Growth of women and children in Africa formed the theme of the just concluded International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Africa Regional Congress held in Abuja as the women association took discussions beyond rhetoric. ENE OSANG was there.
The 2019 FIDA Regional Congress coincided with the celebration of the fourth year of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which addresses global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change and environmental degradation, among others, as well as ensuring that no one was left behind.
It also marked the mid-point of the first 10-year implementation plan of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which seeks to promote “a prosperous Africa based on inclusive and sustainable development; and an Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.”
According to recent reports from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN
Women, the African continent has demonstrated commitment to promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.
In fact, almost all countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; more than half have ratified the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Other milestones include the African Union declaration of 2010–2020 as the African Women’s Decade.
However, across the continent many have expressed disappointment on the reality of the status of women, wondering if these treaties have resulted into meaningful progress for gender equality.
Concerns
The FIDA Regional Vice President Africa (North and West), Victoria Olufunmilayo Awomolo, in her address at the opening ceremony expressed deep concerns over poor percentage of women representation in Africa, particularly in Nigeria.
Awomolo noted that globally women constitute more than half of the world’s population, regretting however that they make an important but often underutilized resource.
She also lamented continuous and rising cases of violence against women, saying that Nigerian is signatory to many international conventions yet impact of the treaties are far from being achieved.
She said, “In Africa the post-colonial and independence saw a few women participating in politics. With the reintroduction of democracy the participation of women rose to 6.7 per cent, both in appointive and elective positions. This is well below the global average of 22.5 per cent.
“Today the percentage of women in parliament in Nigeria has dropped to 5.9 per cent the lowest on the continent but thankfully Rwanda has made the African women proud with over 50 per cent women in her parliament.
“The question which readily comes to mind is if Rwanda, with her challenges could see potential in her women folk, why is it so difficult for other African nations.
“We must not rest on our oars, we must continue to march forward, advocating, giving a hand where it is needed, making sure that the doors that open, stay open.
In Nigeria we have the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as the ultimate standard; Violence against Persons Prohibition Act 2015; and the Child Rights Act 2015; and other international conventions to secure a future free of violence, discrimination and abuse. She queried how well the country was using these laws.
Delivering the keynote address a Professor of Law and Dean, Faculty of Law at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, stressed the importance of an inclusive government where both men and women enjoy equal opportunities, stating Nigeria is not developing as expected because women are left out.
Ezeilo called for concerted effort by government and all stakeholders to realize progress for women and children, assuring that this would enable better national development.
“We cannot actually develop or survive as a continent if half of the population are underrepresented in power and cannot access the basics of socio-economic factors.
“If women are not educationally empowered then we cannot make that progress because we cannot run on one foot we have to carry everybody along, to be inclusive and make sure we are not leaving anyone behind, this is the whole essence of sustainable development goals,” she said.
She called on a review of Nigeria’s laws saying there was need for effective implementation of extant laws, as most of these laws are observed in breach and are not respected, hence the difficulty in ensuring effective remedies for victims and survivals of human rights abuses.
Gender equality
The Chief of Staff to the Deputy President of the Senate, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, presenting a paper titled: “Leadership Strategies for Institution Building and Development,” noted the poor inclusion of women in governance, and other leadership positions in Africa especially Nigeria, stressing that for a country to develop both men and women must be fully involved.
He explained that the development of any society requires the participation and contribution of both men and women, regretting that, “Unfortunately, women have been historically marginalised in all areas of life including political leadership, economy and social life.
“In 2018 World Economic Forum report documented that it could take 202 years (till 2220) for the global gender pay gap to even out at present trend.
“Meanwhile, in the last few decades, humanity has realised that progress and development of society requires concerted efforts for gender equality and women empowerment,” he said.
“Children have their rights denied every single day. In 2017 alone, an estimated 6.3 million children and young adolescents died mostly from preventable causes, according to UNICEF report in 2018. We now know that countries on top of the human development index such as the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark etc) have involved women,” he added.
Igbuzor further described Leadership “as one of the most important variables that affect the performance of any organisation, institution or nation.”
Speaking further he said: “It is therefore necessary to build the capacity of people for transformative leadership for gender sensitive and child-friendly policies to drive development.”
