Research

This project examines the politics of state claims to protect women in Nigeria. It asks how those claims are produced, translated into policy and institutional practice, and defended when the evidence of protection is contested. I am particularly interested in the different audiences these claims address, from domestic constituencies to international donors and institutions, and in the systems used to monitor and verify whether protection has been delivered.

The project therefore looks beyond the familiar question of an ‘implementation gap’ to ask who gets to determine whether a protection promise has been kept, what evidence is treated as authoritative, and what happens when official accounts conflict with other records of women’s security. These questions sit within a larger interest in accountability, gendered governance, and state legitimacy.