In commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD), the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has called on President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly (NASS) to prioritise contributions of smallholder women farmers to Nigeria’s quest for food security and a sustainable environment.
In a letter addressed to the President, and signed by HEDA’s Executive Secretary, Sulaimon Arigbabu, the organisation charged Tinubu to be more intentional about giving due attention to the contributions of women in agriculture and other nature-based livelihoods.
HEDA urged Tinubu to consider bigger and more ambitious public investments directly targeted at promoting inclusion and empowerment for women-owned enterprises and initiatives through key ministries of Agriculture, Women Affairs, Water Resources, Energy, Marine and Blue Economy and the Environment.
The body also called on Tinubu to take leadership of and show a strong commitment to the development of national policy frameworks and actions integrating gender equality into climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.
HEDA stressed the importance of facilitating the exchange of best practices among states regarding successful initiatives empowering women in food systems and climate mitigation and adaptation.
Also in a separate letter to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, HEDA called for a review of existing land tenure laws to identify and address discriminatory practices against women’s land ownership and inheritance, potentially through community sensitisation programmes.
Whilst commending the governor for appointing a female agriculture commissioner, HEDA further tasked him to do much more to give smallholder women farmers a voice and a seat at every level of decision-making.
The body urged the governor to consider setting up a Gender Equality Task Force to develop an action plan to address women’s inclusion in food systems and other critical sectors of the economy.
