Stakeholders seek better economic deal for women

Director of Programs, Co-impact, Executive Director, Policy Innovation Centre and other Stakeholders at the Roundtable.

The Women’s Economic Empowerment’s (WEE) action team for the domestication of the policy in Lagos has urged female residents to collaborate with the state government, as it unveils the blueprint to uplift the lives of women statewide.

The stakeholders, who spoke yesterday at the conclusion of a three-day meeting on WEE Roadmap Co-Creation, stressed that the policy would not only help women grow their businesses but also ease the financial burden on men.

In her remarks, the Gender and Inclusion Lead at the Policy Innovation Centre, Adekemi Omole, explained that the essence of the co-creation exercise was to address germane issues on how women could be better engaged to maximise the opportunities presented in the policy.

She noted: “It is basically how we can make Lagos State more enabling for women to thrive economically. We have gathered people from different sectors – private, CSOs, public sectors, faith leaders, traditional leaders and also the grassroots – to ensure that everybody’s voice is reflected in this roadmap. We want to ensure that it is usable and it serves everyone.”

Omole said while there is a national roadmap on the WEE policy, there was a need for a workable one that could be domesticated in Lagos. She went on: “The roadmap is like a guide on how women’s economic empowerment can be fostered in Lagos State.”

For example, it would address very serious issues around how women can be better engaged in agriculture. How can women have better access to land so that they can farm and be empowered? How can they have better access to jobs, formal and informal? These are some of the things we intend to achieve. Also, we are looking at emerging sectors – the creative sector, the oil and gas, mining, arts and culture. We want to see how women can be better positioned to make something out of it.”

President of the Women in Export Trade and Investment (WETI), Efe Usin, highlighted the several opportunities the state government had provided for women to thrive economically.  She mentioned one of them to include the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) which offers a single-digit loan for women to grow their enterprises.

Also speaking, the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Sustainable Development Goals, Dr Oreoluwa Finnih, who was represented by Joke Ogunojemite, submitted: “The reason this policy is being domesticated in Lagos is mainly because we want to empower women. The office of SDGs and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation are the stakeholders in this domestication.

SIMILARLY, prominent players have advocated actionable strategies that enhance women’s representation in economic leadership roles in the country. They harped on the need to tailor initiatives, from mentorship and training programmes at entry levels to organisational policies supporting work-life balance at mid-career stages.

The advocacy was made at a Stakeholder’s Roundtable on Women in Economic Leadership in Nigeria at the weekend. The roundtable, organised by Policy Innovation Centre (PIC), in partnership with Co-Impact, gathered key figures from government, civil society, and the private sector, including Director of Lagos State Women Affairs, Mrs  Shyllon Olufunke and President of the Nigerian Economic Society, Prof Adeola Adenikinju.

PIC’s Executive Director, Osasuyi Dirisu, lamented that women were grossly underrepresented in the economic sectors in Nigeria, stressing the need to have sustainable and balanced development via fair representation.

She re-echoed the imperativeness of designing programmes that could promote institutional change for an improved policy environment.  Regional Director Africa of Co-Impact, Mary Wandia, suggested innovative strategies that could transform the culture, policies and practices of institutions in Nigeria.

Director of Lagos State Women Affairs, Olufunke, called on stakeholders to recognise challenges faced by women with disabilities in their efforts to advance gender equality.

She acknowledged the progress made by the public sector through various interventions but stated that more still needed to be done.

Gender Research Specialist at PIC, Dr Mary Jimoh, in her key findings, spotlighted several critical barriers to women’s economic leadership in the country.  She noted that societal expectations, gender roles, workplace stereotypes, and abysmal implementation of gender policies have continued to limit women’s advancement.