The Oyo State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Eleyele, Ibadan, and the Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI) are set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to aggressively tackle cases of sexual harassment suffered by students at tertiary institutions nationwide.

This was revealed by the Provost, Dr. Gbonjubola Owolabi, after a meeting with representatives of the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, and GMI at the College’s conference room on Tuesday.

The meeting, attended by the institution’s management team, agreed to make a measurable impact in reducing or eradicating all forms of sexual harassment at the college.

Speaking on behalf of the Provost, the Deputy-provost, Mrs. Iyabo Adeleke, said the MoU aims to strengthen existing efforts to prevent sexual harassment, including through policy development, capacity building, and promoting awareness.

“The initiative is critical to upholding the dignity and rights of our students and staff, and so we key into this policy,” she said.

She said that the college under the watch of Dr. Owolabi had zero tolerance for sexual harassment, abuse of office, and other forms of corrupt practices.

The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, Prof. Idris Bugaje, said the board, in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation, Gender Mobile Initiative, is committed to fostering safe, inclusive, gender-friendly, and harassment-free learning environments across all tertiary institutions under NBTE’s purview.

He said the policy is sequel to a stakeholder engagement on Sexual Harassment Prevention organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.

Represented by Mr. Bello Abdul-Hakeem, the executive secretary, it was stated that the college must constitute an Independent Sexual Harassment Prohibition Committee or a gender-based violence response team to oversee the implementation of the policy.

The executive secretary also mandated the college to work with the Gender Mobile Initiative and establish clear reporting and response mechanisms to address cases of sexual harassment effectively.

Speaking on behalf of the Gender Mobile Initiative, Ms. Omotunde Blessing said that the anti-sexual harassment policy was jointly designed by ICPC with the support of development partners. She said that the policy involved the use of Campus Pal APP, a discreet online reporting platform with multipurpose resources available for users.

Omotunde said that students could use the platform to report cases of harassment, ensuring a prompt and effective response from the college. She said the NGO will provide mini-grants to the institution to support the technical aspects of policy design and implementation. She said the rate of sexual harassment in tertiary education institutions was alarming.

Omotunde said, “The situation of sexual harassment on campuses requires drastic measures to combat. We need to join hands to restore sanity in our educational institutions.”