SAHEI Gender Development Initiative (SGDI)

About the Organization Contact and Service Areas Successes and Impact Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security Survivor Leadership Understanding Economic Harm in Context

About the Organization

Country

Nigeria

Number of survivors served in a year

101 to 500

Languages

English

Groups most commonly served

Disabled persons Refugees, migrants, or internally displaced persons Rural communities Women Youth, children, or adolescents

Type of organization

Nonprofit or non-governmental organization (NGO)

Program model(s)

Community-based financial initiatives Holistic crisis response Survivor-centered income generation Systemic change through strategic partnerships Transforming social norms through community-building

Contact and Service Areas

Email

saheigdi@gmail.com

Address

No 53, Maidala Plaza, Milkshop, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Service Area(s)

Northeastern Nigeria (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, and Gombe States)

Successes and Impact

“One of the most important things we have advocated for, and an achievement of our organization in terms of IPV, is breaking the silence. People are encouraged to come forward, report, and seek access to justice. Additionally, confidential pathways have been created for survivors to report without any hindrance to their confidence. This is one of the major achievements of our organization.”¹

Working in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), SAHEI Gender Development Initiative (SGDI) combines survivor-driven income-generation initiatives and personalized support with bold, far-reaching efforts to raise awareness about gender-based violence (GBV) and foster communities grounded in solidarity and trust. These programs are part of a broader strategy aimed at enabling IDPs to rebuild their lives and thrive—both during displacement and upon returning to their places of origin.

Breaking the silence around intimate partner violence and cultivating communities of trust

SGDI emphasizes that the survivors they work with face many barriers when it comes to speaking out about the violence they experience. However, the organization also highlights that disclosing such violence is essential for survivors to access the support they need. “People find it difficult to come forward and speak out when violence occurs at home, but we have consistently advocated that they should,” SGDI states. “If they don’t, such cases cannot be addressed.”

Through community advocacy and the establishment of a Protection Action Group composed of trusted community members, the organization has created a safe and confidential channel for survivors to report cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) and receive care. As a result, SGDI has seen a notable increase in the number of survivors coming forward and seeking services.

Catalyzing collective action

SGDI has built a powerful network of GBV prevention ambassadors who operate within multiple IDP camps—each housing thousands of individuals—to train the community on identifying and responding to various forms of violence, including IPV.² These ambassadors engage men, women, and youth in critical dialogue and community action, fostering collective awareness and accountability. These efforts have helped to shift harmful social norms and build communities that actively confront violence. “It was a project that was 100% accepted by community members,” says the organization. “It’s really an impactful thing that we have done.”

Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security

“A beneficiary of our program and a survivor of GBV once said, ‘A source of livelihood is a source of life, thank you for giving me a reason to live.’”

About the Program

SGDI operates a GBV prevention, mitigation, and response program in several IDP camps across conflict-affected northeastern Nigeria. Most of the survivors the organization supports are girls and young women living in crisis settings with limited financial resources. To create pathways for income generation, SGDI offers a range of vocational training opportunities—including small-scale farming and compost-making, as well as skills development in garment construction, soap and cream manufacturing, and charcoal briquette production. In addition, the organization introduced a village loan and savings scheme (VLSA) called Adashe, which has been well received by survivors and other women and girls in the communities.

SGDI has also launched community-wide initiatives to address the widespread impact of GBV in the IDP camps, including IPV, domestic violence, and sexual assault. The organization has established a network of GBV prevention ambassadors to raise awareness and strengthen community responses to violence. These ambassadors work alongside a dedicated group of community members who handle reports of violence and guide survivors to critical resources.

Program Development and Key Strategies

SGDI’s approach to supporting survivors’ economic security is rooted in survivor self-determination and transformation through collective action. Some of their key strategies include:

Tailoring economic programming to the local context
Prioritizing survivor self-determination when providing support
Strategic engagement with governments, NGOs, and communities

Tailoring economic programming to the local context

SGDI offers a wide range of vocational training programs tailored to the specific needs and realities of the local context, offering skills instruction such as tailoring, baking, and the production of local goods. These trainings are designed to help survivors generate income while living in IDP camps and equip them with transferable skills that they can utilize when returning to their home communities.

