From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria, Ms Comfort Lamptey, has said that evidence from parliaments with more women across the globe has shown that they actually address a wider range of issues from health, security, climate change among others.
She said this at a press conference Wednesday to herald activities of the International Women’s Day 2022 with the theme: “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow.”
She described as shocking, the outright rejection of all five bills at the National Assembly that sought to promote more opportunities for women in political parties, governance and the society at large.
According to her, over 100 male lawmakers co-sponsored the bill by Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (APC, Abia), a member of the House of Representatives, seeking to alter sections 48, 49, 71,77,91, and 117 of the 1999 Constitution by creating one additional senatorial seat and two federal constituencies in each state and FCT for women.
Lamptey stressed that the move to get more women in decision making was not just because women have a right to be around the table, but it because they bring issues to the table, which will otherwise not be covered by their male counterparts.
She said: “the low representation of women in decision making platforms also suggests that women’s participation in climate change interventions is not up to par with their male counterparts.”
She added that “Climate change has affected women and girls disproportionately, and this also continue to challenge their ability to withstand the impact of climate change and environmental practices.
“So in a sense, the climate crisis is not gender neutral. It is a global crisis. And it is one where women and girls experienced some of the greatest impacts that we see of this crisis.
“Given this picture, one would think that women and girls are at the center of efforts to find solutions. Sadly, this is not the case. Because the needs and priorities of women and girls is systematically overlooked by climate, environmental and disaster risk policies and programmes. So there is a need to focus policy attention on addressing the agenda impacts of climate change.
“We know that here in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Environment has agenda action plan. And there is the stretch show that we have political will and commitment towards implementation of this plan, so that we can see results for women and girls in the country.”
Continuing the UN Women Country rep said: “As I said earlier, we are struggling to see how through interventions such as passage of the gender and equal opportunities bill, affirmative action feels special seats bill, we can increase the under representation of women in political office in Nigeria, and that’s the starting point to getting women around the table to be part of discussions including discussions around gender and climate change.
“And we know, globally, that Parliament’s that have more women actually address a wider range of issues from health, security, climate change, we have evidence to show that. So this move to get more women in decision making. It’s not just because women have a right to be around the table, but it because they bring issues to the table, which will otherwise not be covered.
“So again, whilst linking this issue to our theme for international women’s day this year. It is imperative and urgent to get more women in decision making here in Nigeria.
“In spite of the absence or lack of attention to women’s leadership, we know that women in civil society and around the country, and Africa generally are working and providing leadership to address climate adaptation, mitigation and solutions. And that it is good to see many young woman also leading this charge in many countries across the world, including Nigeria, and we hope that during the course of International Women’s month, you together with us can help to showcase some of these young women in particular, who are really trying to change the narrative in their communities around the impact the negative effects of climate change.
“We know that without the leadership of women of their participation in our efforts to address climate change, it is unlikely that the solutions we find will be sustainable.
“And so as we think again, about the theme, about building a sustainable future, we need to ensure that we bring all voices to the table. And we also need to shift the climate discourse from one, focus on helping the vulnerable, to one where we talk about empowering women and girls and ensuring that they can participate integrally in finding solutions. And part of finding solutions is also addressing gender inequalities, which we believe as fundamental drivers of risk in the climate change context.”
So in closing, I just want to flag a number of areas around which we can also continue the advocacy around solutions to put in women and girls at the center of efforts to address climate change.
The first is that we need to ensure that we integrate gender perspectives in all the climate and disaster risk reduction policies and programs. So at the policy level, and other programmatic level, we need to use our gender lens to address this problem.
Secondly, we need to also ensure that we promote full and equal participation and leadership of women and girls in order to achieve real and sustainable change in addressing the climate crisis. We also need to continue to invest and build the resilience of women and girls and not the organization. So any of those on the frontline civil society organizations that are leading this charge, we need to invest more resources in building the organizations. We need to see increased financing for gender responsive climate, environmental, and disaster risk initiatives, where we see supportive women’s organizations and cooperatives are prioritized.
And then we need to also invest in gender specific statistics, and data so that we can amplify the relationship between gender and climate change. It’s important that we have more data. And making this investment and working with the National Bureau of Statistics, as well as some of the environmental rights activist and women’s organizations are the important way to do this.
Finally, we need to also strengthen efforts to address the sexual reproductive health and rights of women by strengthening health systems so that those who are affected by climate shocks can receive appropriate support.
Let me inclusive commend you all for your presence here. And your your commitment to support the advocacy throughout this international women’s month on this very important topic of gender, and climate change under the theme of equality today, for a sustainable tomorrow.
