SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria has called for urgent reforms to strengthen protection systems for women and girls affected by conflict, displacement, and climate-related disasters across Nigeria.
The National Director of the organisation, Eghosa Erhumwunse, made the call in a message on Monday in Abuja, to mark the International Women’s Day 2026 celebration.
According to Erhumwunse, this year’s celebration with the theme “Rights. Justice. Action for All Women and Girls” demands urgent, concrete, and sustained action to protect women and girls in emergency situations.
He explained that women and girls continued to bear a disproportionate burden of insecurity in the country’s crisis-affected regions, where violence, displacement, and weakened institutions had deepened existing gender inequalities.
“Today, Nigeria hosts more than 3.4 million internally displaced persons, a figure driven by insurgency in the North-East and rampant banditry in the North-West, with women and children constituting nearly 80 per cent of this vulnerable population,” he said.
Erhumwunse said that in those volatile settings, women faced systemic exposure to Gender-Based Violence (GBV), including abduction, trafficking, and forced marriage, often used as tactics of war.
He added that humanitarian assessments indicated that at least one in three women in those areas experienced physical or sexual violence, often worsened by the lack of gender-segregated sanitation facilities and unsafe access to water points.
The National Director also highlighted that the collapse of local justice systems and the loss of legal documentation among displaced persons had created significant protection gaps, leaving many women without access to justice or legal remedies.
In line with the 2026 International Women’s Day theme, SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria called for stronger institutional responses to gender inequality and violence.
Erhumwunse stressed that progress toward gender equality must go beyond symbolic commitments to concrete enforcement and accountability.
He noted that emergencies such as armed conflict, floods, and climate shocks often worsened existing inequalities by disrupting livelihoods, weakening social protection systems, and increasing exposure to violence.
Flooding and climate-related disasters, he added, frequently destroyed homes, farmland, and small businesses—sectors where women played a dominant role in sustaining household incomes.
In spite of these challenges, he acknowledged that women remained at the forefront of community survival and recovery during crises.
However, Erhumwunse cautioned against romanticising women’s resilience, warning that admiration for their strength should not replace the need for adequate protection systems.
He called for urgent reforms to address systemic barriers affecting women and girls, including the removal of discriminatory legal and customary practices that restricted women’s inheritance rights, land ownership, and economic participation.
The organisation also advocated stronger enforcement of existing protection laws, particularly in conflict-affected states where impunity for gender-based violence remained widespread.
Other recommendations included establishing survivor-centred justice systems, improving access to legal aid, and integrating protection services into humanitarian responses such as water, sanitation, health care, and psychosocial support.
Erhumwunse further emphasised the need for greater representation of women in decision-making processes, including camp management committees and national recovery frameworks.
According to him, justice for women in emergencies must be visible not only in courtrooms but also in policies, budgets, and community-level services.
He urged government authorities, humanitarian partners, civil society organisations, and community leaders to accelerate reforms that guaranteed women’s rights and strengthened protection mechanisms in fragile settings.
As Nigeria marks International Women’s Day 2026, Erhumwunse described the moment as a “national checkpoint” for assessing the country’s progress toward gender equality and protection for women living in conflict- and disaster-affected communities.
He emphasised that action must be intentional and measurable, stressing the need for sustained investment in women-led organisations operating in humanitarian and fragile environments.
