ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARY:
SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 – AUGUST 31, 2019
Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts and Promoting Freedom of
Religions and Belief in Nigeria’s Middle Belt Contract Number: 6002993
Scope of Work Search for Common Ground (Search) began implementing the 24-month project entitled “Transforming
Farmer-Herder Conflicts and Promoting Freedom of Religions and Belief in Nigeria’s Middle Belt” on
September 1, 2018, with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project was
designed to address the escalation in the violence and the loss of human lives and property as a result of
farmers-herders conflicts in Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue states. In the start-up phase of the project, eight
flashpoint or high-risk Local Government Areas (LGAs) were identified to target in these three states,
namely Guma and Otukpo in Benue state, Doma and Keana in Nasarawa state, and Barkin Ladi, Riyom,
Jos North and Jos South in Plateau state.
The overall goal of the project is to contribute to preventing violence and the destruction of lives and
properties resulting from protracted violent conflicts between farmers and herders while combating
impunity and promoting the freedom of religions and belief in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. The
overall goal is supported by three specific objectives and three expected results, which guide the project’s
activities:
● Objective 1: To increase collaboration between farmer and herder communities to develop
joint, effective, sustainable local mechanisms for early warning response, dispute
management, and violence prevention and mitigation at the community level.
o Expected Result 1.1: Farmer and herder communities expand ownership over a sustained
and scaled peace and community security architecture and early warning system that
includes law enforcement, government, civil society actors, traditional and religious
leaders for prevention of violence and address the causes, drivers, and consequences of
farmer-herder conflicts.
o Expected Result 1.2: Farmer and herder communities improved engagement and
collaboration with policymakers state and federal level on effective response to prevent
violence, promote freedom of religion and belief, enhance the rule of law, and address the
causes, drivers, and consequences of violent farmer-herder conflicts.
● Objective 2: To mobilize religious leaders and policymakers to jointly counter violent rhetoric
through positive public messages of religious pluralism and respect of human rights.
o Expected Result 2.1: Civil society actors and community actors engage government actors
to address impunity and strengthen accountability measures for effective response in
preventing and mitigating violent farmer-herder conflicts.
Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019
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o Expected Result 2.2: Relevant federal government and focal State governments have
improved and comprehensive approach to prevent violence and impunity, enhance
accountability by responders to protect the rights of both farmers and herders.
● Objective 3: To enhance public understanding of the farmer-herder conflicts by promoting
conflict sensitive contents and countering hate speech, stereotypes, biases, and negative
narratives that fuel violence.
o Expected Result 3.1: Increased availability of objective, neutral, and conflict sensitive
analysis and information related to farmer-herder issues, including the herder community’s
perspective of the conflict, for the public.
o Expected Result 3.2: Improved capacity of the media to provide coverage on addressing
impunity, enhancing accountability and the rule of law in addressing the causes, drivers,
and consequences of farmer-herder conflict in the focal states.
Theory of Change Search believes that if key governmental institutions, security forces, civil society organizations, and critical
community actors come together as partners with shared skills and knowledge regarding the implications
of impunity, accountability, rule of law, and current responses to farmer-herder conflicts, then they will
build a strong collaboration that can effectively identify and implement initiatives to address the causes,
drivers, and consequences of farmer-herder conflicts, combat impunity, and strengthen the rule of law and
accountability measures for the prevention of violence and protection of human lives, and the rights and
dignity of people.
Achieved Outcomes The project activities across the different objectives
aimed to bring different key actors together to build
their skills and knowledge and create a conducive
environment for collaboration. Search founded or build
on existing platforms to establish eight Community
Security Architecture Dialogues (CSAD) in each of
the target LGAs1 and three Peace Architecture
Dialogues (PAD) in the target states. These multi-
stakeholder dialogue platforms at the LGA and state
level hold monthly discussions on peace and security
issues in the communities. Their members include
government, security, traditional, and community
stakeholders from both farmer and herder communities.
