The ReportGBV, a digital tool for victims, survivors and responders of gender-based violence (GBV) in Nigeria, has been down, FIJ can report.
For at least a week, the platform — which helps monitor GBV cases, deliver services to survivors, gather data, and inform policy — has been unresponsive.
How the ReportGBV dashboard looks like. Source: Report GBV Medium Page
Launched in 2021 under the leadership of Pauline Tallen, the former Minister for Women Affairs, ReportGBV was touted as a game changer. The minister said it would help the fight against GBV, guide resource allocation, and help policymakers make informed decisions to support survivors.
The platform was created in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the Population Commission and the United Nations (UN) as part of the Spotlight Initiative.
Spotlight is a larger initiative formed through a partnership between the European Union and the United Nations to prevent violence and improve response to violence against women and girls globally. One of the targets of the initiative, which Nigeria subscribes to, is to end GBV by 2030.
According to the UN, the dashboard meets the fifth pillar of the initiative, which is to “ensure the availability of high-quality data and usage in responding to gender-based violence”.
READ ALSO: State Actors Commit 83,802 Human Rights Violations in 2024 Alone — 4 Years After #EndSARS
The project has also funded several other objectives like education against GBV in Nigeria. For instance, about $2.3 million has been spent to fund education against GBV under the initiative, according to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the initiative has transferred about $35 million in support of Nigeria’s fight against GBV.
DATA ALTERNATIVES ARE INADEQUATE AND THE RESPONSIBLE MINISTRY CANNOT BE REACHED
With the ReportGBV platform down, those seeking data on GBV have had to rely on reports from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
According to the commission, Nigeria still has serious cases of GBV with 47,788 cases reported since January. In May alone, incidents skyrocketed to 16,000 cases, and the numbers have remained high.
However, the NHRC dashboard does not provide the same detailed, gender-specific data as ReportGBV. It also lacks the analytical and service-monitoring functions that made ReportGBV indispensable.
Efforts to reach the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs for answers have so far been unsuccessful. The ministry’s webpage lacks a functional email address or phone number, violating NITDA regulations.
FIJ submitted an inquiry through the ministry website’s contact form on October 15. There had been no response at press time.
WHAT IS AT STAKE?
The implications of the platform’s outage are serious. Civil society organisations (CSOs), NGOs, and even state governments that rely on the data from ReportGBV for decision-making and service delivery are now stuck in limbo.
In 2021, Bashar Muhammad Ladan, then Deputy Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, described how real-time data from the platform helped guide GBV-related decisions.
REPORTS: REVEALED: Edo Policeman ‘Raped’ 17-Year-Old. Female Cop Edith Eduma Demanded N1m Hush Money
Adamawa State, for instance, used the dashboard data to advocate for the domestication of the Violence Against Persons Act (VAPP).
Similarly, CSOs like the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF) in Lagos use ReportGBV data to identify high-prevalence areas and plan medical service delivery and advocacy efforts.
Without this platform, some decisions on how to address GBV are at risk of stalling.
On both ReportGBV and the women’s ministry, the long-term unavailability of a state-owned website and the absence of active contact information fall short of the NITDA guidelines for government websites.
The post GBV Data Platform Funded Through $35m UN Initiative Is Down appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.