Northwest Nigeria is experiencing intersecting challenges including violence, climate-related disruptions, and economic instability. These factors have affected family structures and reduced confidence in local institutions. Armed groups have interfered with daily activities, contributing to a humanitarian crisis. Yet amidst these challenges, volunteers are stepping up—not as outsiders, but as insiders—to make change possible. Dennis Bwala and Adamu Garba share how they are helping rebuild trust and strengthen the communities they call home.
“Peacebuilding here is about patience.” In Katsina, Dennis Bwala is a UN Volunteer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Northwest Prevention Facility, and spends his days connecting local authorities, security forces, and communities that often don’t trust each other.
My role is to facilitate dialogue, strengthen partnerships, and ensure that our interventions are inclusive and neutral, so communities feel ownership over the solutions."
Dennis has helped bring border communities and security actors together through civil–military trade training in Magama Jibia. He’s supported over 300 entrepreneurs with training and grants, and he’s advancing climate-smart livelihoods in Katsina and Sokoto. “These activities are not just projects,” he says. “They build trust where mistrust has grown, and they create alternatives for young people and women who might otherwise feel excluded.”
It’s not easy. Insecurity, limited resources, and high expectations make every step a challenge. “It takes consistency and constant engagement,” Dennis adds. “Being a UN Volunteer is both a professional and personal calling. It means serving with empathy and resilience, while strengthening my ability to engage communities, manage complex projects, and contribute to policy processes.”
For Adamu Garba, peace and climate aren’t separate issues—they’re deeply connected. As a UN Volunteer Peacebuilding and Climate Security Specialist with UNDP Nigeria, he’s working where tensions run high and resources run low.
Energy access can reduce tensions in communities where resources are scarce. When a clinic has solar power or when farmers have reliable data on rainfall, it changes how people live and how they relate to each other."
Adamu supported the region’s first Climate Change Policy Framework and Action Plan, installed six automatic weather stations in high-risk areas, and co-led solar power deployments for clinics, schools, and off-grid communities. He’s also behind the creation of Climate Peace Hubs—spaces where communities come together to adapt and manage natural resources.
“Peacebuilding is not only about dialogue,” he says. “It is also about ensuring that basic needs are met in ways that reduce competition and strengthen resilience.”
Adamu has also convened high-level dialogues like the Northwest Security Summit in Katsina, which led to a regional cooperation desk for joint planning. “Policies and community action must go hand in hand,” Adamu emphasizes.
Dennis Bwala and Adamu Garba prove that real change doesn’t wait for perfect conditions—it starts with people who know their communities and choose to act. Their work shows that when volunteers lead the way, they don’t just respond to crisis—they help transform it from within.
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