State Commissioners of Women Affairs across the country are currently in Abuja for a two-day workshop on the domestication of the National Women’s Economic Empowerment Policy (WEE).
The workshop, organised by the Ministry of Women Affairs, aims to provide guidelines for the domestication of the policy in states.
WEE was launched in 2023 with the aim to streamline all gender policies to address disparities faced by women in accessing financial benefits and opportunities in various sectors.
The initiatives seek to enhance gender equality, reduce poverty, and coordinate efforts among development partners to promote women’s rights and empowerment in Nigeria. Also, the policy seeks to address Nigeria’s gender pay gap and women’s empowerment.
One year after its launch, most states are yet to domesticate the policy in their states. Under the federal system, states have to domesticate federal government policies for it to take effect.
The workshop for the domestication of the policy is ongoing at the Abuja Continental with commissioners and policymakers on gender in attendance.
PREMIUM TIMES is on the ground to provide live updates from the event.
10:30 a.m. The event has commenced with the recitation of the national anthem and pledge
The workshop is organised in collaboration with the development Research and Project Center (dRPC) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).
The three facilitators are Umar Kawu, Moji Makanjuola and Musa Umar.
10:35 a.m. Mr Kawu commenced the workshop with brief introduction of some of the guests at the venue and establishment of protocols.
Moji Makanjuola, a journalist, highlighted the need for media visibility on gender inclusion and empowerment.
In her brief remarks, Ms Makanjuola emphasized the need for collaboration among all the major actors in the gender space.
She announced that organisers are optimistic that the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, is expected to be at the event. She subsequently invited Judith-Ann Walker of dRPC to deliver her remarks.
10:49am: The executive director of dRPC, Dr Judith Ann Walker, is speaking. She said the dRPC and NIPSS have worked together in partnerships for more two decades to address social issues which concern women and girls.
This partnership has produced 12 research materials, 17 high level meetings, and convened five policy dialogues with CSOs across the country.
She said this partnership led to the launch of the National Monitoring and Evaluation Policy in 2023 in collaboration with UNICEF.
She noted that the dRPC, along with NIPPS and the Ministry of Women Affairs, will partner to ensure the implementation of the WEE policy at all levels.
The organisation will be starting with a cohort of eight states, and in the coming months, another cohort will be selected and supported to domesticate the policy.
In her speech, the Director General of Maryam Babangida National Center for Women Development, Asabe Bashir, emphasized the need for the development of women and access to cheap credit.
Mrs Bashir was represented by Jumai Idonije, who delivered a prepared speech.
She stated that “women empowerment is not just morally imperative but economically imperative.”
11:03am: Mrs Bashir said Nigeria is the first African country to launch the Women’s Economic Empowerment Policy (WEE) as a project.
She described the implementation of the WEE as an important initiative, noting that women’s empowerment is necessary for societal development.
“Women economic empowerment is not just a women issues, it is crucial for the overall development of the society and it is important to ensure that conversation around this is sustained,” she said.
11:26am: The Minster of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, arrives at the event.
Grace Obi-Okpabi, deputy director (Economic Growth), Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, lamented the lack of inclusion of women’s contributions to economic planning.
She said most time women’s issues are looked at through the prism of “handouts” instead of their economic contributions.
She noted that women, who constitute 49 per cent of the population, should be adequately captured for national planning.
11:33am: The Minister of Women Affairs said her 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.
“There cannot be gender inclusion without the empowerment of women,” the minister said.
She said her ministry has commenced the distribution of empowerment packages to 15 states across the country.
The minister also called for action instead of meetings and unending talks without results.
She stated that the ministry now has a portal for the registration of women. According to her, 283,000 members have registered.
She said some states have not helped in registration, but acknowledged some states including; Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, Katsina and Ebonyi.
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 in hunger.”
Ayo Omotayo, the DG of NIPSS, called for meaningful and engaging conversations on women inclusion.
He pledged the support of NIPSS in the implementation of policy at the federal and state levels.
Mr Omotayo said there is a need for policymakers to be practical.
He lamented the low enrollment of women into the NIPSS course. According to him, women have 18 slots for the 2024 course, however, they currently have nine women.
11:44am: Mr Omotayo said any nation that prioritises the empowerment of women is on the path of development.
He said the institute believes the WEE policy has the ability to transform the situation of women in the country, and allow for the inclusion of more women in the country’s policy and decision making process.
He said the institute is dedicated to ensuring the domestication of the policy at grassroots level where women are excluded more.
11:56am: The Minister of Women Affairs, Ms Uju, exits the event after addressing participants.
12:32am: Ini Adiakpan, the commissioner of Women Affairs in Akwa Ibom, said the country is wrongly structured and must be restructured.
She called on the federal government to allocate a quarter of the national budget solely for the women development.
Ms Adiakpan, who is also the Dean, Commissioner of Women Affairs, said policymakers must make policy that are gender friendly and targeted at accommodating women.
1:20pm:
Aniye Osemuda of the Ministry of Women Affairs, provided a break down of the frameworks policy.
He highlighted the principles, issues, and sectors addressed in the WEE policy.
Mr Aniye who is the Ministry’s Assistant Chief Development Community Officer, said the WEE is based on five sectoral intervention pillars
that is focused on promoting gender equity and opportunities for women.
These 5 core pillars of the policy are; agriculture
entrepreneurship, traditional labour market, emerging industries, education and skill acquisition.
According to him, the capacity of women should be developed along the line of the core issues and supported to thrive in these sectors.
