Skip to Main Content
You are now in the main content area
Portrait of Ier Jonathan-Ichaver

Ier Jonathan-Ichaver

Co-Founder, Sesor Empowerment Foundation
LinkedIn  (external link, opens in new window) 

Visiting Toronto Metropolitan Univeristy

May 2025

Ier Jonathan-Ichaver, M.CIoD, is a social entrepreneur based in Lagos, Nigeria, and is an expert in internally displaced persons.. She is co-founder of Sesor Empowerment Foundation, a non-profit organization which has been supporting internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees across Nigeria since 2010. Sesor has provided relief support to over 100,000 internally displaced persons and rehabilitation support to 1,200 displaced persons in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, with a focus on supporting livelihoods and improving displaced persons’ access to medical services and child education. Ier is currently leading Sesor’s work in seeking innovative ways to provide decent and affordable housing for forcibly displaced persons. 

Ier recently ran for office as a candidate for Nigeria’s federal House of Representatives and campaigned vigorously on displacement issues. Prior to founding Sesor, Ier worked with the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) in Nigeria and later Switzerland as a fundraising and corporate alliances specialist.

Research focus while a Fellow with CERC

Ier will engage with other researchers and colleagues to study affordable housing approaches and solutions for refugees and migrants in Toronto, Canada and will publish an article on lessons for Nigerian civil society practitioners on this topic. She will also be developing a proposal for designing and financing affordable housing for forcibly displaced persons in Nigeria and will give a seminar on Sesor’s work in Nigeria, highlighting lessons learnt from relief and rehabilitation work. She will also be building networks with stakeholders working on sustainable housing solutions for refugees and displaced persons for future learning, knowledge exchange and possible collaborations.

Relevant publications or reports:

The Promise the IDP Community Needs Nigeria to Keep (external link)  (Businessday Nigeria, 27 September 2020).

The Deadliest Conflict You’ve Never Heard Of (external link)  (Foreign Affairs, 23 January 2019) with Jude Udo Ilo & Yemi Adamolekun.