From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) with support from the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) has held a workshop in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state, on policy influencing and advocacy for women lead organisations/women right groups in the state.
The National programme officer of FIDA, Mr Fikih Obaro, said the programme is to enhance the capacity of women lead organisations/women right groups on how to influence policies and advocate for gender response policy in Bayelsa State.
According to him, since the election is over and it is time for governance, it is imperative to equip women with the right skills to start the interactions and start setting the agenda for the new government and new administration towards including gender issues in the policy direction of the government from 2024 when the new administration commences.
He said it is expected that the women would develop an advocacy plan after the programme to influence government policies and programmes.
‘’We believe that by the time we have enhanced women participation and representation in governance, issues of gender would be more prioritised and have appropriate budgetary allocations that can tackle gender issues in the state.
‘’We believe that we have the right audience. We believe that we have the right people. These persons are people that have worked on issues for quite some time in the state. However, we believe that there is a need to shape the ideas and directions which we believe would influence policy direction of gender issues in the state.
‘’One of the fallouts of this programme is for them to have an advocacy plan they would need to implement in conjunction with the state government in ensuring its implementation. Since we have representatives from the state Ministry of Women Affairs, we believe that state and non- state actors would be able to set agenda for the state government.’’
Also speaking. Mrs Siya Daniles of FIDA explained that the purpose of this programme is to enlighten Women groups on the need to ensure effective policies are made by the government to empower women in general.
‘’This type of programme is effective because once you have the targeted group and they are trained. The belief is that they would after the training educate others and rally support to drive the women’s cause on the need to empower in the society. This would also include to make policies and address gender-based violence and girl child.’’