Yemisi Izuora
The United Nations (UN) has expressed worries that Nigeria may produce more poor women and girls except it proactively shifts from shambolic and perfunctory implementation of policies that has to balance gender roles in positions of leadership.
The UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Beatrice Eyong counseled the country’s leadership at a Roundtable with Media Executives during the Signing of Compact of Commitment to support Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women in Lagos.
Citing global data, Eyong, disclosed that globally one in every ten women lives in extreme poverty, and projections indicate that 342.4 million women and girls will not have moved out of extreme poverty by 2030 unless we shift the current trends.
The percentages she went to to say could be higher for countries like Nigeria where the gap between the few rich and a majority poor continues to widen.
Representation of women in Nigeria’s parliament, where critical policies and laws are made is just about 4 per cent and at the executive, women make only 17 per cent of the Ministers serving in the Federal Cabinet.
“These are challenges that we must all join hands together to surmount. This is where you, as media practitioners come in. But the question is, how much is being done by the media to advocate for more women representation and inclusion in appointive and elective positions in Nigeria? What can media do differently to improve the chances of more women joining politics and winning in the next elections? These are challenges we must all respond to as women and gender champions in the media sector.” pointed Eyong.
While applauding the media for prioritizing women’s advancement in their editorial policies and programming and while we may not have recorded huge gender gains, she said we have made commendable progress in the media sector, and we should not take our foot off the gas, adding “As a tool that sets the daily agenda and shape national conversation, let us do the right thing, and place women in our headlines”.
Eyong, stressed that the Roundtable presents exceptional opportunity to examine and explore opportunities where media could make impact in addressing challenges faced by women and girls.
Speaking on the role of UN Women, she said the organization invests in enhancing personal resilience and professional development of women to increase their contribution in leadership, economic growth, peace, security and in humanitarian nexus.
Furthermore, the UN Women believes that investing in women equals to investing in the architecture of the society, stressing “We do know that no nation can develop and prosper if women are excluded. Our support is guided by shared value, mutual respect and common vision of the Government and the people of Nigeria.”
Summarizing on Thematic Areas of work: she said evidence based Advocacy is any action to cause the public including policy makers, authorities change their behavior positively vis à vis gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Organization alsocarry out studies to provide statistics necessary for evidence-based advocacy, planning and budgeting as well as gender responsive auditing and evaluations.
According to her, “We develop and implement capacity building programs to strengthen personal resilience and professionalism among women and girls to aspire and achieve their full potential.
“We support women’s access and use of information on services, resources, decision making spaces, and markets.
“Provide policy, advisory support, and technical assistance to make gender justice and women’s empowerment a reality!
We coordinate (both at global and country levels) efforts by member States to set standards such as laws/legislations, policies, resolutions, protocols, for gender equality.
“We technically and financially support governments and national stakeholders to implement, monitor and evaluate as well as report the achievements of these standards in member countries.”
In addition Eyong said they implement programs and projects that respond to the daily needs of women, such as establishing biogas units for rural households, digitally assisted climate smart agriculture linked with animal husbandry, establish units for food processing, and preservation and marketing.
“We also work with communities that are often ‘left behind; women headed households, women living with HIV, women with disability, displaced women. We provide information services, economic empowerment, and policy engagements to ensure they have enabling environment to life fulfilled lives as well as contribute to development.
“The purpose of the MoU and Compact of Commitment to be signed today is to provide a framework of cooperation and collaboration. It will strengthen our partnership in escalating media advocacy to promote women’s economic empowerment; prevention of violence against women and girls; expanding access to service/resources/
She said further, if there is one thing we know, media plays a key role in setting the agenda and shaping direction on issues of national and global interest. From the Arab Springs and Kenya’s Gen-Zs agitation which were heavily coordinated through social and digital media, to the Rwandan Genocide, where radio played a pivotal role in coordinating atrocities, media, whether social, digital, print of electronic is a double sword which can cut either way.
Media she noted is a tool that has been used over time in educating the society and accelerating behavioral change, which is a fundamental prerequisite for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
“We want to see the Nigerian media leading campaign on mindset change within communities where gender inequality is entrenched, women’s voice is subdued, and the rights and aspirations of young girls are violated with impunity.” she concluded.
In her remarks, Publisher of Oriental News Nigeria, who represented the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) at the event said promised the Guilds commitment to the UN Women Supporting Gender Equality and empowering women and girls in Nigeria.
She said GOCOP is a professional media Association with mandate to support development and encourage collaboration that will accelerate socioeconomic growth.
“We are also gender sensitive and that is why GOCOP elected Maureen Chigbo as the first female president of the association and she’s currently piloting the affairs of the Association.
“Myself standing before you is the treasurer of the Association so you can see and appreciate this balance.
We now have more women mediaprenurers as members under her leadership.” Izuora remarked.
Mrs Izuora went further to noted that apart from what UN is pushing to achieve in Nigeria, many companies in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) are now prioritizing climate action and advancing gender inclusiveness. However, there are still too few bringing these two goals together in an integrated, comprehensive, and strategic way.
Climate action is a key area that the world is shifting to.
“Because we know that including women’s perspectives and talents is crucial for driving climate mitigation and adaptation as well as facilitating the transition to clean energy.
“We have also seen how businesses in EMDEs with higher proportions of women in senior management and board positions are more likely to have formalized, effective commitment when it comes to climate action and green energy transition.
“So we advocate that we approach these priorities climate action and gender inclusion as two sides of the same coin, and double down on the value of women’s leadership in driving robust corporate actions to confront the climate crisis.
“GOCOP is willing to participate with you in this initiative and would continue to support every meaningful advocacy that will create opportunities for women.
So on behalf of my president Maureen Chigbo, I thank you for the invitation and commend you for this brilliant initiative.” She added.