Through their Waste to Wealth program, SGDI trains survivors to produce charcoal briquettes from discarded materials found in the environment, such as rice husks and coconut shells. These briquettes serve as an essential cooking resource in the camps and can be sold in the community as a more efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to firewood. SGDI explains, “We are trying to promote a climate-friendly environment for everyone. Wood fires generate a lot of carbon, whereas charcoal briquettes are less harmful to both users and the environment.” The organization also emphasizes that using charcoal reduces the need for individuals to collect firewood in remote areas, where they face risks of kidnapping, physical violence, and sexual assault.

Similarly, SGDI’s agricultural initiatives equip survivors with practical skills suited to the region’s predominantly agrarian landscape. The organization provides training in compost-making to enhance crop yields and supports small-scale farming by supplying tools, improved seedlings, and ongoing guidance. SGDI has found that although these programs are smaller in scale, they have significantly improved survivors’ lives by enabling them to earn a steady income and support themselves and their families. “These are the small skills you give survivors that are truly impactful and very effective,” the organization notes.

Prioritizing survivor self-determination when providing support

Incorporating survivor choice in delivering economic programming

SGDI emphasizes the importance of allowing survivors to choose which skills they want to develop, reinforcing their agency throughout the support process. The organization presents a range of available vocational training options, and survivors are given the opportunity to select the trade that best aligns with their interests and goals. “Because they choose what they want to learn—something that genuinely interests them—they become devoted and committed to whatever they are doing,” the organization explains. “We don’t say, ‘You must do this or that.’ In the end, they graduate in the skill they have chosen, return to their communities, and put it into practice—helping them achieve economic stability.”

Grounding support in survivor-led approaches

SGDI emphasizes the adoption of a survivor-led framework for addressing IPV, ensuring that responses are tailored to the unique needs of survivors from diverse backgrounds. “What we do as an organization is really try to understand the root causes of IPV and sit with the affected person to listen to their concerns,” SGDI explains. The organization supports survivors in assessing their situations and provides personalized assistance based on their specific needs. SGDI underscores the importance of “allowing survivors to take the driver’s seat,” while the organization plays a supportive role, “to listen, to counsel, and to give them space to express themselves fully before we step in to offer support, working alongside them every step of the way.”

Strategic engagement with governments, NGOs, and communities

Cross-sector collaborations for increased visibility and effective impact

SGDI notes that coordinating with government ministries is essential for implementing projects in their region and securing official support. “We sign MOUs with the government before initiating any program. You have to pay a courtesy call and then enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the very ministry you want to collaborate with and implement a project,” the organization explains. Partnering with government ministries also helps build trust and enhances the organization’s visibility. Listings on official government websites share the organization’s mission and contact information, boosting credibility and making it easier for others to learn about and connect with the organization.

Additionally, collaborations with local and international NGOs, as well as with United Nations agencies, have been crucial for navigating the region’s prolonged economic crisis. To sustain support for survivors, SGDI coordinates with organizations across various sectors via multiple working groups to share resources and expertise. These partnerships provide SGDI with vital information to identify priority areas and receive referrals for survivors in need of assistance.

Tackling IPV as a community-wide issue

SGDI addresses IPV as a community-wide concern that requires collective action. Through their network of GBV prevention ambassadors, the organization combines personal outreach with radio broadcasts in IDP camps to disseminate informative messages about IPV to both survivors and the wider community. Survivors can also access support through SGDI’s Protection Action Group, a body composed of trusted community members who provide confidential assistance and help connect individuals to relevant services and resources. This multifaceted approach has fostered increased awareness, understanding, and community engagement. Furthermore, these initiatives have expanded SGDI’s reach, offering survivors more avenues to seek support beyond the organization’s direct services, while also building trust and strengthening social cohesion within the camps.

Survivor Leadership

“Survivors’ needs and opinions are key. Nothing for them without them.”

The survivors who participate in SGDI’s programs guide all aspects of the organization’s work. “We consult our survivors at every stage of our project design, project implementation, and project monitoring stage,” the organization states. SGDI maintains that meaningful survivor involvement is crucial to ensure that services are useful for survivors and respond to the needs and lived realities of program participants.

Survivors not only have the freedom to choose the types of support they receive, but they also retain control over their level of visibility while participating in programming. The organization explains, “Some people might decide that they want to be very secretive. They don’t want anyone . . . to know about their [participation in the] program. . . . Some don’t want to be with other colleagues. They want to have their own training separately, and we respect their decision and give [the training] to them in that way. Others might decide to be with colleagues to share information, to bring new ideas on how to overcome challenges, to have time with others to speak so they can release their tension.” In this way, SGDI places trust in survivors as the experts of their own experiences, allowing them to lead the way as they navigate their healing journeys.

