ActionAid- WVL-N Initiative: Five Years of Standing in the gap, giving voices to voiceless women

By Christian Ita

Funded by Global Affairs, Canada and armed with the goal of empowering women and girls by advancing their rights and supporting women-led organisations, networks and movements through capacity building and mentorship, influencing gender related laws, preventing and  fighting Gender Based Violence ( GBV) among others, the Women’s Voice and Leadership Nigeria WVL-Nigeria launched in 2019, through the instrumentality of ActionAid, has impacted the lives of many Nigerian women.

Five years down the line, via ActionAid’s implementations, the WVL-N initiative has resolutely pursued a new lease of life for women and girls in Nigeria, increasing their enjoyment of human rights while advancing gender equality.

Through innovative strategies- campaign, advocacy, networking and building alliances, community and High-level engagements, partnerships and funding and research and documentation- the ActionAid WVL-N project has not only rewritten the narratives of vulnerable women in Nigeria but has also given women and girls the voice to be heard and the wings to fly through relentless advocacy and empowerment programmes; as well as the pursuit of justice and rehabilitation for abused and traumatised vulnerable women who lack access to justice, education and economic empowerment.

In the course of its five year project, the initiative made an appraisal of women participation in politics and decision making positions and the outcome was that Nigerian women are utterly marginalized and underrepresented in the political turf and other decision making avenues.

Given the foregoing, WVN-L in the last five years embarked on a sustained advocacy,support and contributions towards increased women participation in politics and leadership positions and it has been paying off. For example, more than ever before, in the last five years, more female undergraduates in Nigeria have won  elections into their various institutions’ Student Union Governments.

For instance, at the Department of Computer Science, Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, Enugu, a female student recently emerged, for the first time,  the Departmental President. Similarly, a female student was elected as President of the National Association of Akwa Ibom State Students in the College of Health Technology, Calabar.

At the University of Cross River, UniCross,a female student was elected the first ever female Vice president of the University’s SUG.

In the largely conservative Northern part of Nigeria, many female undergraduates also got elected into SUG positions. For example, 64 young females students won several seats in the SUG of various high institutions in Kebbi state, including the first female Vice President of Kebbi state College of Nursing and Health Sciences. A female student was equally elected as the Vice President of the National Association of Kebbi state Students, NAKSS.

The WVL-N project also supported the development of Gender-policies in five Nigerian Universities leading to three young female undergraduates emerging first ever SUG Presidents in their various schools- Enugu state College of Education ( Technical), Peaceland College Enugu and the University of Calabar, Unical.

In an unprecedented milestone, WVL-N’s advocacy for increased women participation in decision making process saw 190 women making history as members of traditional leadership council in Bauchi, Enugu, Cross River, Kebbi and Kwara states.

On the whole, within five years, the WVL-N’s advocacy for women participation in politics successfully mobilized 2566 women to register as first time voters while 131 women enabled with direct link to project interventions vied for political offices.

Similarly, between 2019 and 2024, the initiative supported 7,857 women to collect their Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs  while 40 women won various elections with verifiable attributes to the WVL-N project.

In the last five years, the ActionAid inspired project maintained an  unwavering commitment to building the capacity of women and girls and eradicating poverty, removing the various restraints and barriers including early marriages, lack of access to formal education, financial incapacities etc militating against women’s participation in Nigeria’s economy. This can be gleaned from its various funding streams- including multi year grants, the Opportunity Fund, the Strategic Innovative Fund and COVID-19 Top- Up Fund- which along with a flexible and participatory approach enabled 182 women-based organisations to directly impact the lives of 4,082,535 individuals and indirectly reach over 3,067618 people.

In terms of direct, physical economic empowerment, ActionAid’s five years of pursuit of good tidings for women and girls through the project, culminated in the economic empowerment of 22, 445 women and girls across the six project states of Enugu, Cross River, Bauchi, Kebbi, Kwara,  Lagos and the FCT.

The break down of this figure shows that 6,500 rural women were able to establish their small scale businesses armed with start-up grants or equipment.

Notedly, the exceptional scheme for economic growth, Village Savings and Loans Association,  VSLA played a pivotal role in WVL-N’s financial and economic empowerment of women. The scheme was adopted and implemented by the project states plus the FCT with 532 groups including 13, 911 women.

Between 2019 when the project kicked off and VSLA incorporated into it, a total of 233 local government areas in the six states plus the FCT were covered. One of the benefiting women was ecstatic when economic and financial benefits of the exercise dawned on her.

Essentially, over the last five years, benefiting women collectively saved N417.5million, reflecting their commitment to financial security and growth.  The cash share- out amounted to N417.5million, which imply that the savings are not only substantial but fairly distributed to enhance the financial and economic capacities of the women involved.