The CSAD and PAD not only provide a space for collaboration between farmer and herder
communities on conflict issues, but they have also increased relationships and information sharing
directly from communities with state and LGA government authorities and security agencies. While
the CSAD take action at the local level, they also pass issues beyond their scope of influence to the PAD
for action at the state level. The PAD have been at the forefront of advocacy efforts for legislative action to
support peace and security in their states. For instance, in Benue state the PAD called for the establishment
of a state peace agency or commission2 and Nasarawa state the PAD has recommended legislation to
address the issue of kidnapping.3 The PADs were tasked with following up on these recommendations and
1 Although originally the project only aimed to cover two CSAD in each of the three states, the events in Jos North and Jos South
at the start of the project (outlined further in the annual report) demonstrated a need for the intervention to expand to these
additional two LGAs. Therefore, Search decided to support bi-monthly meetings for the four LGAs targeted in Plateau state,
while encouraging the platforms to continue to meet monthly on their own. 2 https://247ureports.com/2019/08/conflicts-stakeholders-to-call-for-a-peace-commission-in-benue/ 3 http://nigerianpilot.com/kidnapping-pad-pushes-for-legislation-to-curtail-menace/
Figure 1: Woman speaking during CSAD meeting in
Keana LGA, June 2019.
Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019
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doing advocacy work to increase support from legislators. Search will be supporting their efforts in the
second year of the project.
Story of Impact: During the July 2019 CSAD meeting in Otukpo LGA, the Fulani Ardo (traditional
leader) reported an issue of extortion by livestock guards in the LGA. He reported that any herder who
gives the guards money will be allowed to graze in the field. The CSAD members took it upon themselves
and engaged with the Livestock Guard Commander of Otukpo LGA, Divisional Police Officer (DPO),
and Local Government staff to investigate the issue. During their next meeting in August 2019, it was
reported to the CSAD that they discovered that one of the identified guards was guilty and he was
suspended as a result. Further investigation is ongoing for continued oversight of the activities of the
livestock guards by the CSAD members and the investigation committee they established.
To build their skills and knowledge, CSAD and PAD members were
also trained through six Conflict Transformation, Human
Rights, and Dialogue Trainings. Overall pre- and post-tests
showed an average increase of 23 percent in knowledge of
participants on the material covered in the trainings. The
participants further demonstrated their understanding of training
content by organizing step-down trainings in their communities. For
example, in Keana LGA a female herder after the training
stepped down lessons learnt to other women in her community.
She organized a dialogue meeting with more than 13 female
herders and youths. During the meeting, she said, “We women and
mothers are more important in strengthening our youths to peace
efforts in the community because they always adhere to our words.
So we should use our voices to propagate the gospel of peace within
our families and the community at large." She added that other
components of the training such as honoring dignity, group identity,
and perspective and perception was also shared with the women. At the end of the dialogue meeting she
said that after some weeks the women she trained are also are stepping down the process with other women
in their community in Keana LGA.
To facilitate an immediate response to conflict issues at the community level, Search also organized a series
of intra- and inter-dialogues with flashpoint communities in the target LGAs. The process includes
initial intra-group dialogues to establish a safe space and identify underlying issues driving the conflict in
each community, followed by intergroup dialogues to collaborate and identify solutions and action plans.
These dialogues were facilitated by Search staff, following non-adversarial participatory approaches to
facilitation that emphasizes collaboration. As a result of these dialogues, participants were able to
identify common conflict issues, develop joint action plans, and change their perceptions of the other
group. The dialogues were usually between the farmer-herder communities in Benue and Nasarawa while
the dialogues in Plateau covered Jos North and South of Plateau state solely between Christian and Muslims
because of the nature of conflict.4 These dialogue processes has been proven to be an effective means of
bringing communities in conflict together to discuss sensitive issues. The dialogues have broken the ice and
provided continuous engagement between conflict parties and have been successful at de-escalating
tensions in the target areas, particularly following the outbreak of violence in Jos North and Jos South in
September 2018. Action plans developed during the dialogues included joint efforts at creating cattle
4From June to September 2018, violent conflict erupted in Rikkos, Rukuba road, Gada-biu, Kabong, Duste-Uku, Tina, Angwan
Rukuba, and Gangare communities of Jos North LGA in Plateau state as described in the context update above. Search decided to
proactively address these incidents in an attempt to mitigate the potential escalation of violence between these groups by
organizing dialogues in these communities.
