Category: Defending the Civic Space
Spaces for Change | S4C convened the 7th edition of the NGO Regulatory Compliance Clinic for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the northeastern region of Nigeria on April 17, 2023, in Maiduguri, Borno State. Held under the auspices of the Ford Foundation-supported Civic Space Resource Hub (CSR-Hub), executive directors, finance and administration officers of 19 national […]
In commemoration of the 2023 World Data Privacy Day, members of the Action Group on Free Civic Space comprising Spaces for Change |S4C, Accountability Lab Nigeria, and Dataphyte organized a Twitter Spaces conversation: How Safe is your Data?” which brought over 100 digital rights activists and netizens in Nigeria and beyond. The Twitter Space conversation […]
Spaces for Change | S4C has extended the reach of the NGO Regulatory Compliance Clinic to other West African countries, beginning with Senegal. On December 7, 2022, S4C and Publish What You Pay Senegal co-hosted the one-day Clinic in Dakar, Senegal, which brought together 15 executives of civil society organizations (CSOs). The Clinic aimed to […]
Spaces for Change | S4C launched a new report, “Civic Space in West Africa: Trends, Threats and Futures” on February 7 under the aegis of the Civic Space Resource Hub (CSR-Hub) for West Africa. Derived from the 639 incidents of crackdowns on the civic space in 16 West African countries tracked on the Closing Spaces Database between 2016 – 2022, […]
Highlights of Human Rights Violation Activist and publisher of Cross River Watch, Agba Jalingo was arraigned at a Federal High Court in Abuja on March 27 for what the prosecution alleged to be the offence of cyberstalking under section 24 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015. The judge remanded him in […]
The Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019, otherwise known as the Social Media Bill, has continued to generate a lot of discontent from various stakeholders in Nigeria due to its repressive provisions. The bill which is being pushed by Senator Muhammad Sani Musa (APC-Niger East), amongst many other concerning provisions, empowers government law enforcement agencies […]
On June 20, 2019, Spaces for Change (S4C) and the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (SCUML) co-hosted a workshop, Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Risks in the Non-Profit Sector, which had in attendance, 62 representatives of religious groups, donor bodies, local and international non-governmental organizations operating in Nigeria’s six geo-political zones in […]
Determined to share knowledge across professional and sector boundaries, leading practitioners in the non-profit, public and private sectors came together in Lagos, on November 28, 2018, to brainstorm on knowledge-to-action techniques for confronting the rising tide of governmental actions that restrict the operational space for civic engagements and non-profit activities in Nigeria. State actors often justify […]
SPACES FOR CHANGE ‘s| S4C’s regional workshop, Promoting and Defending Internet Freedoms in Nigeria, held on September 5, 2018, brought together 35 online practitioners in Enugu State, South-East Nigeria, to increase their capacity to push back against the increasing tide of restrictions on civic spaces often targeted at civil society actors operating in virtual, online and offline communities. […]
The report, Closing Spaces for Civic Engagement and Civil Society in Nigeria, generates a database of closing spaces across Nigeria, presenting the evidence of restrictions on citizens and civil society operations, perpetrated under the guise of ‘national interest’, ‘national security’ and ‘other money laundering and terrorism financing considerations. Download Report Here:Closing Spaces for Civil Society and Democratic […]
SPACES FOR CHANGE’s director, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, joined activists from Argentina, United States, Brazil, Philippines and India at a panel discussion on Reclaiming Civic Space: Resistance, Resilience and Resources held at New York University (NYU) on May 21, 2018. The panelists at the discussion are contributing authors to the 26th edition of the Sur International Journal on Human Rights (SUR 26), published […]