In the course of its intervention in the lives of women and girls, especially the vulnerable segment, ActionAid, implementing initiative, WVL-N received tremendous collaboration from the various Local Women Rights Organisations, LWROs in the project states which enable holistic implementation of the project. For instance in Bauchi, many of such LWROs, including Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative,  were partners and they also benefited from such partnership in the form of grants and economic empowerments.

The summation of WVL-N’s financial involvement with women in the six project states with the FCT indicates that in the last five years, a total of N2, 283, 989, 106.74 has been expended.

The LWROs equally played salutary roles in chronicling incidence of sexual abuse of women and girls as well as GBV which enable WVL-N to aggressively intervene, thus between 2019 and 2024, the project was able to influence 47 gender related laws, policies, strategies and frameworks at the state, national, institutional and community levels culminating into the passage of Violence Against Person Prohibition Law passed in six states.

The project has been instrumental in addressing GBV and Violence Against Women and Girls( VAWG) across the six states and the FCT by working through the various LWROs and Community- Based Organisations, CBOs.

The project also influenced the domestication of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1325 and the development of Kwara state action plan. In addition Gender strategy and GBV prevention and response strategies were developed for some schools, including five universities in the project states.

Over 4, 781 directly benefited in the GBV/ VAWG services, including legal, medical and psychological support and empowerment activities for survivors. In all, between 2019 till date, a total of 4683 GBV cases were managed in addition to the establishment of GBV multi-stakeholders response committee in some of the project states which contributed to response and justice for GBV survivors with 178 court judgements secured and 114 successful court judgements. Economic empowerments were also provided to 335 survivors.

One of such instances where WVL-N came through for a GBV victim and survivor was the celebrated case of a 31 year mother of two, Chidinma. Her story is a warm and inspiring testament to the effectiveness of the partnership between LWROs and WVL-N in standing up against GBV and giving survivors a new lease of life. Chidinma’s woes started in Abia state where she endured persistent assaults from her partner and her life and those of her two kids were in constant danger as a result.

It was at this stage that a LWRO, Women’s Aid Collective, WACOL in collaboration with WVL-N and another LWRO, Project Alert acted swiftly to shield Chidinma from further violence by evacuating her to Lagos and getting her an accommodation, away from her monstrous partner. She was also availed medical services to fixed her health which was damaged by the series of abusives she had endured.

The next phase of her rehabilitation was providing her with supplementary financial assistance to commence a small scale trade thus enabling her to rebuild her life and move on. Expressing immense gratitude to the initiative and the LWROs that came through for her, Chidinma said: “I’m so thankful for everything that was done for me and my children. I never thought I would be able to escape, but now I have hope again”

WVL-N’s strident campaigns for the rights of women and the deliberate education of vulnerable women, especially women in rural areas, about their rights in the society in the face of obnoxious laws and cultural practices inimical to their rights have been yielding positive and encouraging results in the last five years.

For example,  in Obioma community in Udi local government area of Enugu state, it was a pleasant surprise for Ifeoma Onuorah to know from WVL-N that she has equal right as her male siblings to inherit their late father’s properties. Before WVL-N educated her on her rights, Ifeoma had accepted as fait accompli, the long held cultural belief and norm which dictated that only men inherited their fathers’ properties, including land, which she was all along denied inheritance by her male siblings of the properties left behind by their late father.

WVL-N was also able to educate and explain to a broad spectrum of Obioma women that in Igboland presently, in line with the judgement of the Supreme court, women now have equal inheritance rights as men.

A glance into an abridged summary of some of  WVL-N Project achievements in the last five years reveals the following:

-100 Women led organisations’ system and  programming abilities strengthened.

-182 women led organisations received funding from the project’s three funding streams including the COVID-19 top up grant.

-191 grants disbursed to 182 LWROs across 24 states and the FCT.

-47 women’s rights related legislations, policies, and commitments influenced at state and national levels.

-190 women made history as members of traditional leadership councils in four project states.

-9,036 Sexual and GBV survivors( women and girls) directly reached.

-N408,802652 saved by 13, 911 women through the 532  VSLA groups in 232 communities.

-1,532,323 women and girls reached with economic and justice empowerment initiatives.

-29,696 women organisations and individuals provided with online information on gender equality, feminist interventions and women’s rights advancement through the Feminist Hub.

– From 2019 to 2024, the project has reached 7,150,153 women and girls inclusive of people living  with disabilities, PLWDs across 24 states and the FCT.

WVL-N successes in the last five years cannot be divorced from its innovative approach to issues bordering on the wellbeing and rights of women. Notedly, such innovative approaches as I SupportHer Club, made up of 40 young men formed to motivate positive changes in attitude among men and boys towards women and girls greatly helped, it impacted positively.

Similarly, the use of Women Radio( WFM 91.7) to disseminate information, educate and champion the cause of women’s advancement and equality in Nigeria was another great approach, so also was the the introduction of Financial Technology, FinTech into the formal community led savings and loans schemes.

Overall, ActionAid Nigeria deserves its flowers for advancing gender equality and increasing the enjoyment of human rights by women in the country.