Kano, Nigeria | 2019–2025
Over the past six years, our work in Kano State is anchored in one principle:
justice reform must move beyond rhetoric and deliver protection, accountability, and dignity for survivors.
Since 2019, we lead sustained, systems-focused advocacy to strengthen gender justice, child protection, and institutional accountability across Kano State and Northern Nigeria. Our approach combines legal reform, survivor-centred justice, community engagement, and coordination across security, health, and judicial institutions.
This work does not happen in isolation. It is built through long-term engagement, difficult conversations, and consistent pressure on systems that have historically failed women, girls, and children.
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Driving Legal Reform in a Complex Environment
One of the most significant outcomes of our sustained advocacy is the harmonisation of Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) provisions into the Kano State Penal Code Amendment Bill (2021).
Between 2019 and 2024, we engage traditional institutions, religious leaders, justice sector actors, and government ministries to demonstrate that survivor protection is compatible with Kano’s legal, cultural, and religious contexts.
This process requires persistence. Kano remains the only state yet to fully pass its domesticated VAPP Law, despite the existence of harmonised provisions. Our work focuses not only on passage, but on enforcement, coordination, and institutional responsibility.
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Securing Justice for Survivors
Alongside legal advocacy, we pursue accountability through the justice system.
Across Northern Nigeria, our interventions contribute to 86 convictions for sexual and gender-based violence and related human rights violations.
In Kano State alone, 32 convictions are secured, despite operating within a constrained legal framework and limited survivor-support infrastructure.
Each conviction represents:
• a survivor who is believed,
• an institution that acts,
• and a system that moves closer to deterrence and accountability.
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Strengthening Child Protection and Safe Pathways
Our justice work is inseparable from child protection.
Through our education and protection interventions, we reintegrate over 3,000 out-of-school children into formal learning environments, reducing exposure to exploitation, abuse, and neglect.
We consistently highlight the vulnerability of Almajiri children, children living in street-connected situations, and children affected by poverty, displacement, and weak social protection systems. Our advocacy frames child protection as a governance obligation, not a charitable gesture.
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Building Institutional Coordination
Over six years, we work across institutions that are often siloed:
• police and security agencies
• the judiciary
• health and social welfare services
• education authorities
• traditional and religious leadership structures
Our engagements focus on:
• reducing prosecution delays
• strengthening referral pathways
• improving survivor-centred case management
• addressing digital and technology-facilitated violence
• expanding access to Sexual Assault Referral Centre services
This coordination work lays the foundation for reforms that extend beyond individual cases and into institutional practice.
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Recognition and Responsibility
In 2021, this body of work earns international recognition when our Founder is named a Global End Violence Champion.
We treat this recognition not as an endpoint, but as responsibility — to scale impact, deepen reform, and hold systems to account until protection becomes predictable, not exceptional.
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Why This Track Record Matters Now
The Kano Gender Justice Summit is not a standalone event.
It is the culmination of six years of sustained reform efforts, built on evidence, survivor experience, and institutional engagement.
Our track record demonstrates that:
• reform is possible, even in constrained contexts
• legal change must be paired with enforcement
• survivor protection requires political courage and institutional accountability
• community pressure strengthens justice outcomes
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Our Commitment Going Forward
As we convene the Kano Gender Justice Summit, we carry forward the lessons of the past six years:
• justice must be survivor-centred
• laws must be implemented, not symbolic
• institutions must be accountable
• protection must be inclusive and accessible
We remain committed to advancing gender justice systems that work — not in theory, but in practice — for women, girls, and children across Kano State.