Make determined effort to end gender-based violence, CSOs tell FG

A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of Agents for Citizen Drive Transformation, which is funded by the European Union, has called on the government to make determined efforts to end gender-based violence in Nigeria.

The CSOs made the call during a programme to mark the 16 days of gender-based violence (GBV) activism 2020″, which held virtually on Tuesday.

The event featured stories of victims of gender-based violence and responses during the COVID-19 lockdown, as well as recommendations from participants on how to curb the menace.

The civil society groups include Arewa Radio; Life Helpers Initiative; Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP); News Day Online; Nagata Change Initiative; Comfort Literacy Intervention and Capacity Enlightenment; Women Friendly Initiative and Mirabel Centre: Sexual Assault Referal Centre.

According to the CSOs, gender-based violence was on an “alarming increase” during the COVID-19 lockdown.

They said during the pandemic, there was a huge gap in addressing the needs of victims, listing some of these issues to include closure of courts, closure of shelters, and difficulty in movement because of lack of pass.

Hafsat Mustapha, programme manager for EU-ACT, said the event was aimed at highlighting the unique experiences in 7 EU-ACT states, to bring out the uniqueness and innovation with which organisations addressed the GBV challenges in their locality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we have heard during today’s storytelling event, violence against women has a strongly negative impact on every sector of our economy and our family well-being,” she said.

“We have highlighted two key areas of work; the first one is on interventions to end gender-based violence. As we all know when we retreated during the lockdown measure, there were records of domestic violence, all of these in the midst of the raging poverty and health challenges that people were faced with at the time.

“CSOs took action and provided immense support both physical and psychosocial interventions to victims. Today to take action, this year’s 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence, we choose to celebrate CSOs… actors who selflessly provided line support to victims of gender-based violence during the pandemic.

“Through these storytelling events, we hope this will increase awareness and galvanise advocacy effort to end GBV in Nigeria and globally.”

At the end of the programme, the participants recommended that NGOs should be regarded as essential service providers; documentation of all activities that took place during the pandemic to promote future response and preparedness; increased synergy between all stakeholders; adoption and implementation of the VAP act at the state levels and strengthen victims’ access to justice.