For the children living in crises-affected regions, it is important to develop citizen-ship education approaches to meet the children’s educational needs in emergencies and promote a more peaceful future (UNICEF 2019).
For this reason, policy makers, teachers and educators should reflect on:
• How citizenship education can encourage the dynamics between human rights, democracy and civil society.
• How education can effectively promote democratic principles and foster peace-ful societies.
• How leaners can lean to prioritize dialogue.
Actions must be taken and framed in the logic of promoting citizenship educa-tion. Thus, the following avenues may be explored by empowering learners to become active and responsible citizen, aware of their rights and duties, and commit-ted to building peaceful societies.
On an international level, initiatives have been proposed to face the Boko Haram jihadists’ threat in the Chad Basin, in particular Nigeria, Benin, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, and initiatives have been announced:
• At the security level: the strengthening of cooperation between the States of the Chad Basin, as part of the exchange of information;
• At the diplomatic level: a request to the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, to submit a report on regional and international efforts against
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Boko Haram, the establishment of a regional force to fight against this terrorist movement.
Conclusion
As in the case of Niger, citizenship education is a topical issue around the world. In this chapter, we have explored the issue of citizenship education as a condition of peace and stability in Niger.
The challenges for citizenship education in Niger are both national and global.
On the national level, citizenship education programs need to build on the skills and competences, which support participatory democracy. In addition, the only way to promote deliberative democracy in Niger is through quality education and a sus-tained fight against illiteracy. On the global level, citizenship education must aim to build peace and coexistence in a context of ethnic tensions exacerbated by environ-mental pressures and climate change. In order to ensure community ownership and legitimacy, citizenship education must adopt a contextually and culturally appropri-ate approach.
If global citizenship education (GCE) is to be successfully implemented in Niger, it must avoid being perceived as an exogenous concept and an external intrusion, it must involve local stakeholders and Qur’anic schools. Thereby promoting values of peace in citizenship and religious education.
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© The Author(s) 2020
A. Akkari, K. Maleq (eds.), Global Citizenship Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44617-8_8