The Justice, Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti has convened a stakeholders’ engagement meeting to assess the impact of its programmes over the past three years and gather feedback to strengthen future interventions in human rights, governance, and social justice.
Speaking with Journalists shortly after the event in Ado-Ekiti, the Director of JDPI Ekiti, Reverend Father Emmanuel Akingbade, said the meeting was organised to encourage reflection, accountability, and collaboration with the organisation’s partners.
According to him, the gathering provided an opportunity to present reports on JDPI’s activities while allowing stakeholders to evaluate the organisation’s performance and make recommendations for improvement.
Quoting the philosopher Socrates, Father Akingbade noted that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” explaining that the organisation considered it necessary to periodically review its work to ensure its programmes were making meaningful impacts in society.
He explained that over the past three years, JDPI has implemented several initiatives focused on promoting access to justice, reducing conflicts within communities, strengthening government accountability, and advancing gender equality through campaigns against gender-based violence and discrimination.
The organisation also engaged students through human rights clubs, collaborated with key institutions in the criminal justice system, including the Ministry of Justice, the judiciary, the Nigeria Correctional Service, and the police and conducted surveys to understand citizens’ expectations of government and assess public perception of governance.
Father Akingbade said the findings from these engagements were presented to stakeholders to encourage constructive feedback that would shape the organisation’s next phase of interventions.
Beyond reviewing JDPI’s activities, the stakeholders’ meeting featured extensive discussions on critical issues affecting Ekiti State and Nigeria at large.
Participants examined the prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV), good governance, parliamentary representation, the dividends of democracy, and the importance of partnerships among government agencies, civil society organisations, and development partners in advancing justice and sustainable development.
Reflecting on the organisation’s achievements, Father Akingbade acknowledged that while there was still much work to be done, JDPI had made significant progress.
“We might not be where we think we should be, but we are not where we were three years ago. Our actions are steps taken forward, and in the next three years, we want to take more steps so that Ekiti can become a better place for everyone.”
Looking ahead, he said JDPI would, over the next three years under the project, intensify capacity-building trainings for stakeholders, expand data collection and analysis to support evidence-based interventions, and carry out sustained sensitisation and public education campaigns.
He added that the organisation would strengthen advocacy and media engagement, conduct research on constituency projects and present its findings to the public, while also holding regular engagements with elected officials to promote accountability, transparency, and good governance.
The engagement reaffirmed JDPI Ekiti’s commitment to working closely with stakeholders to promote human rights, strengthen democratic governance, improve access to justice, and foster inclusive development across the state.
