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Paper short abstract:

The study investigates women's role in peacebuilding in Nigeria's Northern and Niger Delta regions, highlighting their strategies to foster solidarity, navigate socio-political contexts, challenge power structures, and promote inclusive peace through grassroot networks while addressing barriers.

Paper long abstract:

Our overly polarised and conflicted world, requires a critical analysis and understanding of how marginalized groups contributes to peacebuilding and social transformation. It is important to comprehend how marginalised communities contribute to social transformation and peacebuilding in an era of overlapping global crises. While emphasising on their methods for negotiating challenging socio-political environments and developing community resilience, this study explores the roles that women play in promoting peace and solidarity in Nigeria's war-torn Northern and Niger Delta areas.

Further, this study investigates how women's grassroots networks function within these diverse regional contexts using a mixed-methods approach that includes surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and secondary data analysis. The comparative study shows how women use local networks and indigenous knowledge systems to foster inclusive community development, challenge systemic injustices, and foster peace.

The findings establishes that despite major obstacles including socioeconomic exclusion and deeply ingrained patriarchal norms, women's peacebuilding efforts effectively promote intercommunal solidarity and conflict resolution. To facilitate more efficient and culturally sensitive peace processes, women-led organisations usually act as links between local communities and official institutions.

Conclusively, practical recommendations for policymakers, NGOs, and academic institutions to support women-led peacebuilding efforts is offered. These include creating support networks tailored to the particular situation, removing systemic obstacles to women's involvement, and incorporating indigenous knowledge systems into official peacebuilding frameworks. The study highlights the transformative potential of grassroot women's leadership in creating more egalitarian and peaceful communities while adding to larger conversations about gender, agency, and sustainable peace in conflict-affected areas.