Representative from the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, O.B.Beckley (sitting left); Director, Women Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON), Morenike Omaiboye; Assistant Director, Lagos State Ministry of Agric, Sholuade Adejoke; Rose of Sharon Foundation representative, Dr.Ndudi Bowei; CTO, Agrc, Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Oluwa Mutiu Adebayo; Senior Programs Officer, International Centre for Environmental Health and Development (ICEHD), Ibekwe Stella; HOD, Lagos State University of Science and Technology, Dr. Oyetunde O. A. and Senior officer 1, Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Ajayi Adefunke, flanked by participants at the National Policy Review Forum on Gender and Climate Change in Lagos… recently.
The International Centre for Environmental Health and Development (ICEHD) has called on policy makers and all stakeholders to decisively influence policy reform to mainstream gender in agricultural budgeting and financial inclusion, to achieve sustainable climate justice for women farmers in Nigeria.
They made this call at a recent policy review and advocacy forum for the climate justice and economic resilience project for rural women farmers in Nigeria, which included project learning outcomes and an updated book presentation.
Project Manager, ICEHD, Dr Ndudi Bowei, explained that Nigeria’s climate has been changing, evidenced in increases in temperature, variable rainfall, rise in sea level and flooding, drought and desertification and land degradation.
She added that these changes bring a gendered impact, as it disproportionately affects women and widens gender inequalities. “Women, being the majority of the world’s poor and more dependent on natural resources, become more vulnerable than men to climate change impacts.”
Bowei explained that as climate change affects Nigeria, small scale women farmers count losses, because they play vital roles in agricultural production and are key to Nigeria’s food security.
“They account for 70 per cent of agricultural workers and 80 per cent of food producers but are at the receiving ends of the negative impacts of climate change.”
Following series of fact-finding and deliberations with women farmers on some of the climate-related challenges they face, which is negatively impacting food security, increased income and financial freedom, ICEHD with support from African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) embarked upon a two-year project on “Climate Justice and Economic Resilience for Women Farmers in Nigeria” (2022-2023), with centred locations in Abuja and Lagos.
The project set out to increase the number of rural women farmers, skilled in climate-smart agriculture and innovative farming technology, equipped with tools for increased crop production, improved food security, access to markets, income and improved agricultural financing.
Programme Director, ICEHD, Sonnie Bowei, said between February 2022 and February 2024, 200 women farmers were directly trained under the project, 100 in the North (centered in Abuja) and another 100 in the South (centered in Lagos and Akwa Ibom states).
Bowei said the book will serve as a policy advocacy tool to project the voices of rural women farmers, towards reforms in agricultural policy, gender mainstreaming in agricultural budgeting and financial inclusion to promote the women’s rights.
Executive Director, Centre for 21st Century Issues (C21st), Titilope Akosa, revealed that land ownership is one of the greatest problems women farmers face, because when they are unable to meet up with payments, they are often exposed to sexual and gender based violence from men.
Reviewing Nigeria’s policy on gender and climate change, its impact on women farmers and challenges to address, Akosa said the national policy in agriculture is a part of the Social Development Goals (SDGs 1) of eradicating poverty and should be upheld.
