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From Tony John, Port Harcourt
A women-based group and NGO, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, has called on the community leaders to increase women participation at the various community levels and other governance structures at the grassroots.
Speaking at the capacity building training on Gender and Social Inclusion in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the Executive Director, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Emem Okon, noted that there should be an inclusive process of women such as Community Development Committees (CDCs), Council of Chiefs, youth groups and other structures of governance in the community so that development projects would have an impact in the community.
Okon said: ‘We reason that development projects do not impact on every member of the community, and that is because women are not part of the processes of identifying projects and also implementation.
‘Even while development projects are going on in communities, community members claim they have no knowledge of it and are not impacted by it. That means they are excluded. So, we are engaging the community leaders to ensure that there is an inclusive process of women as CDCs, the council of chiefs, youth councils in their communities.’
The group’s Executive Director stressed that women should be built in their communities to ensure that their problems are being taken care of and issues addressed than living in silent bondage.
‘We have built a capacity of women to engage with different stakeholders in their communities to ensure that their problems are being taken on board when decision-making processes are taken by the leaders,’ she said.
‘We always understand that women are organised in their communities and not targeting at people who have the responsibilities and powers to address the issues, then they can organise and get the results.’
On the overview of the project, Project Leader Oxfam International, Henry Ushie, said the essence of the workshop was to get stakeholders and communities to understand their roles in community resource governance that can translate to essential services for them at their various communities.
‘We have to get stakeholders and communities to understand the objectives of the programme so that by the time we start implementing, they will be able to understand their roles in community resource governance and management and translating to essential services for them at the community level and how they participate in their own governance,’ Ushie noted.
The first female Chief of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Delta State, Chief Josephine Ogoba, called for the implementation of women in offices like the local government chairmanships in Delta State, as no women have held that position.
‘What I want the government to implement is women in offices. Like the local government chairmanships position is rotating but women have not held that position, even in CDCs of communities. They do not allow women to hold that sensitive position. But, now, we will work to see how we can implement to make a woman become a chairperson in Delta State and CDCs in some of the communities, so we can see the different works of men and women and how transparent they are,’ she expressed.