Understanding Economic Harm in Context

For over a decade, the armed conflict in northeastern Nigeria has impacted the daily lives of millions of individuals in the region and has dramatically increased rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Along with deeply entrenched gender norms, the survivors that SGDI serves face multiple overlapping obstacles in working toward economic security. The following key factors shape how these survivors experience economic harm:

Ongoing armed conflict creates complex challenges for both survivors and organizations
Harmful gender norms restrict women’s financial freedom

Ongoing armed conflict creates complex challenges for both survivors and organizations

Armed conflict destabilizes communities and increases the violence survivors are subjected to

The ongoing armed conflict with Boko Haram insurgents in northeastern Nigeria has taken a devastating toll on the region. Prior to the escalation in violence, the region already struggled with high rates of poverty, low levels of education, unemployment, and environmental degradation.³ Today, more than two million people have been forced to flee their homes, with almost all IDPs citing the conflict as the main reason for displacement.⁴ IDPs live in formal camps, informal camp-like settings, and host communities, and many reside in makeshift or temporary structures with limited access to adequate sanitation and hygiene facilities.⁵

Women and girls make up the majority of IDPs and are frequently subjected to SGBV both outside and within the camps.⁶ Insurgents have systematically targeted women and girls with sexual assault, trafficking, and forced marriage.⁷ The IDP camps often do not provide adequate safety, and SGDI, along with several other organizations, reports serious concerns about the high levels of sexual violence and exploitation in the camps.⁸ These public safety issues only deepen the challenges faced by survivors of IPV, who already face limited access to safety and essential support services.

Shrinking emergency funding depletes resources for GBV prevention and response

Over the course of the prolonged conflict, SGDI has witnessed the ebb and flow of emergency humanitarian funding. The organization notes that, as elements of the crisis subside, “funding also is shrinking because funders are going to other places now that are in an emergency.” SGDI points out that GBV must be recognized as an ongoing emergency that often continues in the aftermath of active armed conflict, and sustained funding is essential to support the long-term stability and well-being of survivors.

Harmful gender norms restrict women’s financial freedom

Gender norms perpetuate economic control

SGDI observes that strong gender norms in their region reinforce the idea that men should control household decisions, while women should remain dependent on their husbands. “Most of the tradition here tells people that if you have financial control over your partner, it means you can control your partner. You can give the do’s and don’ts in the relationship,” the organization comments. As a result, male partners often limit women’s involvement in financial matters and may prevent them from pursuing formal education or working.

Generational impacts of harmful norms

SGDI acknowledges that they work in a “geographical location where culture and traditions are very strong. It is not easy to change people’s perception.” The organization notes that these deeply rooted beliefs can be passed down through generations, especially when children are exposed to harmful household dynamics from a young age. For this reason, SGDI stresses the importance of engaging entire communities—including people of all genders and ages—in addressing issues of economic control and gender equality.

Notes

Direct quotes are slightly edited for style and flow.
International Organization for Migration (IOM), Displacement Overview in North-East Nigeria: Needs Monitoring in Borno, Adamawa & Yobe States, Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Abuja: IOM, March 2023, https://dtm.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl1461/files/reports/DTM%20Nigeria%20NE%20Report%20Round%2043%20%28February%202023%29%20updated_July7%202023.pdf.
Taylor Hanna, David K. Bohl, Mickey Rafa, and Jonathan D. Moyer, Assessing the Impact of Conflict on Development in North-East Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2020, https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/migration/ng/Assessing-the-Impact-of-Conflict-on-Development-in-NE-Nigeria—The-Report.pdf.
IOM, Displacement Overview in North-East Nigeria.
IOM, Displacement Overview in North-East Nigeria.
IOM, Displacement Overview in North-East Nigeria.; Center for Reproductive Rights, Accounting for Resiliency and Abuse in Nigeria, New York, NY: Center for Reproductive Rights, 2020, https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Accounting-for-resiliency-Nigeria.pdf.
Center for Reproductive Rights, Resiliency and Abuse.
Center for Reproductive Rights, Resiliency and Abuse.; Human Rights Watch, “Nigeria: Officials Abusing Displaced Women, Girls,” October 31, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/10/31/nigeria-officials-abusing-displaced-women-girls; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2019 Annual Report: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence North-East Nigeria, Maiduguri: UNHCR, March 2020, https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/76569.