Figure 2: Tiv and Jukun participants
during the Conflict Transformation,
Human Rights, and Dialogue Training in
Guma LGA doing an activity on identity,
May 2019.
Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019
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routes away from residential areas, designating water areas for drinking, and establishing joint-
community security groups.
Story of Impact: The inter-dialogue in Riyom LGA in April 2019 was the first time the two communities
of Mahanga, a majority herder settlement, and Jol, a majority farmer settlement, met together to discuss
peace after 18 years of hostilities.5 The meeting ended with a joint resolutions concerning grazing
practices as well commitment for continuous engagements with security and government stakeholders to
encourage and provide safe spaces for every citizen. These resolutions will be further followed up by the
CSAD in the LGA to ensure continued collaboration between the communities.
Both LGA officials and community members
reiterated that while there have been many
interventions at the national and state level concerning
the farmer-herder issues, there has not been any follow
through to the local level to see what they have to say
on these issues. The participants commended the
uniqueness of Search’s approach to peacebuilding,
as they said Search is the only organization
implementing directly in the communities with the
main residents of the flashpoint communities
participating. This approach has resonated with
participants and they have taken up the dialogue model
and have applied it in their own area of work. For
instance, in Doma LGA of Nasarawa state, a peace
committee was setup by the traditional ruler comprising both farmers and herders with the aim of
resolving issues arising from the farmer-herder conflicts.
Despite the recent conflicts in Benue state, support for the process has been expressed by both
farmers and herders:
“This is the first time I am seeing this group
coming together as a result of Search’s initiative.
We are sure that with this, the issues are coming
to an end in the state, especially in Guma LGA.
We will continue to advocate for peaceful
coexistence in the state between the farmers and
herders.”
- Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of
Nigeria (MACBAN) Secretary, Guma LGA,
Benue State
"I wish the program had been in place for a
longtime before now. These issues would not
have become worse like they did, but I am
optimistic that with Search efforts already in the
LGA these issues have come to an end.”
- All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN)
Chairman, Guma LGA, Benue State
Recognizing the impact media has on farmer-herder relations and drivers of conflict between communities,
Search also engaged the media through a series of activities focused on building the capacity of media on
conflict sensitive reporting and journalism. Search began by organizing Conflict Sensitivity Trainings for
media professionals in each state from both traditional and new media outlets. Of these participants from
the training, 21 media fellows (10 male, 11 female) were selected to apply their learning from the training
5 https://www.sunnewsonline.com/insecurity-we-must-stop-killings-18-years-after-say-berom-fulani-women/ ;
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/plateau-murder-of-12-year-old-herder-native-sad-scg-says-security-adviser/ ;
http://skynewsafrica.net/index.php/2019/04/28/farmers-herders-in-nigerias-plateau-move-to-end-hostilities-after-18-years-of-
conflict/ ; http://skynewsafrica.net/index.php/2019/04/28/farmers-herders-in-nigerias-plateau-move-to-end-hostilities-after-18-
years-of-conflict/ ; https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/plateau-berom-fulani-in-riyom-resolve-to-end-hostilities.html
Figure 3: Participants developing action plans during
Keana LGA inter-dialogue with farmer and herders,
July 2019.
Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019
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by producing relevant content that helps demystify farmers-herders conflicts, breakdown stereotypes and
biases, promotes positive narratives around farmer-herder collaborations, denounce rumors, and de-escalate
tensions that can fuel violence within the fellowship period in the second year of the project. This activity
was followed up with Conflict Sensitivity Media Roundtables in each of the three target states aimed to
enhance public understanding of the farmer-herder conflicts by promoting conflict sensitive contents and
countering hate speech, stereotypes, biases, and negative narratives that fuel violence.
