By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

The Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRiNG) Programme, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has launched Year 3 planning in Plateau State with a three-day co-creation workshop designed to scale proven peace and inclusion interventions.

The session ran alongside a similar workshop in Katsina and follows recent meetings in Makurdi and Kaduna, marking the programme’s full Year 3 rollout across all SPRiNG states.

“Following successful workshops held in Makurdi and Kaduna last week, these simultaneous sessions mark the successful rollout of Year 3 planning across all SPRiNG Programme states.

“The high-level gatherings brought together state actors, civil society representatives, and implementing partners to discuss and consolidate the impactful achievements of the programme’s second year,” a statement by SPRING team leader, Dr. Ukoha Ukiwo said.

The statement explained that for year 3, the SPRiNG Programme is instituting a strategic shift: moving away from experimenting with new models to focus heavily on scaling proven pilot projects, strengthening institutional accountability, and operationalising existing policy frameworks in deep collaboration with state institutions.

Dr. Ukoha Ukiwo further said: “As we transition into Year 3, our mandate is clear: we are shifting from experimenting with new models to aggressively scaling proven pilots. Our success depends on deep institutional collaboration and an unwavering commitment to systemic inclusion.

“We must be resolute in our standards assuring that all interventions are strictly survival-centered and that criminal offenses like SGBV are never mediated informally. While rigorous baseline targets will govern our focus to maximize impact, we will maintain the adaptive flexibility needed to support local momentum.”

He explained that year 3 will concentrate on scaling proven models, strengthening accountability, and operationalising policy through three integrated work streams:

He said peace, security and justice institutions activities will sharpen coordination of Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) systems and institutionalise standard operating procedures for community security outfits, aligned with the Plateau State Peace Building Agency (PPBA).

Target localities include Jos North, Jos South, Mangu, Riyom, Barkin Ladi, and Wase.
Women, Youth, Peace and Security (WYPS): This stream will drive local action plans to raise women’s and youth representation in security structures, strengthen survival-centered SGBV responses, and deliver market-driven livelihoods for vulnerable groups.

To ensure equitable impact, the SPRiNG Programme announced stringent minimum operational standards for all upcoming partner projects.

It said proposals must demonstrate a survival-centered approach and meet a mandatory baseline threshold of at least 40% female beneficiaries and 5% women with disabilities.

Furthermore, the programme is enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for “GEDSI-blind” interventions that fail to account for structural exclusion and systemic gender disparities.

To prevent the fatigue of parallel structures stakeholders at the workshop recommended integrating SPRiNG initiatives directly into pre-existing peace committees managed by the PPBA.

Programme leadership and state representatives mutually agreed that early and consistent institutional integration is critical to ensuring long-term sustainability.

To guarantee tracking of the ambitious goals, participating organizations will undergo comprehensive training on Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) frameworks, utilising standardised indicators and real-time adaptation logs to measure tangible impact across the participating states.

It was a consensus that agriculture, pasture and natural resource management should focus on scalable climate-smart solutions, the programme will expand agropastoral management initiatives.

The Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRiNG) Programme is a four-year initiative (2024-2028) funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and implemented by Tetra Tech International Development, in partnership with Nextier SPD (Nextier), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD).

The programme aims to enhance institutional capacity for conflict management and response, boost public confidence in key institutions, and create greater incentives for peace in Nigeria.