Research shows a 6.3 percent unemployment gap between men and women in Nigeria. This highlights a rather obscure fact that is holding the nation back. Understanding the importance and necessity of women’s empowerment in this time and era, the Development Research and Project Center, (dRPC) in partnership with South Saharan Social Development Organization, (SSDO) is implementing the Partnership for the Advancement of Women’s Economic Development (PAWED) project.
The PAWED project was formed to strengthen the capacity of women’s economic collectives in Enugu state to conduct high-impact evidence-informed advocacy to improve the livelihood of economically active women and girls in the state.
In April 2022, the PAWED project held a Policy Dialogue Session to provide a platform for synergy between stakeholders in Enugu State for effective advocacy for Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). The stakeholders included:
- Women-led, women-focused Civil Society Organizations
- Women’s Economic Empowerment Cooperatives
- Representatives from relevant government ministries.
- Academia – University of Nigeria (UNN) Gender and Development Centre.
- Media representatives
Specifically, the policy dialogue session aimed to achieve the following:
- Achieve a consensus on the most pressing WEE issues in the state
- Identify key policy and regulatory frameworks that will facilitate and accelerate the delivery of WEE projects
- Proffer solutions and recommendations for the furtherance of Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in the state
- Produce policy brief documents for succinct and effective advocacy
- Come up with an effective advocacy strategy based on synergy amongst the different stakeholder groups.
The session started with an overview of the Comparative Analysis of the Subnational 2022 WEE Budgetary Allocation. After which they reached a consensus on pressing WEE issues in Enugu their specific causal factors. Some issues identified were:
- Poor prioritization of WEE funding.
- Lack of WEE project coordination.
- Duplication of WEE budget lines.
- Lack of availability of WEE projects.
- Poor monitoring and evaluation culture.
Participants discussed and proposed several recommendations to tackle issues relating to women’s economic empowerment in Enugu State. Proposed solutions include:
- Improving access to quality education for women.
- Providing better healthcare and social protection.
- Strengthen the digital skills of women to bridge the digital gender gap
- Promoting policies that enhance human capital development.
- Eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against women.
- Strengthening active policies to build a more inclusive labor market targeting gender wage gap, integration, and advancement of women of diverse backgrounds
- Advancing multi-stakeholder partnership to update new initiatives for promoting women’s empowerment.
Finally, the participants also devised advocacy strategies to improve the WEE situation in the state, with the government representatives pledging to facilitate advocacy visits to the senior management teams of government agencies responsible for WEE.
