Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 29 June (HL5836), what progress they have made in identifying NGOs who are running effective programmes to deter attacks on (1) farming communities, and (2) religious minorities, in Nigeria.

We are concerned by ?intercommunal violence in Nigeria, which has had a devastating impact on many communities. We engage regularly with NGOs and a wide range of stakeholders working to address this violence. For example, in December 2019, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria visited Plateau State to meet with NGOs working on reconciliation. In February of this year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Wilton Park hosted a joint conference on 'Fostering Social Cohesion in Nigeria' with participation from NGOs and civil society. The discussion focused on the complex causes of conflict and explored solutions: a full report from the conference has now been published.

The UK Government has provided technical support to the Nigerian Government for the development of the National Livestock Transformation Plan. The plan aims to promote cattle-rearing in one place, rather than the traditional nomadic practice, to limit competition over land and resources leading to violence.We are also designing our own programmes to address the high incidence of intercommunal violence in Nigeria. For example, a DFID programme to help address natural resource conflicts between farmers and herders, referred to in answer HL5836, is currently in development.