The first panel session is moderated by Plangsat Dayil, the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Jos.
She was joined by Margaret Atseva and Ruth Agbo.
Reflecting on the implementation of the WEE policy, Mrs Agbo said women are very important, hence need for a policy to target women specifically.
Mr Agbo, who is from the Association of Women in Trade and Agricultural, said most of the intervention policies targeting women have no sustainable plan.
She stated that the inability of the government to present sustainable plans spurred her group to create an economic cooperative system to address the lack of access to credit.
Mrs Agbo said women are happy with the WEE policy and are anticipating the implementation of the policy.
“We want to come out of the low self esteem,” Mrs Agbo said while talking about need to empower women.
Mrs Atseva, who represented the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs (NAWE), said there is a need to move beyond policy documents to the implementation stage.
She said dRPC has been training her group on project management at the sub-national level adding that there is a serious lack of awareness of the WEE policy.
“Most women in states don’t know about WEE, but we have started training them on how to access the intervention and to form cooperative societies,” she said.
When asked about the need for sustainability of the WEE policy, Mrs Atseva said there is a need for awareness and enlightenment at the grassroots.
Mrs Agbo also echoed the need for enlightenment and education of the grassroots on government policies.
“We can cascade the information to the grassroots,” Mrs Agbo said. “Women are dying in silence due to economic hardship.”
2:29 p.m.
Mrs. Atseva stressed the importance of cooperative societies (thrifts) as tools for economic empowerment.
At this point, the moderator posed a question to the participants on the sustainability of the policy.
Olalekan Tella, a participant, said the WEE policy must not be left to states alone to implement but must trickle down to the local government level. He said state governments must set up monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure sustainability.
Shekinatu Bello said the government must leverage women’s groups at the community level for the implementation of the WEE policy and other interventions. She called for smarter economic intervention through technology.
Jummai Idonije lamented the dearth of women development centres in the country, noting that governments at different levels converted some of the women development centres into offices and other uses.
“In the rural communities, the husband would not allow their wives to go out. That is why we need to have women development centres to mobilise women to participate in economic empowerment,” she said.
Contributing to the discourse, Ebi Emezue, a participant at the event, said agencies and organisations involved in domesticating the policy should put women’s individual differences into consideration.
She pointed out that, women are not hom*ogenous and “it is not one size fits all.”
Ms Emezue stated that their differences should be considered when planning for their empowerment using the WEE policy.
“I started my business with N5,000, and through encouragement from friends and joining cooperative societies, I have grown that business,” Mrs Atseva said in her closing remarks.
The second panel session is being moderated by Moji Makanjuola.
The session is themed: Women Pushing Through Pro-Women Policy Change.
Members of the panel include; the Akwa-Ibom State Commissioner for Women Affairs Ini Adiakpan, Ifenna Enyantu and Ebi Enezue.
In her remarks, Mrs Enyantu, a former Chairperson of the National Health Insurance Scheme, said the process that led to the development of the WEE policy was thorough.
She called for the decentralization of gender policy because “Nigeria is several countries in one” and needs differ across the country.
Mrs Enyantu urged commissioners to go back to their states to properly domesticate the policy down to the local governments and towns.
She said the process of domesticating would ensure ownership. According to her, without domestication, it remains a federal government policy.
Mrs Enyantu stressed the need for everyone to be involved and not leave policies to civil servants and MDAs.
“We are not against men, we are your mums,” Mrs Enyantu said in a very emotional tone.
The moderator said there is a need to inculcate PTSD into policy development, implementation and monitory.
She posed a question: ‘Are we raising the bar?’
Mrs Enezue raised concerns over the plight of women and children in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the North-east, asking what is Nigeria doing to address the condition of these women and children.
She stressed the need for “evidence-driven policies” to raise the bar in states.
“We should conduct research in our states—we don’t need so much money—the research should be on women needs,” she said.
The moderator, Mrs Makanjuola, highlighted the lack of funding for women development by federal and state governments.
“You cannot have development if you have half of your women left behind,” Mrs Makanjuola said while lamenting the poor funding of the Ministry of Women Affairs.
Mrs Makanjuola told the Akwa-Ibom Commissioner about the demi-god nature of governors, where some commissioners cannot even talk to their governors.
Responding to the issue raised, Mrs Adiakpan explained that commissioners must seek proper ways of communicating with their governors.
She said commissioners can use platforms like WhatsApp to communicate with their governors.
Speaking on progress made by women, Mr Adiakpan said women must set an agenda and target for the next couple of years.
She emphasized the need for strategic response by women to achieve the targets set.
“We need women to set the ladder and not pull It down,” she said.
Shekinatu Bello talked about the plight of HIV patients in IDPs who are facing stigmatization.
“Once you are HIV positive, you are either discarded to the bush or cover your face,” she said.
Reacting to the cases of stigmatisation of HIV patients, the Akwa Ibom commissioner said there is a need for development partners to deploy more resources to those IDPs.
Mrs Makanjuola called for a local solution to the stigmatisation issue in the IDPs.
3:43 p.m.
To wrap up the panel session, the facilitator, Mrs Makanjuola, called for the inclusion of all women accross the country in the empowerment project.
She called for the creation of a level playing ground that allows for the involvement and accommodation of every citizen.
“We should also do evidence-based planning which involves in-depth research,” she said.
In his closing remarks, Musa Umar maintained that the deliberation on the WEE policy must be about solutions and nothing more.
End of Day One
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