Womens Economic Rights> COMMUNIQUE

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Dear Participants,
Please find below the communique for your vetting.

COMMUNIQUE OF THE 1ST NIGERIA INTERNET INTERACTIVE 
CONFERENCE ON THE ECONOMIC RIGHTS OF NIGERIAN WOMEN 
FROM 9TH AUGUST-8TH SEPTEMBER, 2001.

The Workshop was funded by World Bank Country Office, 
Nigeria.

The Theme of the Conference was on the Economic Rights 
of Nigerian Women 

The Conference Objectives were:-

1. To sensitize Nigerian national institutions - the 
Presidency, National Assembly, State Governments, 
National and State Planning Commissions, Federal Office 
of Statistics, Local Governments, Organised Private 
Sector (OPS), Industries and Corporations, Federal and 
State Ministries, Federal and State Owned Corporations 
on the Economic Rights of Nigerian women.

2. To map out strategies for gender mainstreaming in 
the implementation of the National Poverty Eradication 
Programme (NAPEP).

3. To form a lobby group for ACTION on the 
implementation of Women's Economic Rights in all 
aspects of national development policies and programmes.

The following papers were presented:

1.   THE ECONOMIC RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN NIGERIA - from 
rhetoric to action - MRS. NOGI IMOUKHUEDE - Lawyer and 
Project Co-ordinator of Women's Rights Watch Nigeria.

2.   MICRO-CREDIT AS A TOOL FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION OF 
NIGERIAN WOMEN - OUR EXPERIENCE - MR. GODWIN 
EHIGIAMUSOE - Co-ordinator, Lift above Poverty 
Organisation (LAPO).

Participants were made up of 220 national NGOs and 
international organisations.  Being an interactive 
internet conference participants delibrated issues 
online and made contributions to the conference theme.  
At the end of the conference participants made the 
following observations and recommendations:

1. The conditions of Nigerian women remain critical 
especially in:
   a. The increasing burden of poverty;
   b. limited access to education;
   c. violence against women;
   d. limited participation in decision making;
   e. persistent discrimination and violation of  
      women's and girls rights.

2. Women perform multiple roles as mothers, producers, 
home managers, community organisers, social and 
cultural leaders.  These demands, coupled with the 
limited opportunities available to them in our society 
have further impoverished them.
WHEREFORE the conference declares that:-
a. poor women are disadvantaged and do not benefit from 
   the services of formal financial institutions.
b. That the poor are not necessarily lazy.
c. That the socio-economic situation of the poor would
   improve if credit is added to support their physical
   labour and skills.
d. That poverty is reinforced by factors such as large
   family size, malnutrition, ignorance, diseases and
   social injustice.
e. Small groups have tremendous influence on 
   co-operating individuals.

3. Declares that the poor and unheard constitute the 
bulk of marginal workers in the informal economy and 
most of these are women.  Women workers have to cope 
with an unfair share of domestic chores in the care 
economy - cooking, water fetching, child bearing and 
rearing, wood fetching, care of the aged and the sick, 
with no national welfare scheme or support. This unfair 
economic arrangement disempowers women.

4. The conference believes that micro-credit is a vital 
tool for economic empowerment which is crucial to 
poverty alleviation.

5. The conference emphasizes that there is an absolute 
need for various levels of the Nigerian Government 
collaborating with the NGOs, CBOs and Civil Society 
Organisations in the implementation of its programmes 
and policies.  The conference states that NGOs and CBOs 
being peoples organisations can be effective structures 
for the implementation of NAPEP.

This could be realised by NGOs acting as:
a. On-lending institutions;
b. Mobilization agents;
c. Monitoring agents.

6. The conference declares that the strenghts of micro 
finance includes:
i. Exclusive focus on the worst victims of poverty and;
ii. Flexibility of its delivery structures and 
processes.

7. Declares that there is a gender gap in Nigeria, 
where women lag behind men in all socio-economic 
indices.  That the Federal Government of Nigeria 
through her policies and programmes should close the 
gap by gender mainstreaming of all legislations, 
policies and programmes.  It is a strategy for making 
womens as well as men's concerns and experiences an 
integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring 
and evaluation of the policies and programmes, in all 
political, economic and societal spheres so that women 
and men can benefit equally and inequality is not 
perpetuated.  The ultimate goal is to achieve gender 
equality.

8. The conference declares that the Federal Office of 
Statistics (FOS) must have a gender perspective in all 
data processed into statistics which is vital for 
national planning, monitoring and evaluation.

9. The conference lauds Nigeria's rich cultural 
heritage but declares that culture is dynamic and is 
subject to change.  The conference declares that all 
cultural practices like Punitive Widowhood Rites, Forcd 
Marriages, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)e.t.c 
discriminate against women and are a violation of their 
Fundamental Human Rights as enshrined in the 1999 
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  
Furthermore the conference declares that all customary 
laws that prevent inheritance of women are a violation 
of their economic rights and stunts national 
development.

10. The conference recommends that education of the 
girl child is the key to economic and intellectual 
empowerment of the Nigerian woman.  Education frees a 
person from poverty, ignorance, preventable disease, 
suppression and oppression.
The conference lauds the Universal Basic Education 
Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria of free 
and compulsory education for all children.  This is in 
consonance with the UN Convention on the rights of the 
child.  The conference joins all other groups in 
asserting that Education and Health should top the 
priority items in National Planning and 2002 Budget.

11. The conference announces the formation of the 
Nigerian Women Economic Rights Monitoring Group, a 
pressure group to monitor the formulation and 
implementation of the Nigerian Government policies and 
programmes as it affects Nigerian women.

Its mandate is to:-

a. To sensitize our national institutions on the 
importance of gender mainstreaming in order to bridge 
the gender gap in Nigeria and achieve gender equality 
and equity.

b. To monitor the formulation of Governments 
legislations, policies and programmes to ensure that a 
gender perspctive is always included.

c. To monitor the Nigerian Government implementation of 
their policies and programmes so that women benefit 
equally as men and gender inequality is not 
perpectuated.

d.  To sensitize the Nigerian public on gender issues 
in order to cause an attitudianl change from gender 
perspective of the Nigerian women to gender equality 
and equity in Nigeria.

12.  The conference declares that all customary laws 
that prevent inheritance of women are a violation of 
their human and economic rights and militates against 
national development.

Thanks
MRS. NOGI IMOUKHUEDE
FOR COMMUNIQUE DRAFTING COMMITTEE.