By Perpetua Onuegbu
Chioma Agwuegbo, Executive Director of TechHer, a civil society organisation has called for equal justice to protect women and girls against technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Agwuegbo made the call on Saturday in Abuja at the Dare 2026 conference, organised by TechHer in partnership with Youth Hub Africa.
She said that online violence has serious offline consequences for victims.
Agwuegbo said TechHer’s Young Feminist Solidarity Climate Project funded by the Ford Foundation amplifies feminist climate activists’ voices in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, particularly women and girls disproportionately affected by climate change.
She said the organisation brought activists from northern and southern Nigeria together to share community-based solutions to challenges including desertification, erosion, oil spills, violence and food insecurity.
Agwuegbo said artificial intelligence had made online abuse easier to perpetrate anonymously and rapidly, while urging social media platforms to contextualise content moderation to reflect Nigerian languages and cultural realities.
The executive director said TechHer’s Kuram platform receives survivors’ reports and supports access to justice through engagement with digital platforms, police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, urging equal accountability regardless of status.
“Nigeria has laws, whether we like it or not. Nigeria has laws that appropriately used, can help survivors achieve justice.
“The message that we are preaching is that justice should be linear, applied to the rich and the poor, the educated, the uneducated, the politically connected, the non-politically connected,”Agwuegbo said.
She said government has the responsibility to keep citizens safe and therefore called for stricker laws and enforcement that would deter people from indulging in criminality.
She called on the youths to utilise their time and knowledge, adding that there was so much they could achieve online: make money, make connections, earn certification and even study.
Speaking on technology, data and climate change, Ibiso Ikiroma-Owiye of the Grassroots to Global Sustainable Development Network, said there is no technology without data.
“Whatever you see technology do, it’s the data and the information that has been fed to that technology. That’s what the technology is acting on.
“Technology is essential for climate action, particularly when combined with experiences from vulnerable communities” she said.
She explained that community-generated data helps technologies such as remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems predict flooding, enabling residents to prepare their homes and farmlands.
Ikiroma-Owiye said rural women and other community members contribute valuable knowledge by observing climate patterns, helping technology provide early warnings and prevent losses.
She adds that communities can use technology to monitor oil companies’ activities, document environmental damage and report violations to relevant authorities for appropriate action.
Ken Henshaw, Executive Director of We the People, says technology can address inequalities caused by climate change and ecological crises, particularly affecting women and persons with disabilities.
He said technology and data are not neutral, stressing that how information is collected, controlled and used determines whose experiences are recognised and whose needs receive attention.
Henshaw explains that environmental disasters disproportionately affect women by destroying farmland, fishing grounds and other livelihood sources, while men often have alternative employment opportunities.
Henshaw urged authorities to disaggregate climate-related data by gender, identifying affected women and men and their financial losses to ensure equitable compensation, restoration and disaster response.
He urged women to use technology to establish independent community governance structures, arguing that creating alternative platforms can strengthen their bargaining power and challenge male-dominated leadership systems.
“Power is never given; it is taken. So women need to create a dual power structure. There is a need to be something different-a dual power structure.
“I would propose that using the tools of technology, women should pull out of all male-dominated institutions of community governance, pull out of it completely, and create their own,”he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference featured the experiences, work and solutions of young ecofeminists across Nigeria.
It also connected grassroots climate action with wider conversations on youth development, governance, technology and social change.(NAN)
PUO/JPE
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Edited by Joseph Edeh
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