Hybrid Consultancy for End-line Evaluation: Nigerian Youth Collaborative Action for Religious Engagement en Search for Common Ground

Search is an international conflict transformation NGO that aims to transform the way individuals, groups, governments and companies deal with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative solutions. Headquartered in Washington DC, USA, and Brussels, Belgium, with 52 field offices in over 30 countries, including Nigeria, Search designs and implements multifaceted, culturally appropriate and conflict- sensitive programs using a diverse range of tools, including media and training, to promote dialogue, increase knowledge and determine a positive shift in behavior.

Escalating violence, including between and within religious groups and communal clashes in Northeast and Middle Belt Nigeria has made the risk of mass atrocity real and present and felt by everyone. Intergroup tensions often play out on social media as a result of perceived social media content that is considered “scandalous”, leading to a high profile of interreligious violence.

Young people play a unique role in interreligious relations in Nigeria as both catalysts for peace and as supporters of violence. Pervasive stereotypes associate youth with violent extremism and banditry, and study findings also show that youth are the most likely group to support violence in defense of their religion. Again, Nigerian university campuses are hotspots for interreligious violence and Young internet users have the highest proportion of ‘negative’ online conversations around religion. However, young women and men are also harmed by interreligious violence and discrimination, and Young women are often the targets of interreligious violence over sensitive issues such as blasphemy and apostasy.

On the other hand, Young people are also assets for interreligious peace building. Youth civil society organizations (CSOs) like the Plateau Youth Council have led interreligious peacebuilding work at the state, national, and international levels. In Plateau, where significant investments have been made to promote capacities in religious peacebuilding, young people’s demonstrated success in interreligious peacebuilding provides a ‘model’ that can be replicated in other at-risk contexts, such as in neighboring Bauchi and Gombe. Likewise, as Nigeria’s largest group of social media users, youth are best positioned to respond to growing threats to peace and tolerance in the digital space.

Search, in partnership with the Young Leaders Network (YLN), is implementing a 24-month Nigeria Youth Care program designed to empower diverse youth in Bauchi, Plateau, and Gombe States to advance inter- religious tolerance and freedom of religion. The program, funded by the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, is to achieve the goal through a two-pronged approach expressed by the following two specific objectives and 4 interrelated expected outcome results:

Objective 1: To foster youth leadership in influencing the state-level policy environment to be more inclusive and conducive to inter-religious tolerance and religious freedom.

Expected Result (ER) 1.1: A network of diverse young-led organizations have increased skills, confidence, and strategic relationships to advance inter-religious tolerance and religious freedom in Bauchi State.

Expected Result (ER) 1.2: Youth leaders increasingly lead concrete advocacy actions to effectively influence FoRB policy and implementation at the state level.

Expected Result (ER) 2.1: Young influencers are equipped to leverage online spaces to collectively promote inter-religious tolerance and religious freedom within their communities

Expected Result (ER) 2.2: Targeted youth and adults’ attitudes and perceptions towards inter-religious

tolerance and religious freedom are positively transformed.

The project adopted a series of approaches tailored to each target state’s needs and contexts. In Bauchi, the partners will lead direct, on-the-ground and virtual implementation, while Gombe (as the ‘least’ conflict- affected state) will see only virtual implementation, and Plateau will have both virtual implementation and will act as a ‘model’ for peacebuilders in Bauchi and Gombe. The project is underpinned by the following theory of change:

IF diverse young leaders in Bauchi, Plateau, and Gombe have increased skills, intergenerational networks, and strategic opportunities to advance youth-inclusive state policies that promote religious tolerance; and IF they have online and offline opportunities to mobilize their peers and communities and lead joint actions that demonstrate the value of interreligious tolerance, THEN conditions for peace between religious communities will be strengthened BECAUSE the online and offline social and policy environments will be more conducive to interreligious peace and the protection of FoRB.

Click the link to access the complete Terms of Reference.