Except for when the camera generally sweeps through the
Federal Executive Council seating, you hardly see or hear from Hajiya Zainab
Maina, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development. That is, until she
was recently reported by Daily Trust as saying that ‘the YouWin program is
aimed at facilitating women’s transition from informal to formal sector of
economic development’. (Thank God it’s that simple!) But perhaps not so, and
Honourable Minister underestimates the daily challenges being faced by women
and girls across the country and needs reminding why empowering 6,000 (or
1,200?) out of 80 million women, 54 million of whom are rural and mired in
backbreaking and unskilled labour should not presuppose an automatic
facilitation of transition to formal sector of economic development.
Last year I ranted in an article that the Ministry of Women
Affairs ought to have gotten one of those generally promised ‘technocratic
appointments’ considering (1) women are
half of national human capital and more than quadruply undeserved (2) the
versatility required in harnessing the latent potential offered by women, and
(3) attaining the MDGs and in essence national socio-economic development is
hinged on the successful emancipation of the womenfolk from mundane challenges,
hence that resourceful versatility translating into effective
inter-departmental partnerships. Somewhere else in that article I highlighted
that the balance of the social structures that generate output are skewed to
the advantage of the menfolk, thus the ‘need to even the scale by ensuring that
(right from now) girl child enrolment in school is at par with boy child
enrolment, encourage more girls to take up maths and science and ensure that
their (girl child) education is not cut short to accommodate cultural demands’
like early marriages and births. But nearly two years in the life of this
administration, the foundation to suggest a corrective measure has not been
laid.
If anything, the ‘Gender in Nigeria Report 2012’ released by
DFID points to the depth of the challenge in national administration of women
affairs and social development (and speaks to me of the incapacity of the
ministry, - granted security spending is emasculating social spending, but
hey!). Statistics jump out at you that say only 4% of girls finish secondary school
in north-eastern Nigeria, and that national maternal death is close to the
global average at 545 per 100,000 live births.
Even so, you do not sense any urgency or see some positive collaboration
between the ministries of women affairs, education and health with respect to
concrete plans and time lines on rolling back on those statistics. The report
further says that 'men are five times more likely than women to own land', with
only 4% of land belonging to women in the north-east and 10% to their counterparts
in the south-south. This among other things constricts the ability of women to
access (non-YouWin type) collateralized loans, which further creates a
condition of dependency. If the government does not anticipate a future where
women are hooked on government loans or grants, the solution is simply to
unclog the hindrances that bar women from being owners of capital (or land in
this case), to enable a platform for economic opportunity, independence and
industry.
The news is still grim on the professional level as the
report states that 'regardless of their educational qualification, women
consistently earn less than their male counterparts. In some cases they earn
less than men with lower qualifications'. The U.S. rather than sing and dance
about unfair treatment of women in the work place sought the path of
legislation and enacted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Yet we propose
affirmative action to balance the numbers where women occupy less than 30% of
all posts in the public sector, with only 17% in senior positions. Affirmative action by itself may not be
effective when the rate of women graduates is sub-optimal. Without optimizing
education for girls and women today, they are guaranteed no competitive role in
the future, besides affirmative action might just foist unqualified women on
us. Speaking of legislation, the spate of violence against women (the like of
which led to the UN Declaration of Elimination of Violence against Women in1993, and the Violence Against Women Act 1994 in the US) is nowhere near the
line of sight of the ministry. Neither is the issue of pursuing a socially and
culturally nuanced policy aimed at forging acceptability for family planning,
and access to contraceptives. Is madam minister dodging the tough issues? As yet
it is not clear if the Ministry and lawmakers have or are reviewing laws that
impact on women.
The reality is that for women to attain socio-economic
emancipation, issues of discrimination across education and access to capital,
healthcare, violence etc. have to be brought to the forefront. The success that
piggybacking on the YouWin offers is short term, one therefore hopes to see
more collaboration between MDAs, and hopefully at the instigation of the
Ministry of Women Affairs. That kind of move would at least inspire confidence
and the assurance that we have a technocratic and transformational personality
up there that is capable of laying the structures that would facilitate a
sustainable transition (for women) from frying akara and fetching firewood, to
(non-affirmative-action-induced) chairing of board meetings and ministerial
appointments. Otherwise, all that talk and hope on YouWin will remain just talk
and hope; it is not logical that 6,000 (or 1,200) can create enough positive
ripple effect to change the lives of 54 million rural women that are stuck in
backbreaking and unskilled labour.
Meanwhile if you are a woman and between 18 and 45 and have
a business or a business plan, kindly articulate it, register and then apply
for the YouWin grant. Or if this advice is coming too late, apply for the next
one!
Zainab is a community servant based in Abuja.
Source: Daily Times NG
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