The Initiative for Women’s Accelerated Development in Africa
(INWOAD) has lamented that COVID-19 pandemic has most of its negative impact,
largely on women and children, reports NaijaAgroNet.
INWOAD in a communique after its national zoom webinar, said
that mostly affected by the lockdown as a result of the pandemic in Nigeria are
women and children.
The communique endorsed by its Secretary and President, Ms
Winny Fonaka and Ms Evelyn Onyilo respectively, pointed out that for women,
their economic and social lives have been greatly affected causing a lot of
hardships.
“Rape and sexual violence also reached alarming proportions,”
INWOAD lamented, stressing that they are worried by this unfortunate
development.
In addition, INWOAD resolved that:
1.
Covid 19 has generally affected women negatively
socio-economically including increase in sexual and gender based violence.
INWOAD condemns the escalation in cases of sexual abuse and calls on the
federal government to declare a state of emergency on rape and gender based
violence with immediate effect.
2.
The federal and state governments should immediately
set up their response mechanisms to tackle rape by constituting stakeholders
into the rape response committees to be headed by the honourable Minister of
Women Affairs.
3.
Perpetrators of rape should be jailed for life
without plea or option of fine to serve as deterrent to others. The states yet
to adopt the Violence Against Persons Prohibition, VAPP Act and the Child
Rights Act should do so without delay.
4.
In the interim, NAPTIP should be properly funded
to handle rape cases and provide adequate shelter for victims and survivors
nationwide.
5.
In the long term, a Commission or Agency on
Sexual and Gender Based Violence should be established to properly handle
issues of rape and provide rehabilitation and psycho social support to rape
victims and survivors.
6.
INWOAD will continue to advocate and create
awareness on the evil of rape on our women and vulnerable children to bring it
to an end.
7.
We also recommend the following economic,
humanitarian interventions as well as inclusion of women in governance to
cushion the effect of Covid 19; The federal and state governments should
include women, youth and relevant NGOs in the various Task Forces on Covid 19
Response to adequately cater for Women. The current composition of the
Presidential Task Force PTF and other Covid 19 Committees nationwide is
lopsided and discriminatory.
8.
Special soft loans and grants should be made
available to women engaged in small and medium scale businesses to help them
boost their economic base and mitigate the effect of the pandemic.
9.
INWOAD calls for the reintroduction and passage
of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill in the National Assembly to protect
the rights of women and remove all forms of discrimination against women.
10.
There is urgent need for collaboration and
networking between NGOs and relevant government agencies to address the
problems facing women and together seek legislation in protecting the rights of
women and girls.
Nkem Nweke/Editor
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