UNIFEM’s contribution to the end poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is the women’s fund at the United Nations. UNIFEM recognizes that the crisis of poverty has severe social cost, particularly on women. The 1995 Human Development Report demonstrated the female face of poverty when it showed that 70 per cent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty were women. Poverty is not merely income deprivation, but a multidimensional phenomenon, encompassing economic, political, social, and cultural needs that are sine qua non for a meaningful existence. UNIFEM approach to poverty reduction is premised on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Nigeria’s National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) by providing strategies at addressing the multidimensional nature of poverty as it affects women in some of the following ways:

UNIFEM in Nigeria

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN:

• UNIFEM in collaboration with UNDP in Nigeria developed a programme to empower women in selected communities of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria (Ona LGA in Akwa Ibom, Warri South West In Delta State and Ikwere LGA of Rivers State) from 2004 – 2006 to actualize their economic potentials, through enhanced access to information, technical and organizational skills, finance and technology support to guarantee their individual rights and security.
  
• UNIFEM established a Gender Budget Network comprised of civil society organizations working on budgeting reforms in Nigeria to undergo gender analysis for better resource allocation to women. Gender budget analyses of the following departments were conducted: the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Enugu state, the Ministry of Health, Akwa Ibom state – the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. These pilot studies are published and continue to be a key resource in the country. Gender budgeting training manual was produced to train critical planning and budgeting officers in government, the Legislature and to develop advocates for GRB amongst civil society.
  
• UNIFEM has also developed a practical manual for mainstreaming gender analysis and gender equality principles in SEEDS. The publication which was launched on May 9, 2006, was adopted and is promoted by the National Planning Commission as its main tool for facilitating the integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations and targets in SEEDS-based programmes and resource allocation.
  
• UNIFEM is also working with the Public Enlightenment Project (PEP), a non-governmental organization through an Economic Empowerment Programme in Sharia States of the Northern Nigeria, to educate policy makers, CSOs, community and religious leaders, and women on the rights of women and the need to mainstream gender into the developmental process.

SOCIAL CHANGE:

• In 2005 Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL) under the UN Trust Fund which is managed by UNIFEM is carrying out programmes to ensure the implementation of existing laws and policies that will eradicate Gender Based Violence and address also the linkages between violence against women and HIV/AIDS in the South East of Nigeria.
  
• UNIFEM has been working both with the federal government (NACA) and states (SACA) to mainstream gender into the National Strategic Framework and State Strategic Plans which outline their respective responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

POLITICAL SPACE FOR WOMEN PARTICIPATION:

• UNIFEM is engaging in capacity building and the provision of technical assistance to encourage women’s participation in the political process and in politics. This approach is two pronged; firstly, UNIFEM will assist INEC in building its technical capacity to mainstream gender into the electoral process, secondly, UNIFEM will support civil society initiatives that campaign for women’s participation in political life.

Through these projects, UNIFEM aims to contribute to women’s empowerment by eliminating poverty and promoting gender equality.


Contact for Media: Ikechukwu Attah, Tel: 09-461 6309 , E-mail: ikechukwu.attah@unifem.org
UNIFEM website