Policymakers Advocates and Recommend Cooperative Societies to Reach Women at Grassroots

Some gender rights advocates and policymakers on women rights and inclusion have called for cooperative societies and other social groups to reach women in remote communities across the country.

They made the call in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, on Tuesday, at a workshop organised to facilitate discussions on the domestication of the National Women’s Economic Empowerment Policy (WEE).

The workshop tagged: “State Commissioners of Women Affairs on the Domestication of the National Women’s Economic Empowerment Policy,” was organised by the Ministry of Women Affairs in partnership with the Development Research and Project Center (dRPC) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).

The workshop was attended by several notable persons, most of whom lead government agencies and civil society organisations at both national and sub-national levels.

Some of those present include the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye; Executive Director of dRPC, Judith Walker; Director General of Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development, Asabe Bashir; Deputy Director (Economic Growth), Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Grace Obi-Okpabi; Director General of NIPSS, Ayo Omotayo, and Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Ini Adiakpan, among others.

According to the participants, domestication at the grassroots level is required to ensure an effective implementation of the WEE policy.

Grassroots enlightenment

An advocate, who represented the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs (NAWE),
Mageret Atseva, said there is a need to move beyond policy documents to the implementation stage, which essentially involves women in remote communities.

According to her, women in rural areas are unlikely to accommodate strangers and, rather, would more willingly accept the recommendations of people in their communities.

She said: “For proper domestication, women who own nano businesses in remote areas must be targeted. It is easier to access them through community cooperative groups when many save their earnings.”

In the same vein, Ruth Agbo from the Association of Women in Trade and Agriculture (AWITA) clamoured for the need for enlightenment and education of the grassroots on government policies.

She said the women in rural communities must be consistently informed about the new policy targeted at protecting and promoting their well-being.

“We can’t cascade the information to the grassroots,” Mrs Agbo said. “Women are dying in silence due to economic hardship.”

Minister speaks

Contributing to the discourse, the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, said the ministry is working with women across the country to change the narratives and stereotypes against women.

“We have changed the narratives. Women have changed the narratives as well,” she said.

She called for action instead of meetings and unending talks without results, noting that the ministry now has a portal for the registration of women.

“Women community groups should be registered with the ministry. The link for registration is on the ministry’s portal. Our money has been so diverted that we are killing ourselves and dying of hunger.”

Other recommendations

Moji Makanjuola, a journalist who facilitated the panel sessions, called for including all women nationwide in the empowerment project. She urged authorities to create a level playing ground that allows for the involvement and accommodation of every citizen.

Other participants also urged the commissioners to return to their states “to domesticate the policy to the local governments and towns properly.”

They said the process of domesticating would ensure ownership and that without domestication, the WEE policy remains a federal government policy.

They stressed the need for everyone to be involved and not leave policies to civil servants and MDAs.

On her part, Ms Adiakpan, the Akwa Ibom commissioner, said policymakers at all levels of government must make policies that are gender-friendly and targeted at accommodating women.

She asked the federal government to allocate a quarter of the national budget solely for the women development

WEE Policy

The WEE policy was launched in 2023 as a blueprint to guide the country towards becoming a balanced and inclusive society.

The policy highlights the impact of age-long gender gap margins, which has led to the exclusion of women from quality education, financial independence, leadership, digital access and adequate representation.

“Nigeria is outperformed by regional peers like Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda on several
gender-focused indices involving economic and workplace inclusion,” a part of the report read.

The policy aims to address Nigeria’s perverse gender disparity and improve the country’s ranking on the global gap index.

It aims to ensure that Nigeria is ranked among the top 90 countries on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index by 2028. The country is currently ranked 130th out of 146 countries.

The policy seeks to increase women’s participation in the labour force from 55 per cent to at least 65 and agriculture from 19.6 to 25 per cent by 2028. It also seeks to increase the national percentage of girls enrolled in secondary school from 67 to 75 per cent.

The policy framework is based on five sectoral pillars, which are agriculture, entrepreneurship, traditional labour market, emerging industries, education and skill acquisition.

These frameworks are also underpinned by four cross-cutting enablers that address the structural and normative barriers that limit women’s economic well-being.

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