Legal reforms
The Secretary General, Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), Nigeria, Saudatu Mahdi, while delivering paper presentation titled: “Women in Politics, Decision Making and Business: How Far Can Legal Reforms Go” lamented that: “In Nigeria, women are systemically affected by discrimination.”
According to her, the gaps in legal and social frame works compounded by weak enforcement are the key drivers in the growing impunity for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV).
She expressed worry that redress for survivors and accountability by perpetrators are in abysmal figures for violations in private and public spaces, regretting that sustained advocacy and engagements by the Women’s movements led by organizations like FIDA, WRAPA, WARDC, CIRDDOC, WACOL under various auspices, have resulted in limited impact.
“Accountability for Violence Against Women and Women’s dwindling results in elections defy logic and seem unaffected by legislations at federal and state levels where available.
“This is despite the fact the country is a signatory to the aforementioned and several other international and regional instruments towards the advancement of the rights of women from a human rights perspective.
“The persistent decline in gender related indices in relation to these instruments is an acknowledgment of the fact that the country and indeed the region, still has deep gender gaps,” she said.
Mahdi added that “Current efforts and advocacy for the implementation of progressive legal and policy instruments is not enough to close the gender gaps or lead to national development which continues to be hampered by social discrimination.”
She maintained that discrimination against women persists widely both in law and practice resulting in fewer and poorer life choices for women, stressing the importance of dislodging entrenched systems-level discrimination as this goes far deeper than the quotas, percentages, and targets, which in themselves could become counter-productive by accentuating some of the root causes of gender inequality.
Mobilisation for meaningful participation
Also in a paper presentation titled “Effective Mobilisation of Women for Meaningful Participation,” Senior Program Officer with the MacArthur Foundation Africa Office Dr. Amina Salihu, stressed that for women to make meaningful headway in the equality struggle especially as it concerns political participation they must first understand who they are as women.
She said that understanding of the forms of poverty facing women which includes; economic, political voice, psychosocial, and time poverty which she said defines women’s many struggles is equally important
The programme officer added that it was necessary to historicise women’s lives by requiring that winning be redefined from a women’s perspective.
“To effectively mobilise women, we must ‘historicise’ our journey. This means beginning with an understanding of who we are as women.
“Hirstoricising means writing history from the perspective of women. It is a feminist term that seeks to tell the story of individuals, communities and countries from the perspective of women. It does this by clearly locating women’s experiences, struggles and actions where they would otherwise have been lost, or told mainly from a male point of view,” she said.
Salihu further said perspective to winning does not mean a zero sum game but a process, adding that this begins with the ability to act to change the outcome of events around women and not necessarily as an end that is winning an election.
“Wining therefore is not victory measured by a radical transformation in the lives of women or a jump from 0% to 50 per cent increase in the political participation of women.
“Victory comes in different colour shades and is measured, as an incremental array of baby steps. The process matters as much as the end goal. It meant a lot to women activists and gender aware policy makers that government was at least forced to ask the question how will a project benefit women, why is maternal mortality on the increase? How many girls are going to and finishing a course of school, she queried.
Call to action
The women lawyers in a communiqué released at the end of the congress recommended that women be involved in peace processes/building for the protection of women and girls from violations during and after violent conflict.
It also stressed the need to promote the commitments of women as it translates into demonstrated political will and delivery.
“There is need for sustained popularization of the ideology that recognizes that gender equality is a fundamental human right and an integral part of regional integration, economic growth and social development.
“There is the need to enhance and implement high level, cross sector/stakeholder dialogue and deep advocacy for legislative or administrative reform to repeal discriminatory provisions or address discriminatory practices at all levels.
“There is the need for the promotion and dissemination of a ‘how to tools’ that guide the demand and supply side engagements at all stages of reforms; tools and learning mechanisms that help to transit from demand to action,” it stated.
The communiqué stressed further the need for the provision of more education on entrepreneurship and mentorship opportunities to provide role models and guidance to women; as well as a successor generation to sustain demand and implementation of all reforms that remove barriers to women’s inclusion and participation.
“More energy should be injected to popularize the link between gender equality, growth, development and the economy. It is important that every organization or nation should have a deliberate strategy of building a pipeline of leadership succession that will tackle issues of institution building and development among other issues,” it added.
