Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister and coordinating
minister of the economy, did more than manage the purse of Africa’s
largest economy; she fixed a plan for gender budgeting in Nigeria and
perhaps the rest of the world.
The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) working paper on budget financing in sub-Saharan Africa,
released on Thursday, acknowledges Okonjo-Iweala’s efforts for gender
equality and financing across the world.
The IMF says in clear terms that
the “idea of creating a Gender Equality Community of Practice (COP)”
was pitched by the former minister “during the World Bank/IMF Annual
Meetings in the fall of 2013”.
Okonjo-Iweala’s pitch was
well-received by the World Bank Group, which set up the COP and had its
first meeting on gender financing by April 13, 2014.
“The global
initiative was first proposed by Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, during the October 2013 World Bank Group/International
Monetary Fund Annual Meetings,” the World Bank said.
“President
Jim Yong Kim agreed to host the group’s inaugural meeting, which was
organised around the theme ‘Financing for Gender Results.’”
The
COP, which now has 16 countries on its board, have been making a case
gender financing across the world, with viable results highlighted by
the IMF on Thursday.
Okonjo-Iweala said at the COP inaugural
meeting that the idea was “born out of frustration” at the lack of
knowledge-sharing and scaling-up of innovative initiatives through the
budget.
IMF LISTS GENDER FINANCING RESULTS IN NIGERIA
According
to the IMF working paper, the Nigerian federal government, in
partnership with the United Kingdom’s Department for International
Development, introduced a gender budgeting initiative called “Growing
Girls and Women in Nigeria” (G-WIN) in 2012.
The country was said
to have reported early successes, especially in “treating women with
fistulas, a debilitating post-birth condition that can lead to shame,
divorce, and family rejection”.
“According to the United States
Agency for International Development, Nigeria has the highest number of
women who suffer from fistulas, with about half of all cases world-wide,
and anywhere from 50,000-100,000 new cases each year.
“Under the
G-WIN project, the Ministry of Health allocated resources to recruit
and/or train additional doctors to perform the surgery necessary for
correcting fistulas.
“It is estimated that more than 3,000 women were treated, but an extensive backlog of cases remains.”
70 PERCENT OF NIGERIAN FARMING WORKFORCE ARE FEMALE
“Nigerian
female farmers account for 70 percent of all agricultural work, but
have less access to agricultural inputs, contributing to female
agriculture output being 40 percent lower than their male counterparts’
output.
“The Ministry of Agriculture is trying to train more than
30,000 women on different or better farming methods. One crucial
roadblock for female farmers has been access to finance because this
hampered women’s ability to procure seeds and fertilizers.
“Under
the G-WIN initiative, two million female farmers received cell phones to
improve access to and the exchange of information. The cell phones
enabled women to use an e-wallet system to facilitate mobile money
purchases of agricultural inputs.
“The Ministry of Public Works trained 1,500 women in road maintenance, which was previously viewed as a male-only occupation.
“The Ministry of Water constructed 120 water kiosks that were to be managed by women.”
NIGERIA’S REALITY AND THE WAY FORWARD
The
IMF says Uganda and Rwanda are leading the pack in Africa, as regards
gender budgeting, urging that other countries, including Nigeria, can do
better than what currently obtains.
With about 50 percent of
fistula recorded in Nigeria, and enormous gender inequality, the country
is expected to do more to achieve equity and equality.
credit:thecable
0 comments:
Post a Comment