Ongoing Projects

This three-year project, implemented by Lawyers Alert in Akwa Ibom and Benue States with funding from the Gender Equality Fund (GEF), is building an inclusive movement of women and girls in all their diversity, including those living with HIV and those affected by TB and malaria. 

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By strengthening the organisational, advocacy and coordination capacities of women-led organisations and human rights defenders, the project equips them to identify and address gender-related barriers to TB, HIV and malaria services. And to demand accountability and push for effective implementation of rights-based health policies and laws, driving gender-responsive, people-centred reforms across all three disease responses. 

 

Early results are visible. At the national level, the National TB Bill has passed its Second Reading and reached Public Hearing. At the sub-national level, the TB Bill in Benue state has passed its First Reading. These milestones show the growing influence of women-led advocacy and tangible progress towards a rights-based, accountable and gender-responsive TB response. 

The PCPS project is implemented by Lawyers Alert, with support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Now in its second phase, the project has, over the last four years, operationalised the Police Act 2020 in Benue State, moving it from law to practice through the establishment of Community Policing Committees (CPCs) in Agatu, Guma, Katsina-Ala and Otukpo LGAs.

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The CPC model strengthens community safety, security governance, accountability and local safety structures by creating spaces where communities, security actors, civil society and government can collectively identify and respond to local security needs and threats. It equips communities to take greater ownership of their safety and participate actively in security decision-making, while enabling security actors to better contextualise their responses to the unique safety needs of each community.

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The project has achieved commendable results. Foremost among these achievements is the adoption and ownership of the model by the Benue State Government, paving the way for its replication across multiple LGAs.

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At community level, the model is bringing communities and security actors together to address local security challenges, while giving women and youth a meaningful voice in shaping security decisions that affect their lives.  These gains are strengthening community safety and creating stronger links between peace and security, livelihoods, and economic empowerment in Benue State.

The project, implemented by Lawyers Alert with funds from Afya na Haki advances reproductive rights and justice in Nigeria by strengthening legal protection and access to justice for women and girls. The project targets survivors of rape and incest criminalised for accessing reproductive care, and healthcare providers criminalised for providing reproductive healthcare.

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The project builds on Lawyers Alert’s extensive experience in strategic litigation and legal support for vulnerable women and girls facing rights violations and restrictive laws and practices.

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The project currently supports seven reproductive rights cases across Nigeria, combining individual legal interventions with strategic litigation to secure remedies, strengthen reproductive rights protections, and contribute to broader legal and systemic change.

Lawyers Alert with funds from the Ford Foundation through Centre LSD is advancing gender equality and addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in Nigeria by strengthening male allyship, champions, and advocates in North-Eastern states in Nigeria.

 

The project addresses persistent harmful gender norms, patriarchal attitudes, and harmful masculinities that enable GBV and undermine progress on women’s rights. Recognising that sustainable GBV prevention requires the meaningful engagement of men and boys, the project strategically engages traditional heads, religious leaders, youth leaders, and heads of informal sector workers as active and accountable allies who challenge harmful norms and promote gender-equitable, non-violent relationships.

 

The vehicle for this work is the Male Feminist Network (MFN), a network of champions established in North-East Nigeria comprising traditional and religious leaders, community influencers, youth groups, and artisanal associations. The intervention is now consolidating these gains through stronger mentorship and leadership pathways, deeper collaborations, and evidence generation to embed male allyship as a sustained component of GBV prevention and gender justice programming.

The project addresses barriers and strengthens the meaningful participation of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in malaria governance and decision-making processes. It strengthens accountability, inclusivity, and responsive health governance in Benue State by fostering participation, equipping, and supporting AGYW leaders to engage government, institutions, and stakeholders in advocating for inclusion in malaria coordination and decision-making platforms.

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By combining AGYW network mapping, capacity building, evidence-based advocacy, and engagement with decision-makers, the project strengthens the confidence, leadership, and advocacy capacity of young women to engage meaningfully in malaria governance and influence decisions that affect them. It creates structured opportunities for AGYW to engage directly with malaria decision-makers, enabling them to apply these capacities in governance and decision-making processes.

The Lawyers Alert HealthNotHarm Campaign is a strategic communication and advocacy initiative aimed at advancing reproductive justice and promoting safe termination of pregnancy as essential components of healthcare. The campaign responds to the legal, public health and human rights implications of restrictive STOP laws, stigma, and the criminalisation of women and healthcare providers, while promoting Nigeria’s commitments under the Maputo Protocol.

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The campaign uses strategic communication, evidence-based storytelling, media engagement and public advocacy, linked to ongoing strategic litigation, to strengthen understanding of reproductive rights and challenge stigma and misinformation. It seeks to amplify perspectives from the legal, healthcare and civil society sectors, promote access to accurate information, and support jurisprudential and broader policy change that protects reproductive rights and healthcare providers.

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Through this approach, the HealthNotHarm Campaign connects litigation, communication and movement-building to shift public discourse on STOP and contribute to a more informed, rights-based and non-stigmatising reproductive environment in Nigeria. The campaign aligns with the Pamoja Project's focus on legal empowerment, evidence-based storytelling and grassroots mobilisation for reproductive justice.

The SPRING project, funded by Tetra Tech-Coffey Nigeria Limited, and implemented by Lawyers Alert builds on the structures, and lessons from the PCPS intervention to establish Divisional Community Policing Committees in three target LGAs in Benue State. Replicating the PCPS model, the project will strengthen linkages between existing LGA-level CPCs, security institutions, and government agencies to foster safer and more responsive communities.

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The new committees will be equipped with skills in Early Warning and Early Response (EWER), dialogue and mediation, rights-based policing, documentation and referral of human rights violations, peaceful civic engagement, and coordinated responses to emerging security threats, including election-related risks.

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By extending an established community policing model to the last mile, the project will create stronger channels for community participation, security-sector accountability, and locally led conflict prevention. It will contribute to SPRING’s priorities on community conflict prevention, accountable security institutions, and locally led peacebuilding, while leveraging Lawyers Alert’s institutional experience, government relationships, and existing community policing structures in Benue State.