Gender & Inclusion

25 October 2024

Promoting Gender Responsive Budgeting in West Africa:

Donor:

Duration:

Coverage: Nigeria

This project was implemented with support from Oxfam Novib. The project assisted in building civil society capacity to analyse budgets from a gender perspective and also development advocacy messages for policy influencing. More than 60 NGOs from Mali, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria benefited directly from the project. The project also worked with the ECOWAS gender desk and national parliaments in the four countries.

https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@gender/documents/publication/wcms_111403.pdf

Gender and Taxation in Nigeria

Donor:

Duration: 2010-2011

Coverage: Nigeria

As part of an effort to advance understanding of the gendered impacts of tax policies and tax reforms in Nigeria at the various levels of development, in order to promote equity enhancing policy changes and reforms, CDD embarked on ‘Gender and Taxation study. The project was implemented from May 2010 to October 2011 and achieved the following objectives:

Analysed how tax policies and tax reforms are impacting differentially on women and men, and in particular on poor women
To engender and improve current tools and techniques for analysing tax policies and reforms

To influence tax policy makers and other stakeholders in Nigeria, to pay greater attention to the gender equity implications of tax policies and reforms

National Conference on Women Political Participation in Nigeria

Donor: United Nations (UN Women)

Duration: 1 Year (2023)

Coverage: National (Nigeria)

The Women’s Political Participation Technical Working Group (WPP-TWG), a consortium consisting of domestic gender interest groups and international partners, organised a national conference to review the state of women participation in the 2023 general elections. The technical working group comprised domestic groups such as the Women in Politics Forum (WIPF), Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa), Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF), Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), 100 Women Lobbying Group and was supported by representatives from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The group’s effort was complimented and supported by the resident office of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), as well as supported by other foreign missions to Nigeria.

The event convened key stakeholders, including elected women in offices and selected female candidates who lost but had a high chance of winning, especially those in legal disputes over the election outcome. It further assessed the impact of interventions in promoting women’s political participation in Nigeria. Looking beyond 2023, towards 2027, the post-mortem critically evaluated the effectiveness of different strategies employed in increasing women's political participation, identifying successful approaches and areas needing improvement. The overarching objective was to provide a platform for fostering collaboration among elected women, planning high-Level policy engagement and setting a comprehensive agenda for advancing women's rights in Nigeria, influencing the narrative for the 2027 elections.

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa), as the Project IPP, sought and engaged relevant consultants, received CVs, conducted briefings and signed Terms of Reference (ToR) with each and every one of the consultants; report writers, masters of ceremony, as well as the keynote speaker. Other event services that were engaged focused on documentation and coverage, usher services and entertainment.

SESSIONS COVERED DURING THE CONFERENCE:

Session One:

Nigerian Women and 2023 Elections - Unpacking the Issues – with sub-topics on Pre-election issues, challenges and implications, Marginalisation of women within Party Structures, Patriarchy and Limited Support, Violence and Intimidation, Legal Battles and Financial Barriers, Election Day and post-election issues, challenges and implications such as Gender Bias in Nomination Process, Legal Challenges and Disputes, Grassroots Engagement and Community Support and Incidences of violence against women.

Session Two:

The role of coverage (media and CSOs) with respect to women political participation in Nigeria, with sub-topics on:

Reportage and Coverage - visibility challenges, media engagement and training, financial barriers, coalition building, digital and media empowerment.

Enhancing media focus on issues - media training and engagement, language inclusivity and local empowerment, financial support and sustainable models, digital media advocacy and positive narratives, international collaboration and diverse representation

Fact-checking - verification of information sources, challenges in media reporting, inclusivity in media narratives, impact of UN Women initiatives, digital media and its role.

Session Three:

Radical change or Systemic approaches and their challenges - How can we make the political landscape fit for gender equity, with sub-topics on:

Radical changes - constitutional quotas, review electoral acts and reject tokenism.

Systemic Approaches - address sub-cultural perceptions, legislative reforms, smart advocacy, media sensitization, women's empowerment and enforcement of laws.

Session Four:

Election Security and Violence against women in elections/politics, with sub-topics on:

Role played by security agencies in the election - Providing Safety and Security, Collaboration with Stakeholders, Implementation of Legislation, Gender-Sensitivity Training, Raising Awareness and Changing Norms, etc.

Other security related issues - Undermining Democratic Processes and Inclusion, Non-Compliance with International Standards, Violence Against Women as a Threat to Democracy, Ineffective Implementation of Legislation, Need for Gender-Sensitive Judicial Approaches and Impact on Human Rights and Democratic Processes.

Alongside the conference, the Conference of Nigeria Female Parliamentarians (CONFEPA) also elected new leadership to steer the affairs of the group for the current cycle. Ekiti State Deputy Speaker, Biodun Olagbaju, was elected chairperson

Deliverables:

Report of the 2-day conference proceedings
National strategy and Action Plan for women’s participation towards 2027
Video recording and still photographs of the conference
A 10 minutes Showreel (video documentary) of the conference
Printed compendium report of the conference

Media Coverage of the Conference

To give the conference wider media visibility and publicity it requires, many media outlets, with nationwide spread were accredited to cover and spread the conference reportage. These were made up of 10 prints (NAN, The Explainer, The Sun, The Guardian Nigeria, The Blueprint, Daily Trust, The Cable) and 4 electronic outlets (Arise TV, Channels TV, Boss FM, Clear View). During the conference in session, live interviews were conducted with

conference conveners and participants alike. The use and airing of the conference report were monitored on television, radio and the print media.

CDD HeforShe Convergence on Promoting Women’s Political Participation

Donor: United Nations (UN Women)

Duration: 1 Year (2019)

Coverage: National

Following the launch of the HeforShe global campaign in September 2014, a number of initiatives were planned to mobilise a critical mass of male supporters for the advancement of women in Nigerian politics and government. It was against this backdrop that the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) with the support of UN Women held a special convening of over 100 participants, including targeted male champions with representation from political parties, Civil Society, and the Media to herald and strengthen a viable male support base to address the key problems confronting the effective participation of women in politics and proffer recommendations.

Delivery of Objective

The convergence delivered on its objective of heralding and strengthening a viable male support base to address the key problems confronting the effective participation of women in politics and proffer recommendations. In addition to several recommendations, a consensus of follow-up action points was built along the areas of engagement of Political Parties, pursuit of legal reforms and provisions, as well as on the imperative of remaining strategic in engaging the National Assembly.

Other far-reaching recommendations:

Need to mobilise more women and make and strategize on how to better incorporate women into participating in politics
Need to deemphasize the monetization of money in politics,
More targeted media messaging to amplify the cause of women's political participation.
Major front-line political parties to subscribe to the agenda of IPAC which is considered favourable to women
Strengthen and work with the women’s wing of all major political parties.
Party leadership should be able to do more towards securing women in the political party.
Ensure at least 70% of women’s representation in politics.
Women should be groomed right from the local government areas.
The women should strategize and recruit more men as HeforShe in the state.
The launch of the HeforShe project should herald a scale up the search and advocacy to reach the goal of the HeforShe.