NRC in Nigeria

NRC’s operation

NRC in Nigeria stands in solidarity with displacement-affected Nigerian communities to meet their basic needs, improve their livelihoods, enhance their self-reliance and access longer term solutions. In 2023, NRC reached over 401,126 people with assistance through different core competencies, including thematic areas like Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). Additionally, NRC in Nigeria works on building self-reliance and enabling pathways to durable solutions as per the 2022–25 country strategy.

Information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA)

A single document holds the key to shaping or shattering a life's course. Our ICLA team aims to empower IDPs, returnees, and vulnerable host community members to claim and exercise their rights by: 1) improving access to legal identity and civil documentation; 2) addressing barriers to the enjoyment of adequate housing and land rights; 3) strengthening community-based dispute resolution; and 4) removing legal obstacles to employment, business and entrepreneurship opportunities. We:

• provide information, and legal awareness on processes, procedures and requirements to obtain essential civil, identity, and HLP documents
• provide counselling and legal/administrative support to facilitate the issuance of essential identity and land documents, in collaboration with the local authorities
• provide training, technical and material support to government agencies and community leaders on HLP rights and collaborative dispute resolution (CDR) strategies
• advocate on removing legal and administrative barriers to the enjoyment of rights related to legal identity, HLP, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities

Education

NRC works to improve access to quality education for internally displaced children, returnees and host communities. Education services are focused on the overall learning environment and include provision of specialised services to children through NRC’s Better Learning Programme (BLP) and current active partnerships in the country. Additionally, NRC works with adolescent boys and girls to acquire the skills needed to improve their living conditions. We:

• provide support in formal and non-formal education settings for out-of-school children, including catch-up classes for ages 6–14 and youth education for ages 15–24
• distribute education kits and hygiene kits for teachers and students
• provide capacity building for teachers and school-based management committees on classroom management, pedagogy, gender and disability mainstreaming, the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and prevention of attacks on schools and on children in schools
• construct temporary learning centres in camps and existing government schools, and rehabilitate damaged classrooms
• provide access to water, sanitation and gender-segregated facilities in schools and latrine cleaning kits for best hygiene practices
• provide vocational skills training and start-up kits for adolescent boys and girls

Livelihoods and food security

NRC focuses on improving access to food through cash and voucher assistance (CVA). Additionally, NRC supports the creation of livelihoods, economic empowerment and community resilience (including climate adaptation), in close collaboration with the government and other partners implementing recovery and livelihoods activities. Our teams:

• support farmers by providing agricultural kits consisting of seeds, tools and organic fertilisers. This is complemented with training on appropriate agronomic practices and climate smart agriculture (CSA) to improve agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner.
• support farmers with access to water for agriculture production during the dry season through construction and rehabilitation of new and existing wells or boreholes and rainwater harvesting infrastructure
• support livestock farmers with small livestock, livestock health services and training in sustainable livestock production techniques
• support women and young people to generate income through the provision of small business start-up kits (cash/in-kind or a combination) and training in basic small business management
• support financial inclusion by promoting access to informal credit lines through the village savings and lending associations (VSAL) approach
• support awareness-raising and adaptation to the effects of climate change through establishment and training in early warning systems (EWS), disaster risk reduction (DRR) structures and community-based natural resources management

Shelter and settlements

NRC provides access to different housing and shelter solutions including linking to other complementary core competencies. We:

• provide in-kind assistance for essential non-food items
• distribute flood mitigation kits to committees of IDP and host communities
• distribute emergency shelter kits
• provide cash assistance for rental subsidies
• construct transitional shelters for displaced people in IDP hosting sites
• upgrade permanent and semi-permanent shelters for displaced people residing in existing/uncompleted homes
• construct mud shelters for IDPs in host communities
• rehabilitate permanent structures and provide training in carpentry and other skills required for future maintenance

Water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH)

NRC improves access to safe clean water and sanitation facilities, improves approaches to solid waste management, co-leads on key coordination platforms (including WASH cluster and technical working groups) and supports governance structures. We:

• prevent the spread of diseases, including cholera and other waterborne and sanitation-related diseases, by conducting awareness-raising sessions, both in camps and out-of-camp settings
• support the adoption of positive hygiene practices by installing handwashing stations and distributing hygiene kits
• construct, rehabilitate and maintain boreholes and sanitation structures for families living in camps and out-of-camp settings, ensuring that the water distributed is sufficiently treated (chlorinated)
• construct and rehabilitate, along with dislodging, filled-up latrines for families living in camps and out-of-camp settings to ensure good hygiene and access to latrines
• establish and train water management committees
• support solid waste management through different state agencies and established community structures

Protection from violence

NRC’s response focuses on site management, general protection services, capacity building and coordination. We are involved in:

• site management and coordination of 46 informal settlements
• establishment of site management committees and building their capacity
• setting up maintenance and safety committees responding to emergencies such as flooding, heavy winds and fire outbreaks
• providing services to ensure the protection and safety of affected people, including protection monitoring, case management, individual protection assistance and referrals

Coordination and advocacy

We coordinate with other humanitarian actors, government authorities and local agencies to ensure a coherent and effective response. In collaboration with other actors, and using evidence from our programming, NRC seeks to amplify the voices of those affected by crisis and hold duty bearers to account. NRC advocates for changes in laws, policies and practices that improve access to communities in need, enable a principled response, and enable sustainable solutions to displacement. In Nigeria, NRC is a member of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG). NRC is the co-lead of the WASH sector,  and is co-lead of the housing, land and property (HLP) sub-working group.