Description:

Abstract: 

Nigeria ranks 37/52 on the governance index for African nations, with Transparency International placing the country at 136/175 for corruption and the World Bank giving Nigeria a 12th percentile ranking for rule of law. In a country with an estimated population of 173.6 million people, over 80% live on less than $2/day (to put this in perspective, the average Nigerian will spend 1/3 of that on transportation before food, accommodation, potable water, gas for the generator, phone bill, etc). Trends in urban migration across Nigeria have seen the major cities of Nigeria grow faster than infrastructure and development can accommodate: an estimated 67% of the urban population live in slums. These slums have become socio-economic micro-centers, allowing the poorest of the poor to find accommodation, borrow and barter for food, pool resources, and build businesses against a backdrop of government neglect, forceful evictions and demolitions, corrupt landlords and area leaders, and ineffective/inefficient court systems.

Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI), a Nigerian based NGO, uses a variety of approaches to support slum and marginalized communities to reclaim and utilize their rights and political power. This includes training community-based paralegals, providing pro-bono legal services when needed, mediation and advocacy when possible, and partnering with Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) to help communities to form reliable savings and loan groups, conduct community-led GPS mapping and profiles, and to organize around a politically powerful Federation of Slumdwellers and Marginalized Communities led by a coalition of community nominated and based leaders. The goal is for all work to be community based, community led, and community owned. This year NU will be partnering with JEI to develop creative approaches to health in the urban slum context - an exciting opportunity from both sides! Co-founder Anna Maitland will talk about JEI’s current work, the project with NU, outcomes and lessons learned over the past year of JEIs work, and next steps.

Bio:

Currently the Schuette Clinical Fellow in Health and Human Rights, Anna Maitland's career has centered on supporting vulnerable and marginalized populations to own and lead their own struggles toward progressive and sustainable change. She recently returned from Nigeria where she co-founded/co-directed a small human rights NGO, Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI). Her work at JEI focused on rights training and empowerment around the health, impacts of forced evictions, and police brutality. Prior to her time in Nigeria, Anna engaged in the Americas and Africa on statelessness, asylum, and sexual rights through work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and Heshima Kenya.