The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: International women’s day

  • Presidency calls for Joint Effort from All Stake holders to tackle poverty Among women

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, has called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to tackle poverty among women, as Nigeria joins other countries to mark the 2021 International Women’s Day (IWD).

     

    Orelope-Adefulire said this at the weekend in a statement she issued in commemoration of the 2021 IWD with the theme; “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.”

     

     

     

    Celebrated worldwide, the IWD is a day set aside to assess the progress being made by efforts being made in the struggle for social, economic, cultural, and political inclusion of women as well as for advocacy for actions on acceleration of gender equity.

     

    Speaking on the theme of this year’s celebration, Orelope-Adefulire noted that just like in the other parts of the world, COVID-19 had exacerbated gender inequalities in Nigeria, especially among the poor, with many women finding it difficult to cater for their families as a result of loss of their livelihoods as engendered by the pandemic.

     

    She noted that the Federal Government has positively responded to the challenge in various ways, citing the Special Cash Grant Project through which 135,000 women rural women across the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory are already benefitting from “one-off” grant of N20,000 each.

     

     

     

    In addition, Orelople-Adefulire noted that the President had at the inception of COVID-19 in Nigeria directed the expansion of the Social Safety Net Register to accommodate more beneficiaries of the government’s cash transfer programme while women are also major beneficiaries of the of the various initiatives under the N2.3 trillion economic stimulus plan of the administration.

     

    She added that while COVID-19 has made many women poorer, it has been established that SDGs cannot be achieved without tackling the issues of poverty and gender inequality.

     

    “This means all hands must be on deck to end the poverty among women as parts of efforts to ensure no one is left behind through sustainable initiatives targeted at job creation and expansion of economic activities across the country,” the presidential aide said.

     

    She therefore urged other stakeholders to join the battle to tackle poverty among women, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

     

    “Even as I commend President Muhammadu Buhari over these initiatives which are consistent with his national vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years, I will urge other stakeholders to join in the efforts to ensure that more of our women are brought into the mainstream of social-economic activities in Nigeria,” said the president aide who also paid tributes to women at the front line of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic at various levels in the country in the statement.

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • International Women’s Day: Labour and others discourages Gender Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH), leads campaign

    The Nigeria Labour congress (NLC) has raised alarm that the Nigerian government has not ratified or domesticated the Convention 190 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which discourages Gender Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH) in the world of work.

     

    The NLC Head of the Women and Youth Department, Comrade Rita Goyit said this during a virtual workshop with journalists, to commemorate the 2021 international women’s day celebration.

     

     

     

    She said despite making commitment to ratify the convention, the federal government is yet to keep its promise. The workshop was supported by the Solidarity Centre AFL-CIO.

     

    Comrade Goyit said adopting the convention 190 will make work places free from violence and harassment and will also boost productivity. She said it will put Nigeria on the list of countries that promote human rights.

     

    “In 2019, when the ILO Convention 190 was adopted in Geneva, the Nigerian government made a commitment that it will be among the first countries to ratify and also domesticate the Convention, but that is yet to be done,” she said.

     

     

     

    She went on to lament that by not ratifying it, most workers both in formal and informal economy who suffer gender based violence and harassment (GBVH) find it difficult to express themselves hence suffer in silence while the perpetrators walk free.

     

    Also speaking at the workshop, the Deputy Chairperson, National Women Commission, NLC , Hajia Salamatu Aliu sais NLC has been leading various campaigns to encourage women to speak up against GBVH and break the culture of silence society condones around GBVH.

    She shared that the campaign will be sustained until government and employers do the needful to protect women in Nigeria

     

    In his speech, the Country Program Director for Solidarity Centre AFL-CIO, Mr Sonny Ogbuehi, commended the media for their partnership and asked that they join their voices in the campaign against GBVH. According to him, the media has a critical role to play in ensuring that issues of Gender Based Violence and Harassment at work places are brought to the front burner.

     

    The Senior Program Officer, Solidarity Center AFL-CIO, Nkechi Odinukwe also shared how gender based violence and harassment is affected and often worsened by cultural, economic, ideological, political, social, environmental and health factors like displacement, armed conflict, terrorism, migration and increased globalization of economic activities. She particularly mentioned that COVID 19 pandemic is another factor that has worsened GBVH in the world of work since it broke.

     

    “Within the COVID-19 pandemic period, gender based violence especially rape and domestic violence against women workers have risen to exponential levels as women who could get away from abusive partners before the pandemic now find they have to forcefully stay in same spaces with their abuser due to social distancing restrictions. We have seen a lot of women workers abused at home this period than ever before. These women workers come to work dealing with a lot of issues linked to abuse they face at home,” she said.

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com