2026–2028 Research Programme
The 1864 Institute's first two-year research programme focuses on two areas where evidence is most urgently needed and most often missing.
Research Area I
Nigeria · West Africa · 2026–2028
The case for this work
Nigeria faces a complex, multi-layered security environment — from urban crime to community conflict to institutional capacity gaps. Policy responses are often made with limited evidence about what works, what doesn't, and why.
The 1864 Institute's work in this area focuses on the institutional and systemic factors that shape how crime and violence unfold — and how justice systems, communities, and governments respond. We are particularly interested in the gap between formal security institutions and the lived experience of crime and safety at the community level.
Research questions
What organisational and management factors shape the capacity of Nigerian security institutions to respond to crime?
How do crime complaints and incidents move across Nigeria's institutional landscape — and where do they get lost?
Under what conditions do communities sustain peace — and what enables that to be built deliberately?
Research Area II
Nigeria · West Africa · 2026–2028
The case for this work
Gender shapes access to resources, exposure to risk, and opportunity in ways that are often invisible to policy. In Nigeria, significant gender gaps persist across economic, political, and social domains — yet the evidence base for what drives them and what changes them remains thin.
The 1864 Institute's gender research focuses on generating context-specific, high-quality evidence about where gender disparities are most acute, what sustains them, and what the data tells us about interventions that have — and have not — moved the needle.
Research questions
How do gender norms shape economic participation, firm performance, and labour market outcomes in Nigeria?
Where do gender-based disparities in access and opportunity concentrate — and what structural factors explain that concentration?
What does the evidence say about interventions that shift gender norms — and what does it take for that change to last?
Publications
The Institute was established in 2026. Our first working papers and policy briefs will be published as research progresses. Sign up to be notified.
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