“We want to sincerely thank Search for their efforts in ensuring we have forums to talk and iron out
our differences.” - Traditional Leader, Nasarawa state
Increased Collaboration: Overall the project activities have established relationships between participants,
who are beginning to build trust as they continue to interact. Their new connections were demonstrated
during the meetings, as it was observed that the participants would tend to call each other if they discovered
someone was absent during the meeting. The meetings have also built synergy between community
members, security agencies, and various government actors as decisions made during activities are
taken further by government actors and security agencies to ensure that solutions are found and action taken.
The phone numbers of the different security personnel were shared with participants to facilitate incident
and early warning reporting. These linkages and synergy have proved effective, as the participants of CSAD
organized advocacy visits to security agencies including the Joint Task Force on their own and made some
requests from the Commissioner of Police which were granted. According to Nigeria Security and Civil
Defence Corps (NSCDC) Desk officers in Keana and Doma LGA of Nasarawa state, the number of cases
on their desk relating to the farmers and herders have seriously reduced as whenever a case is
reported the parties involved usually decided to withdraw and resolve the case at the community level
using dialogue and mediation with the help of the traditional rulers. In cases where cattle is rustled, the
network of CSAD members involving the Department of State Services (DSS), police, vigilante, and
Nasarawa State Agency for Youth Empowerment Scheme (NAYES) collaborate to track the criminals and
several arrests have been made in this regard. There are cases of CSAD members sharing knowledge of
how to detect cattle-rustling across different communities and successfully collaborating to stop such
incidents from occurring.
Changed Perceptions: Monitoring visits revealed that the
perception of community members is changing as they now see
the issues from both sides of the conflict. They stated that they
now understand that the conflict does not affect them alone but
others as well. By discussing the underlying issues and hearing
from both sides of the conflict in this platform, other authorities
and stakeholders were able to gain a more nuanced understanding
of the conflict and change their approach to intervention
accordingly. As one security personnel from NSCDC in Guma
LGA shared, “As security personnel, we are trained to be violent
but being a member of the CSAD has seriously changed my views
about the farmer herder issues, which has also impacted
positively on my teams operation as we are more objective than
before.” This change in perception of the conflict has therefore also
improves local response mechanisms as security personnel are able
to act with less bias and less violence due to their increased understanding of the underlying issues.
Furthermore, media actors participating in the journalism trainings shared that they saw the errors they
made in the past that have fueled more conflict in the region. By the end of the training, many shared that
they realized their reports have contributed to the negative consequences of the conflict in their state,
and that this was not a constructive means to channel their pain. They focused on how to shift from
reactive reporting to proactive coverage that does not only report on the conflict when there is violence.
Figure 4: Farmer and herder women at
Conflict Transformation, Human Rights,
and Dialogue Training in Otukpo LGA,
May 2019.
Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019
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Improved Understanding of Conflict Issues: Beyond resulting in a change in perspective, the dialogues
and discussions between farmers, herders, government, and security actors have increased the
understanding of all parties of the conflict dynamics, and the underlying causes, drivers, and consequences.
This has been particularly evident in the activities engaging media professionals. Participants were highly
engaged in the discussions which included the identification of commonalities shared by the two groups,
recognition of the lack of coverage of the herder perspective by the media and the media’s reasons for this
(i.e the herders are hard to reach in terms of location and they also rarely speak with journalists due to a
lack of trust), as well as human rights, governance, and economic issues related to the conflict. The
participants recognized the way in which the terminology affected people’s perception of the conflict, as
one participant from Plateau state said, “The issues regarding the conflict should not be seen as a farmer-
herder conflict rather as a rural conflict, because both parties are occupants of the community.” The
activities were well covered by the media as well, spreading the message of the discussions beyond the
participants directly engaged to the wider population.6
New Peace Champions: The participants were
recognized in their various communities as peace
ambassadors and mediators and reported that
community members and traditional leaders
sometimes call upon them to mediate in conflict
issues. The platforms’ work have been so impactful
that other agencies have taken it up as part of their
work. For example, in Benue state, NSCDC opened
a file on Search to document all the communities that
Search is working in and the actions taken in the state.