As many of you know, that division of the status of women in New York will be holding later this month. For the first time in two years, there will be some in person participation. And I’m sure the Nigerian delegation will be strong there. And that is also a platform where the world will come together to set new standards in terms of how, as a global community, we can work together to put gender priorities at the forefront of efforts to address climate change.
And certainly at the Africa regional level, the week African ministers have the meeting to look at this issue of gender and climate change and also have an outcome document that has been developed, I think we can make that outcome document also available to you because that also sets out some of the priorities that the Africa region has identified.
So we count on all of you to support the amplification of the key messages around looking at climate change, not just as a neutral concern, but one that really impacts issues of women’s empowerment, gender equality, and for which Nigeria and the Africa region as a whole has to take seriously going forward.
I think a structured postmortem is most definitely needed. But I think from our side as UNWomen, having supported this effort over the last 18 months. In terms of ticking the boxes of what can be done, when we saw the opportunity for constitutional review process, what we did was to say how can we, at the invitation of a Deputy Senate president, to say can you bring your expertise to help support this process. What we felt we could best do, as we have done in other countries around the world, where there are opportunities for constitutional review and to be able to bring gender perspectives to bear on gender provisions in the Constitutional review, what we did was to identify gender constitutional expert, to be part of the technical team, that the Senate had set out to look at the 1999 constitution. And incidentally, she was the only woman on that technical team. The only expert on that team was what the UN Women contributed out of say 21 experts. And not only was she there to support us agenda expert, and actually works to support the crafting of many of the bills, as well as also trying to bring other committee members on board on gender questions.
Of course, all the women in the National Assembly had already been made part of the constitutional review process we may need to look at, how actively all sides engaged in speaking with one voice also not all of the different issues.
But I think from a technical standpoint, in terms of the bills and this gender constitutional experts that we supported actually helped to craft I think at least 17 or 18 bills related to different gender issues in the Constitution. Some of them were thrown out along the way. So we ended up with the four plus the bill, which honorable Onyejiocha sponsored, which was the additional seats bill.
So yesterday there was the bill for indegenship. Okay, so that has been one that the gender expert has supported the crafting of that bill for citizenship, my intent that the Nigerian woman is married to a foreign citizen to be able to grant citizenship rights to their spouse, there was the bill for 35% affirmative action in the administration of political parties, which was also thrown out. Earlier on, they threw out a bill for amendment of section 42 of the Constitution. There was also the bill yesterday, which I understand that the House eventually the the speaker put through for minimum representation of appointed positions in the states and at the national level. So that I think was 30%. And it was for brought down to 20 percent.
There was one other bill which was actually also thrown out, but essentially all the five bills. It was a complete rejection, from what you saw, of bills, which I don’t think are very contentious in the modern world, you know, the issues around creating an enabling environment for women also participate. And then of course, there was 111 additional seats bill, which hon. Nkechi, as I said sponsored.
As I said we need a proper postmortem in terms of following the track around providing technical support to the process was done. Some of you would recall that even during the public hearing that took place in the States, there was a lot of mobilization of women across different states and all geo political zones, to also speak to the issue of what women want in the Constitution.
perhaps there could have been strengthening of the engagement between those working at this level. Throughout the process. Of course, some of these things also cost more money. And those are the grassroots level looking at different means to do that.
But there was a lot of engagement with the men. And the women will tell you that that bill, the additional seats bill, as Hon. Nkechi will tell you, every single man around the table over 100 of them do-sponsored it. So why it came to voting, did they pull out?
So I guess, yes, you can do the post mortem. But there may be also some political shenanigans, that went on that, ensure that this thing did not happen because you can’t co- sponsor something. And at the time of voting, decide we are not for it.
So but I think we do we need to do that, stock taking is not over yet. And we need to continue to do that.
Will the women’s protests bring change?
Yes, I mean, I think that women have to make their disappointment known. I think women cannot be quiet and this isn’t just for women, I really wish there were more men, with the women out there.
Yesterday, the Nigeria Labor Congress was also protesting at some stage. And for me, one of the big takeaways I saw was how do we form alliances between the women and other groups, the youth constituency, the labor congress, you know, women associations across the country, whether it’s women’s farmers associations, Christian, Muslim, women’s groups as well. I think there has to be a movement. This is not just about women is about the future of this country. And it’s about how we cannot, converse with others as the Honorable Minister, keep saying, you cannot develop when you’re walking on one leg, you have to have both feet on the ground, one for men, one woman, and I think that under understanding has to continue to go through.
