Over 100 women groups in Bauchi, Cross River, Enugu, Kebbi, Kwara and Lagos states are targeted to benefit from the ActionAid Nigerias (AAN) Women’s Voice and Leadership Nigeria (WVL-N) project.
The AAN Country Director, Ene Obi, said this on Friday in Abuja at the flag-off of a three-day training of local women’s rights networks on Network Management and Advocacy.
The five-year multi-million-naira project, formally launched in July 2019, by the AAN and the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) was to strengthen the fulfilment of rights of women and girls in Nigeria.
“The five-year project (2019-2023) will address issues around, women empowerment and economic justice, women in conflict; gender-based violence/sexual based violence and political participation of women in appointed and elective positions,” Obi said.
According to her, the WVL-N project is in its second year of implementation and supports the efforts of local women’s rights organizations through the provision of tailored capacity building and funding towards the advancement of women’s rights in Nigeria.
“The WVL-N project is a five-year project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) with the aim of increasing the capacities of Local Women’s Rights Organizations and Networks Movements in Nigeria to effectively promote and protect the rights of women and girls.
“This will be achieved through the provision of tailored capacity building (training) and funding (grants), hence, strategic capacity building is fully embedded into project design and will remain a priority throughout the project’s life cycle. A training on effective network management and advocacy tailored to suit the mandates of women’s rights networks is vital as it will improve their capacities to function as Networks and to carry out their advocacy mandates.
“This is especially important because Civil Society Organisations which women’s rights organisations and networks are part of, play a pivotal role in contributing to policy development and holding the government accountable through advocacy. They are seen as a countervailing power to the authoritarian tendencies of the state and as a site for peoples’ participation in the development process,” Obi said.
Also, the AAN’s Women’s Rights Programme Manager, Nkechi-llochi Omekedo, said that in the first year of the project 10 women’s rights networks and 18 women’s rights organizations were engaged as national and state level partners respectively and were engaged in three main capacity building training on Financial Management Report Writing; Documentation and Media Engagement; and Intersectional Feminist Programming and Policy Influencing.
She however, said that the second year of implementation has brought on board additional 72 women’s rights organizations at the community level bringing the number of project partners to 100.
Some of the national partners are 100 Women Lobby Group, Women in Politics Forum (WIPF), International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), League of Women Voters of Nigeria (NOW), Federation of Muslim Women of Nigeria, (FOMWAN) Bauchi; and Network of Disabled Women (NDW).
Others are Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment of Nigerian Society (CWEENS); Small Women Holders Farmers of Nigeria (SWEDEN), Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF) and NECA’s Network of Women Entrepreneurs.
