CLEEN Foundation hosted capacity building sessions for about 80 National and State Gender Desk Officers in the Nigeria Police and the NSCDC. The objective of the training was to strengthen personnel capacity to investigate cases of violence through a more coordinated and responsive approaches. Gender desks or coordinators need adequate resources and decision-making authority in order to have an impact on police, NSCDC and wider sector practices. The key outcome from the session observed that the desk or focal point should also be placed relatively high within the institutional hierarchy to ensure they can authorize and implement proposed changes as needed.

As a way of strengthening efforts to respond to, combat SGBV and break open the menace which remains shrouded in a culture of silence, CLEEN Foundation, on September 29 & 30, 2022 in Ondo and Bauchi States respectively, held a “Capacity Building for Gender Desk Officers of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and the Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)” drawn from the 36 states of the Federation. 

• The training which was participatory and learning-focused, entailed experience sharing sessions, pre & posttests, performance assessment for advancing data collection and case management systems to monitor information on the incidence, types and patterns of gender-based violence and the processing of reported cases

. The sessions bothered on – understanding Gender & key Gender norms, the advantages of integrating women into peace processes in communities, solutions to GBV, duties of Desk officers in handling GBV cases, and need for Management Information System (MIS). 

At the end of the training, participants gained more insights into Gender and human right, inter-agency collaboration to fight SGBV, how to respond adequately to SGBV and proffer solutions. Consequently, the Desk officers were also exposed to best practices in addressing and reporting cases of gender-based violence. In line with the recommendations for all stakeholders which were strictly noted, the Senior IT Officer of CLEEN Foundation, Gabriel Akinremi shared websites such as the fciidgender.net for online reporting and documentation of SGBV which will aid proper documentation, make the data accessible anywhere and enable the desk officers’ access more support for their work.