So I think the protests is necessary, but it’s not enough. There have to be other interventions. And also, as the Honorable Minister said, we have to go back to the drawing board and look at our strategy again, and look at what new strategies to build. So that is this can continue.
Climate change as affected women and girls disproportionately, and this also continue to challenge their ability to withstand the impact of climate change and environmental practices.
So in a sense, the climate change, the climate crisis is not gender neutral. It is a global crisis. And it is one where women and girls experienced some of the greatest impacts that we see of this crisis.
Given this picture, one would think that women and girls are at the center of efforts to find solutions. Sadly, this is not the case. Because the needs and priorities of women and girls is systematically overlooked by climate, environmental and disaster risk policies and programs. So there is a need to focus policy attention on addressing the agenda impacts of climate change.
We know that here in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Environment has agenda action plan. And there is the stretch show that we have political will and commitment towards implementation of this plan, so that we can see results for women and girls in the country.
The low representation of women in decision making platforms also suggests that women’s participation in climate change interventions is not up to par with their male counterparts. We, as I said earlier, we are struggling to see how through interventions such as passage of the gender and equal opportunities bill, affirmative action feels special seats bill, we can increase the under representation of women in political office in Nigeria, and that’s the starting point to getting women around the table to be part of discussions including discussions around gender and climate change.
And we know, globally, that Parliament’s that are more women actually address a wider range of issues from health, security, climate change, we have evidence to show that. So this move to get more women in decision making. It’s not just because women have a right to be around the table, but it because they bring issues to the table, which will otherwise not be covered.
So again, whilst linking this issue to our theme for international women’s day this year. It is imperative and urgent to get more women in decision making here in Nigeria.
In spite of the absence or lack of attention to women’s leadership, we know that women in civil society and around the country, and Africa generally are working and providing leadership to address climate adaptation, mitigation and solutions. And that it is good to see any young woman also leading this charge in many countries across the world, including Nigeria, and we hope that during the course of International Women’s month, you together with us can help to showcase some of these young women in particular, who are really trying to change the narrative in their communities around the impact the negative effects of climate change.
We know that without the leadership of women of their participation in our efforts to address climate change, it is unlikely that the solutions we find will be sustainable.
And so as we think again, about the theme, about building a sustainable future, we need to ensure that we bring all voices to the table. And we also need to shift the climate discourse from one, focus on helping the vulnerable, to one where we talk about empowering women and girls and ensuring that they can participate integrally in finding solutions. And part of finding solutions is also addressing gender inequalities, which we believe as fundamental drivers of risk in the climate change context.
So in closing, I just want to flag a number of areas around which we can also continue the advocacy around solutions to put in women and girls at the center of efforts to address climate change.
The first is that we need to ensure that we integrate gender perspectives in all the climate and disaster risk reduction policies and programs. So at the policy level, and other programmatic level, we need to use our gender lens to address this problem.
Secondly, we need to also ensure that we promote full and equal participation and leadership of women and girls in order to achieve real and sustainable change in addressing the climate crisis. We also need to continue to invest and build the resilience of women and girls and not the organization. So any of those on the frontline civil society organizations that are leading this charge, we need to invest more resources in building the organizations. We need to see increased financing for gender responsive climate, environmental, and disaster risk initiatives, where we see supportive women’s organizations and cooperatives are prioritized.
And then we need to also invest in gender specific statistics, and data so that we can amplify the relationship between gender and climate change. It’s important that we have more data. And making this investment and working with the National Bureau of Statistics, as well as some of the environmental rights activist and women’s organizations are the important way to do this.
Finally, we need to also strengthen efforts to address the sexual reproductive health and rights of women by strengthening health systems so that those who are affected by climate shocks can receive appropriate support.
Let me inclusive commend you all for your presence here. And your your commitment to support the advocacy throughout this international women’s month on this very important topic of gender, and climate change under the theme of equality today, for a sustainable tomorrow.
As many of you know, that division of the status of women in New York will be holding later this month. For the first time in two years, there will be some in person participation. And I’m sure the Nigerian delegation will be strong there. And that is also a platform where the world will come together to set new standards in terms of how, as a global community, we can work together to put gender priorities at the forefront of efforts to address climate change.
And certainly at the Africa regional level, the week African ministers have the meeting to look at this issue of gender and climate change and also have an outcome document that has been developed, I think we can make that outcome document also available to you because that also sets out some of the priorities that the Africa region has identified.
So we count on all of you to support the amplification of the key messages around looking at climate change, not just as a neutral concern, but one that really impacts issues of women’s empowerment, gender equality, and for which Nigeria and the Africa region as a whole has to take seriously going forward.
Thank you very much.