The Women’s Voice and Leadership Nigeria (WVL-N) project has through its various interventions, improved the lives of over 50,000 women and girls across Lagos State.

The project, managed by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) and funded by the Global Affairs of Canada (GAC), has for five years, through partnerships with local women’s rights organisations implemented life impactful interventions which range from skills acquisition trainings, provision of grants, revolving loans, business startup kits, trainings on financial literacy and business management to providing access to free legal and medical aid, psychosocial counselling and holding awareness creation sessions in the response to and prevention of violence against women and girls.

Other key areas of intervention are promoting women’s participation in politics and leadership in all fields and the socio-economic inclusion of elderly women in the society.

Through the funds from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), ActionAid Nigeria has succeeded in building the institutional and programme delivery capacities of 16 national, state level and community based women’s right organisations in Lagos State. The project is currently being implemented in six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Manager, Projects and Lagos Field Office, ActionAid Nigeria, Vivian Efem-Bassey, listed the states where the project was being implemented as Bauchi, Kebbi, Kwara, Enugu, Cross River, Lagos and the FCT, adding that the group was working with 100 women’s rights organisations.

Efem-Bassey said the project has contributed immensely towards increasing the numbers of women running viable businesses, inclusion of women in traditional leadership councils for the first time in some communities and women and girls developing resilience and obtaining justice against perpetrators of violence against their persons.

In addition, the project supports women organising in their numbers and engaging with relevant levels of government to influence related policies, laws and frameworks that favour women and girls.

A beneficiary of the WVL-N project, Mrs. Uzoiro Obasi, lauded the efforts of the group in providing free medical tests to all participants.
Stating that the financial aid she received from the project gave her business a boom, she added: “My business collapsed years back. I attended the empowerment programme and received a sum of N20,000, which contributed immensely to the growth of my business. This was in 2021.”

She also said she would continue to broadcast the impact of the project to encourage other women to participate in it and emerge as beneficiaries.

Also speaking on the impact of the project, Liadi Lnyda, a fashion designer and beneficiary of the Healthy Living Women and Empowerment Initiative (HELWEI), a partner on the WVL-N project, also affirmed that she had received financial support and training from the project.

Since its inception in 2019, the project whose overall goal is to contribute towards the enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and to advance gender equality in Nigeria, has funded activities bordering on addressing gender-based violence/violence against women and girls, women’s political participation and leadership, economic justice and empowerment, sexual and reproductive health rights, among others, in 24 states of the federation and the FCT using various funding streams.

To ensure geographic balance, the core project states were selected to represent the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. More so, the project will be rounding off in March 2024.