In Barkin Ladi LGA of Plateau State, it was reported
that the LGA Chairperson always reads the report of
the monthly CSAD meetings to ensure that actions
are taken on issues raised. The Transition Chairpersons of Jos North, Riyom, and Barkin-ladi LGAs have
made commitments to provide identification cards and customized shirts to CSAD members. Also, the
Chairman of Jos South LGA instructed that some of the CSAD members be included in the monthly joint
security meetings due to the CSAD’s high engagement and synergy with the security to reduce crime in the
LGA. The media fellows also fully embraced the responsibility of participating in this component of the
project. One female fellow said, “The fellowship means a call to action; it means I am putting in my
professionalism to bear to ensure that these communities ‘under my care’ move from tolerating
themselves, to accepting one another.”7 After their induction, the fellows churned out a series of news
reports, jingles, documentaries and programs to foster peace.
“When two people are fighting and they get tired and someone comes in to separate them, they will stop
immediately because they are tired. I will give maximum support to strengthen peace architecture in
Benue state. I wish Search started this intervention in Benue state long ago but we still appreciate their
effort.” - Traditional Ruler, Guma LGA
This increase in collaboration, changed perceptions, and new peace champions observed among key actors
in the target areas allows them to identify and implement initiatives to address the causes, drivers, and
consequences of farmer-herder conflicts to prevent violence.
6 https://nextedition.com.ng/2019/04/16/media-charged-reduce-incidences-farmers-herders-conflicts-reportage ;
https://nextedition.com.ng/2019/04/25/consultant-advocates-scrapping-of-normadic-education/ ;
https://nextedition.com.ng/2019/04/16/media-charged-reduce-incidences-farmers-herders-conflicts-reportage/ ;
https://thevoicenewspaper.net/2019/04/17/stakeholders-counsel-journalists-on-conflict-reporting/ 7 https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/08/why-peace-efforts-in-plateau-must-be-sustained/
Figure 5: Group picture of Benue state PAD members,
June 2019.
Transforming Farmer-Herder Conflicts Annual Report Summary: September 1 2018 – August 31, 2019
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Output Tracker Activity
Number Target Outputs
Year 1
Target
Year 1
Outputs
Overall Target
Outputs
Overall Cumulative
Outputs Pending Notes
Goal: Prevent violence and the destruction of lives and properties resulting from protracted violent conflicts between farmers and herders while
combating impunity and promoting the freedom of religions and belief in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria.
Objective 1: To increase collaboration between farmer and herder communities to develop joint, effective, sustainable local mechanisms
for early warning response, dispute management, and violence prevention and mitigation at community level.
Act 1.1 Conflict Transformation,
Human Rights, and
Dialogue Training
6 6 6 6 0 Completed.
Act 1.2 Transformative Dialogue
Processes
9 18 18 18 0 Completed.
Act 1.3 CSAD 36 46 72 46 26 Ongoing, monthly
meetings in each LGA.
Objective 2: To mobilize religious leaders and policymakers to jointly counter violent rhetoric through positive public messages of religious
pluralism and respect of human rights.
Act 2.1 Middle Belt State PAD
Forum on Farmer-Herder
Issues
1 0 3 0 3 This was delayed due to
the elections and delay in
appointment of state
political appointees.
Act 2.2 State PAD Follow-up
Meetings
7 7 36 7 29 The Plateau State PAD
also held six meetings,
however these are not
directly supported by
Search and therefore are
not reported here.
Act 2.3 Advocacy Visits and
Bilateral Meetings
12 23 12 23 0 Completed.
Act 2.4 Conflict Transformation
and Human Rights
Training for Government
Actors
0 0 4 0 4 To be conducted in
September 2019.
Objective 3: To enhance public understanding of the farmer-herder conflicts by promoting conflict sensitive contents and countering hate
speech, stereotypes, biases, and negative narratives that fuel violence.
Act 3.1 Conflict-sensitivity
Training to Journalists
3 3 3 3 0 Completed.
Act 3.2 Conflict-sensitivity
Media Roundtables
3 3 6 3 3 First round completed,
second round to be
conducted in 2020.
Act 3.3 Media Fellowships 36 21 36 21 15 Ongoing.
Act 3.4 Social Media Campaign 0 0 1 campaign 0 1
campaign
To be conducted in the
second year of the
project.