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Agriculture
Rights
The Case of Human Rights Defenders Around the World
- The role of human rights organisations in crisis situations – The case of Alternative Espaces Citoyens
Agricultural finance
Citizen mobilization
The role of human rights organisations in crisis situations – The case of Alternative Espaces Citoyens
Alternative Espaces Citoyens (AEC) is a Nigerien organisation dedicated to defending human rights and the rights of migrants and to promoting democratic values through citizenship education, political dialogue, and the analysis of public policy.
SOS Faim has been a partner of AEC since 2016 and primarily supports the Observatory for the Right to Food and Food Sovereignty in Niger. This Observatory specifically aims to monitor developments in the food situation and the quality of the response from the national emergency aid system through investigative work carried out by its regional representatives. These investigations are turned into reports and radio programmes broadcast across all regions of Niger. In 2025, these reports covered the agro-pastoral and nutritional situation in relation to the Large-Scale Irrigation Programme promoted by the current authorities (CNSP), as well as food accessibility during the post-harvest period and food safety.
As part of its mission to inform the public and foster democratic debate, AEC organises themed seminars across the country’s seven regions and in the capital, as well as an annual seminar bringing together leaders from civil society and farmers’ organisations. The 2025 edition focused on ‘Promoting and defending the right to food and food sovereignty in a context of crises’. This edition was particularly relevant to the national and regional context and the many difficulties faced by the association in carrying out its activities over the past year.
Alternative Espaces Citoyens – One of the last remaining spaces for civic expression and information
The military regime in power since 2023 has, over the course of the year, deployed a range of measures aimed at controlling the civic sphere in Niger, which has had a significant impact on the organisation’s activities: difficulties in accessing reliable information and cross-checking official and on-the-ground sources; the ban on gatherings and demonstrations (a regional seminar could not be held in 2025); the dwindling availability of external funding sources; the monitoring of written material and pressure exerted on journalists and freelancers; restricted access to political arenas, effectively limiting advocacy capacity; the arrest of the association’s secretary-general on 3 December 2024 – who remains in prison at the time of publication – are all factors that have hampered and continue to hamper the association’s work.
In this restrictive environment, which stifles dissenting voices and civic space, a great many organisations have ceased their social work. AEC has managed to maintain an activist voice in support of human rights and the marginalised, and in favour of democratic dialogue. In this context, Alternative Espaces Citoyens remains one of the last independent spaces for expression and information in Niger, particularly in support of the right to food and food sovereignty.