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CHAPTER TWELVE
WOMEN AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has continued to perform its statutory responsibilities which are geared towards the upliftment of the socio-political and economic status of women, gender mainstreaming and catering for the welfare of orphans, vulnerable children and the disabled.
In ensuring effective development of the State through harnessing women’s talent and potentials, the present administration under the able leadership of His Excellency, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris has put in place several measures to promote mainstreaming of gender into developmental programmes of the State. Such measures include;
Establishment of Kogi State Gender Committee: This is multi-sectoral in composition. The main thrust of the committee, is to ensure the full integration of women into every aspect of State development and strategize ways of addressing gender issues at every level of programme implementation. Since the inauguration of this Committee, advocacy visits have been carried to authorities like the legislators, traditional, and religious leaders in the State. Plans are on to pass the bills on the Child Right Acts, Female Genital Mutilation and Widowhood practices in the State.
Poverty Alleviation Strategies: According to the 1995 Human Development Report, 70% of the World’s poor persons are women. This staggering revelation led to the conclusion by the Human Development Report that poverty has a woman’s face. Poverty, most often, presents lack of income and productive resources, limited or lack of access to education and other basic services, homelessness and inadequate housing, unsafe environment, social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision-making and in civil/social and economic life. It is against this background that this administration has put in place programmes/projects directed towards poverty alleviation and provision of welfare services to the poor and disadvantaged gender (women) in the State through the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. These include:
· Skills Acquisition Training Programme organized in collaboration with UNICEF ‘C’ Field Office for women in the six UNICEF Focus Communities of Ibaji, Olamaboro and Kogi LGAs. The communities are Echeno, Ichala-Ajode, Ugbamaka-Igah, Efabo, Omoko and Ugwo. Over 129 women have been prepared in these communities for micro-credit facilities.
· Training of women Cooperative Groups and Cooperative officer in the LGAs on effective banking system and availability of financial institutions for credit facilities. Many of these groups have been linked with NACDRD for credit facilities to boost their business outfit thus empowering them. It is also hoped that more women will benefit from the already established micro-credit scheme of the State.
· Very recently, the State Government took delivery of six food processing equipments from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs for the rural grass root women corporative groups. The distribution of these equipment is one of the several strategies aimed at alleviating the poverty level of the rural women. This is also in response to the basic fact that women need to be empowered to take active roles in economic development of their communities, LGAs and the State in general.
ASSISTANCE TO THE DISABLED:
Through the assistance of the Federal
Ministry of Women Affairs, the administration has received 4 wheel
chairs for distribution to disabled persons in the 3 Senatorial
Districts of the State. In addition, the government assisted some
disabled persons with the sum of
Human Development: The need for human development is also one of the major focus of this administration.
In this regard, Programme Officers in the Ministry have been trained and sponsored to Seminars/Workshops within and outside the State. This has improved the performance of the Ministry’s Programme Officers.
HIV/AIDS: Women and children are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. In the light of this, the Ministry has sensitized women on HIV/AIDS pandemic both in the Headquarters and rural areas through workshops, seminars and campaigns.
The Ministry has also facilitated the assistance of an abandoned orphan with HIV/AIDS by rehabilitating him at Otutulu under intensive care.
Desk Officers on HIV/AIDS and OVC (orphan and Vulnerable Children) have equally been trained on Leadership Development Programme on HIV/AIDS.
Relief to Disaster Victims: Considering the need to be prepared for any emergency (man-made or natural disaster) the State Government has established State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to handle disaster cases. Through this Agency, relief materials are distributed to those that has suffer from disaster.
Within the period under review, the
State Government has released about
Furthermore, this administration
released food and materials worth |