Group premieres documentary, advocates women inclusion in extractive industries

CSR-in-Action Advocacy, the development-focused arm of the CSR-in-Action Group, has premiered a documentary to advocate the empowerment of women especially those impacted by the extractive industries in Nigeria.

The documentary titled “Earth Women” was premiered alongside the third Community and Human Rights (CAHR) Awards, which honours individuals and organisations contributing selflessly to community development and inclusion in Africa.

Bekeme Masade-Olowola, CSR-in-Action’s chief executive and Earth Women’s executive producer, said the concept for the documentary was to show how women survived regardless of their situations.

“When natural disasters occur, women suffer immensely because their sources of livelihood are threatened, and they often do not have control over what happens to them in such situations. Nevertheless, women continue to thrive and find better ways to survive,” she said.

Funke Baruwa, country director, West Africa for Ford Foundation, said women have been treated insignificantly and not allowed to be involved in most spaces.

She said despite this challenge, women still push through, adding that the CSR-in-Action had helped in identifying the gaps and provided possible solutions.

“Wherever you find benefits in the form of natural resources, you find women and girls unfairly excluded from conversations around these resources. Women continue to be marginalised in both formal and informal spaces,” she said.

“However, we are really happy that women continue to challenge this marginalisation and continue to push through to make sure that our voices are heard.

“We are supporting organisations like CSR-in-Action because we believe that supporting them will help in identifying gaps and driving programs and strategies that address challenges that women face in the extractive sector.”

On his part, Meka Olowola, chairman, Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) Organising Committee, said the SITEI-Woman initiative is a platform for driving social justice for women and promoting gender inclusion.

“Through SITEI-Woman, we want to help deconstruct some of the paradigms that have kept women away from vital decisions that have an overarching impact on their lives, especially with regards to resources available in extractive communities. We believe that empowered women will lead to peaceful and prosperous communities.”

The documentary, Earth Women, produced by CSR-in-Action Advocacy, was founded by Masade-Olowola 11 years ago — and is now a foremost sustainability consulting and advocacy outfit, primarily funded by Ford Foundation, and has Ego Boyo, veteran thespian, and Meka Olowola, communication expert, as co-executive producers.

Earth Women is part of the ‘SITEI-Woman’ project, a series of initiatives targeted at empowering women, especially those impacted by the extractive industries in Nigeria, which is an offshoot of the 10-year-old Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) Initiative, of CSR-in Action which is aimed at fostering fiscal and social justice for communities with oil and gas and mining resources.