By Adeola Alabi
The Invictus Africa and BudgIT Foundation has introduced ‘Womanity Index’ aimed at tracking annual ranking and reports on gender equality, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and other issues affecting women and girls in Nigeria.
Executive Director, Invictus Africa, Ms Bukky Shonibare, at a press conference Wednesday in Abuja, said the Index will also focus on girl-child education, women’s health, economic empowerment and political representation in Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria.
She also explained that this will be carried out through field and technological based data collection, which will assist state and local governments understand the context and identify gaps as well as challenges peculiar to each state in addressing gender-based violence.
“The Womanity Index is novel as it helps subnational governments, as primary duty bearers know their performance in their efforts to prevent and respond to GB in their states.
“It will also identify the gaps and challenges that impede their performance, and the specific actionable recommendations which, when implemented, will result in ensuring laws and policies guarantee GBV prevention, effective support systems, and allocation of adequate budget and spending to address gender-based violence.
“It will also aid accountability by duty bearers (governments) and provide the relevant data and evidence needed by citizens to track implementation and advocate for effective GBV prevention and response,” Shonibare said.
Also, Mr Gabriel Okeowo, Country Director, BudgIT Nigeria, said data from the research in some states will serve as a reference document on GBV to ensure state-specific recommendations.
He said, “So this first work is very important and will serve as a base line that subsequently when we now want to run another Womanity index on either the old indexes or one of the indexes.
“We then have a basis of comparison to be able to say as at 2023 this is where this state is and as at now this is what the results is showing.”
Mr Folarin Johnson, Senior Project Officer, Nigeria Governor Forum World Bank SFTAS programme, said the index will enable government measure all interventions on GBV in their various states.
“This is research and it is not just about the field data collection. We are going to be building on some of the data’ that are in existence.
“So, the reason this partnership exist is for everybody involved to bring out what they have done in the past and it is what will form the basis of what it is,” he said.
Also, the Program Officer for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice at Ford Foundation’s West Africa office, Olufunke Baruwa, said, “The support by Ford Foundation is in furtherance of its strategy to support cross-sector strategic collaborations and strengthen women’s rights organizations in leading agendas that address the systems and structures that drive gender-based violence.
“GBV prevention and response requires a multi-sectoral approach and, as such, government at all levels, as the principal institution with the resources, reach, and funds, need to take the lead in driving efforts to address GBV. The Womanity Index, therefore, helps provide the baseline for that to happen effectively and efficiently.”
