About 30m women and girls facing gender-based violence in Nigeria – ActionAid

ActionAid Nigeria has raised concern that 30 million women and girls are experiencing gender based violence in the country.

Country Director, AAN, Andrew Mamedu, who raised the concerns at the National Dialogue on Investing to Prevent violence Against Women and Girls in commemoration of the 2023 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, stated that figure showed that 1 in three women, that is, 25 per cent of Nigerian population sufferfrom gender based violence

Emphasizing that the problem was enormous, he stressed that the federal, state and local governments must take the lead in the fight against the menace by increasing investment to tackle the menace.

He however noted that the country was beginning to make progress.

“We are beginning to see more survival supported and we are seeing more cases reported . The reason why more cases are being reported is because there are more awareness and people are coming out to speak compared to before when people can’t speak out .”

He said that for them at ActionAid, they don’t want the statistics of violence against women to remain the same, and they are committed to keep working with everyone, partners, communities, girls and women to ensure that they achieve all the results desired .

The Country Director further lauded Global Affairs Canada for funding the Women’s Voice and Leadership Nigeria Project (WVL-N) project which is one of the several reposnses to the issue of adressing violence against Women and Children in Nigeria.

Also, the Head of Development Corporations, Global Affairs Canada, Djifa Ahado, said they are satisfied with the impact they are recording from the WLN project adding that they can’t seperate issues that that involves men and boys because it is crucial and key.

She stressed that she was happy because these involved the traditional rulers and stakeholders to ensure that men and boys are included and understand why they need to focus not only on Women and Girls but Men and Boys.

She said: “WLN is one of the biggest project we have in Nigeria because of the good responses women’s right organisations has had in Nigeria and we are satisfied about the results and some of the impacts and results from the government and state level but we can always do more.”

The WVL project is a five-year project funded by Global Affairs Canada. The project is aimed at tackling the barriers to gender equality and supporting the empowerment of women and girls through provision of technical and financial resources to local feminist/women’s rights organisation (LWROs) that are advancing the rights of women and girls and championing gender equality.

The funding opportunity targets innovative ideas which can serve as a catalyst for new ways of doing things within the women’s rights movement in Nigeria.