My name is Umar Ahmad Umar. I work with the Development Research and Project Center (dRPC) in Nigeria, an intermediary non-profit established to strengthen the capacity within civil society organisations and government agencies to work together for inclusive development. The dRPC was founded in 1994 in Kano State, northern Nigeria. Our work focuses on public health; girls' education; gender-based violence; and faith and development. Policy and participatory research are central to all dRPC's projects.
Most recently, the dRPC has conducted research on: child marriage in West Africa (Ford Foundation 2013); the capacity of civil society organisations in Nigeria; radicalisation, counter radicalisation and deradicalisation in the northeast Nigeria; and the implementation of Sharia in northern Nigeria.
The dRPC is one of the 10 organisations and institutions partnering with the Conjugal Slavery in War (CSiW) project. In this project, we document cases of forced marriage in conflict situations in northeast Nigeria. The dRPC is also tracking initiatives that seek redress for victims of Boko Haram (BH) through either international prosecution or local reparations programmes. In its work for the CSiW project, dRPC has interviewed numerous survivors of forced marriage and rape at the hands of BH insurgents. Our qualitative research approach has allowed us to document the experiences of respondents during captivity in great depth.
