Women poorly represented in politics, governance — GSAI

From Okwe Obi, Abuja

Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI) has lamented the poor representation of women in politics and governance.

Its Executive Secretary, Adaora Onyinchere, stated this at a two-day collaborative media engagement for development inclusivity and accountability project, yesterday in Abuja.

The event, themed: ‘Capacity Building for Reporters and Editors on Media Independence to Promote Women’s Economic Inclusion and Gender Accountability in Governance’, was supported by the Macarthur Foundation and Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Onyinchere wondered why issues regarding the development of women are downplayed since 1999, even with the flurry of qualified female folks proving their mettle in different strata of life.

She stated that women at the grassroots largely feel the bite of marginalisation and poverty.

She, however, implored the media and civil society organisations to sufficiently project gender inclusion in their dealings and reportage in order to prod policymakers to act, accordingly.

She said: “We just launched our baseline report and our statistics of women from 1999 to date both in governance, in politics and the way government has tailored their implementation of gender budget has totally been null and void, for a population with over 49.2 percent.

“It is a serious problem and the need to evaluate and look at what government has done so far is very important.

“From our investigations, we are revealing the fact that there are no sense of duty to women inclusion at the community level because communities do not have effective policy system that can or could have worked through the ministry of women affairs at the state level.

“So, it seems as if there is insufficient effective implementation of policy at the grassroots rather we are now asking government to account for some of the fundings that were designated to bring women through political party inclusion, sensitisation and equal opportunity to bare which has not been there.

“We are also asking question and using this medium to teach and train the trainees on the need to act transparently and detail deliberate interventions through their beats where they cover.

“For instance, we are dealing with insecurity. How many women were killed? How many women are displaced? If you are dealing with the economy, how many women are the beneficiaries of any of these stepdowns intervention by government and why are they not included?

“How does that affects livelihood? How does that reduce poverty? Is it that political parties did not have women emerge at the primaries?

“And the reason for that is because more woman are not included in structures. So these are the questions of accountability.”

She explained further that, “he reason for this project is a collaborative media engagement and supported by Macarthur Foundation and Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

“So, our job here is to make sure that we are asking the right questions and holding government accountable to the issues that have limited women and why there has not been implementation of the already existing policies that have already opened the spaces.

“So, we are hoping that at the end of the training, these training and editors will go back to their media houses and begin to be deliberate about accountability.”