study will be launched in Abuja in June 2025 to a collective of more than 70 stakeholders, including survivors and a coalition of 18 donor agencies working on criminal and restorative justice for survivors.