Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
In commemoration of the 2023 International Women’s Day, Connected Development (CODE), has called on all stakeholders across Nigeria to “EmbraceEquality” not by mere show of words but by actions— such as enacting policies that will protect women and girls in the society.
CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal made this call on Wednesday at the launch of the Galvanizing Mass Action Against Gender-Based Violence in Kano State (GMAA-K) Project Learning and Impact Assessment Report.
He pointed out that Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) is widespread in Nigeria, with 30 per cent of women aged 15-49 reported to have experiences of sexual abuse. Further, 43 per cent of girls are married off before age 18, and 17 per cent are married off before they turn 15.
Hamzat also stated that Kano state, in the Northwestern part of the country, is still battling with SGBV—fueled by cultural and religious factors—with the state lacking enabling laws to address it, sanction offenders’ and ensure victims/survivors get the multidimensional support they require.
While noting that CODE implemented the project to address the crucial driving factor of gender inequality in the country, he announced that over 30 Gender Advocates were trained and they further trained community members and community leaders within three communities in Kano state, adding that they drafted an Action Plan that would aid the implementation of the Child Protection and Violence Against Persons Prohibition Bill(VAPP) in the state.
According to him, “The Action Plan got inputs from various Kano state and non-state actors. As of 1st December 2022, the State Assembly held a public hearing on the Child Protection Bill but the house failed to pass the bills as committed to all stakeholders. It is disheartening to say that policies such as this that ought to protect women and children in society are given a back seat in our society, in Kano state.
“Commitments from government stakeholders have not been upheld particularly the creation of more Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARC) in each Kano Emirates Council. Hence, the reason CODE commissioned Research is to highlight the impact of the project in the state, lessons learnt, and recommendations for future direction of Sexual Gender Based-Violence (SGBV) programming in Kano state”, he said.
He called on the Kano State government to adopt and implement CODE’s GMAA-K Action Plan to End GBV in the state, through policy and legal frameworks and allocate specific budgetary amounts to line activities from line ministries.
For his part, the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria Jamie Christoff, noted that Nigeria is facing an SGBV crisis at home, in schools, on the streets, at work, on the internet, between conflict zones and Internally Displaced Persons camps, lamenting that this has become normalized and most often goes unpunished.
He further stated that, “Certain groups, such as women with disabilities are at even greater risk to experience gender-based violence. The scale of this issue is tremendous. Under Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, we place gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls at the very heart of everything that we do. We believe this is the key to building a more peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous society.
“We have recognized the integral role that civil society organizations play in raising awareness, mobilizing communities and changing attitudes and social norms. This is why we believe strongly in our partnership with CODE”, he said.
Furthermore, he announced that under the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, they have been working with CODE the last two years to galvanize action against gender-based violence in Kano State.
