This brief from UNIDIR’s Managing Exits From Armed Conflict Project examines persistent barriers to women and girls’ full participation in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration - like and reintegration programming in the Lake Chad Basin region. The brief draws from quantitative and qualitative research conducted in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria in 2024, and concludes that women and girls often bypass center-based support. The interventions and support that they do receive is often not tailored to their needs and women and girls face unique challenges in reintegration that are not always understood and are often unaddressed.
Effectively addressing the needs of women and girls exiting armed groups through gender-sensitive programmes that reflect their lived realities is key to achieving sustainable peace for all affected by the conflict.
Citation: Melissa Nyoni and Francesca Batault “At the Margins Gendered Barriers to Accessing Reintegration Programming in the Lake Chad Basin ”, UNIDIR, Geneva, 2025.