Olufunke Baruwa is the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Baruwa worked with PTF, NAPEP and the OSSAP-MDGs in the areas of project management, public policy, gender advocacy and social development. In this chat with ENE OSANG, she canvasses level playing ground to enable women succeed in governance.
How do you feel being the CEO of the NWTF?
It’s a familiar territory in the sense that I have been a board member of the trust fund when I was the desk officer gender at the office of the SSA to the President on MDG’s. My office was instrumental to setting up the fund and at that time provided the initial take of grant so, it’s a familiar territory but working from the inside is a bit different and has its own challenges.
Tell us about the fund and what it’s set to achieve?
The fund is meant to close the gender gap in governance at all levels, what this means is that right now we only have 7% of women in the 8th National Assembly and this is a drop from the 11% that we had in 2011 election. Now we just have eight women in the Senate and 16 women in the House at the federal level the disparities at the local government levels are also very huge we do not have a female governor we have only some deputy governors and we are not anywhere nears the 35% affirmative action set out in the National Gender Policy of 2007. We need to do more and basically the fund is not to dish out money to women but we use it to build capacity of them, teach them lobbying, campaign strategy, help them with their ICT materials, posters, banners, town hall meetings, give them capacity to engage with their constituency I think women need those skills to be able to run for election and participate at primaries.
Are women politicians aware of this fund?
Yes we have 167 million people in Nigeria and half of them are women. I would not say that 10% of us are aware of the funds because the fund just started we are barely four years old there is a lot of work to be done a lot of advocacy and sensitization we have a website that is very interactive for women and we have been going round like my predecessor have met with a lot of professional women groups and I have continued in that. I have met with FIDA, NAWOJ, WIPF, I am meeting with male party executives to market women. We are partnering with DFID, USAID, IRI and so many of these donors including the Netherlands embassy as well as lots of others I can’t mention. By that way we are building our base daily and letting more people know about the fund.
In 2011 a lot of women benefitted from the fund but it wasn’t as much as people would have expected because it wasn’t much. We needed to build a base for the fund to enable it be more structured because we cannot have a fund without management especially as we have come this far. Most importantly, we shall continue to build awareness because there are many women interested in vying for political positions.
What are the criteria for assessing the fund?
We have a long list of criteria including that you must be registered with a political party, you must have won your primaries because there is no point campaigning for you when you have not won your primaries. Our criteria are just basic things to show that you are running for an office so we don’t just waste money.
What is the spread of the organization and how can rural women asses the funds?
We only have an office in Abuja for now, we cannot have offices in all the states but we have an interactive website with phone numbers that people can reach us, INEC is here and work with us as well and we hope that we will diversify to have zonal offices but for now we do not have the capacity to do that.
However we have civil society organizations we work with, we work with women political party organization founded by ministry of women affairs in 2006 and spread across the six geo political zones. Abuja is a central place and there is no way if you are going into elections even if it is local government people always come to Abuja to do one or two things, so if you are a woman politician you need to go wherever is important to you.
Do you face any challenges?
The major challenge is funds, like I said it’s a fund and we need some money we can rely on and fall back on. We need sufficient and consistent funding to carry out our programmes, we have the support of many donor organizations but we need business women, philanthropists, foundations, organizations who support our cause to continue to do so. We need people to sponsor a woman just like men are sponsored; you can pay for a campaign director for a woman to encourage her but we need to continue to raise funds through fund raisers, launching and things like that.
How much can the fund spend on an aspirant?
It depends on the office and like I said we don’t give money, we support but you need to send us your campaign strategy and then we pick things that we can do like posters, banners, organize town hall meetings, pay for venues, transportation and help with campaign but we cannot give you funds directly.
What has the fund achieved for women so far?
The fund has recruited a lot of women into political parties, we have negotiated on behalf of hundreds of women to get into political parties, and we have trained a lot of women. We have been able to start up programmes on leadership building we also have programmes that takes us to universities we started with Nasarawa state university, we have gone to University of Abuja, college of education Zuba, and we hope to go to other schools and begin to talk to girls and mentor them through our mentee programme where women already established in politics talk to these girls and create awareness. We have hundreds of volunteers who are ready to talk to women who are campaigning, the fund have also helped over 250 women during campaigns some of them have won party seats in 2011 and some also came out successful in 2015. We have also been able to give women a voice through the fund by raising a lot of voter awareness as we work with INEC to encourage women to come so I think the fund has achieved a lot and there is still more to be achieved.
Can you share your experience working with or for women?
It has been amazing working with women because many of us are educated and more enlightened now. The country is a circular state and everybody both male or female can head it so I think a level playing field is what matters but a lot of men churn out derogatory statements to keep women perpetually at home but we have known that trick now. I think women can balance home and work as well because today there are lots of websites, write-ups on how to manage your home and career so women are working and they are captains of industries, scientists, pilots, medical doctors, teachers and also home keepers. Women can multi task and I think they can have it all.
So how do you manage your work and home?
I have a home with children and a partner who is very understanding. It is your partners support either male or female that helps one achieve a lot because I don’t think that God created women just to have children because if that’s the case then we are no less than animals. We are a species that is beyond animals and we have the opportunity to achieve whatever we want to achieve just like the men.
What inspired you to gender activism?
After my university days I had the opportunity to serve at the Ajaokuta steel in the 90’s and when I finished school I wanted to just go into the banking world but somehow I got a job with the petroleum special trust fund. We were doing a lot of projects in road, health and it just became interesting to see how government can use finances to transform the lives of people and that was how I had interest in development work. I felt that it is the responsibility of government to provide basic amenities for people and make life better for the people.
From there I went on to the National poverty eradication programme, I was a programme officer in PTF, a programme officer in NAPEP and from there I went to the MDG’s office as desk officer gender and that’s how my life has been revolving.
What did you study in school?
I read business administration in school but I had an MBA in management and I also now got a post graduate certificate in public policy and management and several certificates on gender planning, public policy, gender mainstreaming amongst others.
So how was growing up like?
I have always been an outspoken person and I was given a certificate when I was in the university as the most outspoken person because I hate injustice and unfairness. I want to see women and girls included in development and I feel that everybody have a stake in this country as a citizen and nobody should be under-served because of their gender, upbringing, color or tribe.
Where do you see yourself in the nearest future?
Let me finish the work in hand now, I am a civil servant I took a leave of absence from government on secondment to do this job and I hope to go back to public service with better experience of both world. Now am with the civil society, I partner with them and I want to maybe head another international project.
Do you have any leisure at all?
Yes I do, my weekends are strictly for me, I can take work home only on special circumstances else I try to finish everything by Fridays.
What are your hubbies?
I take my kids out to swimming or take a walk in the evening or just generally check into a hotel and spend weekends there together.
What would be your advice for women?
We are looking at 2019 now because 2015 has passed. Women should start early in planning, making your constituency know you by reaching out to community leaders, meet with people of means and no means because four years is too short to even plan so don’t say it’s too long. Start as early as possible to reach out to organizations that can support you and begin to create that interest. Find an area that you are good at and make sure you are the best in that area and let the people also see that you are the best person for that job.
