OSPRE Women's Peace Network Reaches 800 Focal Points Across Nigeria

The OSPRE Women's Peace Network — Nigeria's largest female-led conflict prevention and early warning network — has reached 800 verified community focal points across all six geopolitical zones, with particular growth recorded in the North-Central and South-South regions over the past quarter.

The Women's Peace Network was established in 2022 on the premise that women in Nigerian communities possess unique early warning intelligence — they are often the first to notice changes in community dynamics, displacement patterns, and rumour cycles that precede violence. By systematically integrating their observations into OSPRE's national platform, the network has become one of the most valuable data streams in the entire system.

Data from the Women's Peace Network now accounts for approximately 31% of all early warning signals received by OSPRE, and network focal points have been credited with initiating pre-emptive interventions that successfully de-escalated 47 potential conflict situations in 2025 alone.

The expansion was supported by a grant from the UN Women Peace and Humanitarian Fund and implemented in partnership with 23 women-led civil society organisations operating across Nigeria's middle belt and southern states.

New focal points receive three weeks of training covering conflict analysis, structured reporting, digital security, and community mediation techniques. They are then integrated into OSPRE's secure mobile reporting system and connected with a regional coordinator who provides ongoing support and supervision.

OSPRE's target is to expand the Women's Peace Network to 1,200 focal points by the end of 2026, with particular focus on completing coverage in underserved border LGAs in Borno, Adamawa, and Cross River states.