Humanitarian crisis in Nigeria: A threat to child protection

Abstract

Nigeria is facing a prolonged humanitarian crisis, characterised by internal security threats in the form of armed conflict and flooding in the northern part of the country. These twin humanitarian crises have paved the way for the displacement of children and hampered their accessibility and affordability of the necessities of life. This crisis has severe consequences for child protection, affecting 8.8 million individuals, 80% of whom are women and children. The resulting effects include a significant increase in out-of-school children, currently estimated at 20 million, as well as a rise in internally displaced children, orphans, and child soldiers. The Nigerian government has initiated efforts to address this crisis through the Safe School Initiative and the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, but their impact on improving child protection remains uncertain. Through a mixed-method approach, informed by the Ubuntu and systems theories, the study investigated the relationship between the humanitarian crisis and deficiencies in child protection in Nigeria. The study found that humanitarian crises have denied children access to education and healthcare, which endangers their future sustainability as drivers of development. The paper recommends that the bottom-up approach should be adopted in initiating and executing child protection policies, while improved funding is also critical, since no meaningful development can occur without healthy and educated children.