Makinde Commissioner Underscores OYSG’S Readiness to work with world Bank to Empower Oyo State Women

A team from the World Bank comprising Alena Sakhonchik( Private Sector Specialist: Women, Business & the Law)Lolita Laperle-Forget(Analyst Women, Business & the Law) and Siebari Diette-Spiff(Nigerian rep World Bank)

The trio paid a Courtesy/Advocacy visit to the Honourable Commissioner for Women Affairs & Social Inclusion on the 2nd of December, 2024 with the aim of presenting the report of a World Bank funded pilot study on regional African Countries as a measure of their creation of enabling environment for the empowerment of Women through the levers of Business and the Law carried out in Nigeria  at the national level in 2024 in Western and Central Africa, assessing data for West Africa from Sierra Leone and Nigeria and using Lagos as the representative unit for Nigeria

The next stage is to replicate this study at the sub national level which will comprise 6 states, viz; Oyo, Lagos, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna and the FCT.

A member of the team Alena stated that the project
X-rayed the challenges women face in the global workforce
further ďepicting that the relationship that exists between equal treatment of women and men under the law and its outcomes for women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship
is a unique one and is based on a 3 pillar framework  to measure progress towards gender equality  in 190 countries.

The 10 indices examined include Safety, Mobility, Parenthood, Childcare, Pay, Marriage,Access to Assets, Workplace environment, Pension plan and Entrepreneurship opportunities for women

The subnational study is to provide insights on how the policies and laws governing opportunities dedicated for women varies across different states in the federations and their impact on the ability of women to access such opportunities

Specifically in Nigeria,its aimed at for example, creating Benchmarks of laws and policy framework affecting equal access to economic opportunities for women across the 10 indicators at state level and to sample opinions of experts on how economic opportunities for women are achieved in reality.

            With particular reference to Nigeria, it was demonstrated that the data obtained was generated from the private sector and was deduced from findings that the Country scored low points on several key indices compared to a Sierra Leone for instance

In her response, the Commissioner stated that interestingly, she does not believe in equality of both sexes be ause both are wired differently and play complementary roles to each other.However,
she is a staunch advocate of enabling access to equal opportunities for economic empowerment for both sexes to enable them develop to their fullest potential

The Honorable also Commissioner questioned the basis for some of the results presented observing that the study was not balanced and fair because it was limited to the private sector and given the fact in Nigeria, government is the biggest employer of labour,limiting the study to the private sector will create a misrepresentation of the realities in the Country or subnational unit in question

She buttressed this position with the data affirming that in Oyo state , His Excellency has been able to recruit an additional 22,800 staff,a significant proportion of these being women, thus bringing the total number of government employees to a ballpark of around 54,000

Hon Mrs Balogun also queried some of the defective, faulty assumptions on which some of the projections on Oyo state were based

For instance, she faulted the low score observed on access to dispensation of justice She affirmed that not only does Oyo state have a Family Court, the court works hands in gloves with the Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Inclusion and other stakeholders in the Women Protection ecosystem to resolve as speedily as possible cases related to Sexual Gender Based Violence, Child Protection and issues related to the family unit

She also enjoined the World Bank to ensure inclusivity for all sectors both public and private going forward in further studies given the fact that government is not only the biggest spender in any economy, its also the largest employer of labour.This inclusivity will ensure that results of future studies are truly reflective of the realities on ground in the Countries or subnationals of reference, to enhance the credibility of the World Bank and the data it projects,to ensure that efforts and resources invested on interventions they plan to mitigate lapses purportedly observed are not misdirected thus impacting negatively on projected outcomes of such interventions

  The Honorable Commissioner further appreciated efforts made by the multilateral organization( World Bank)to embark on the study while reiterating the fact that the inclusion of the public sector in data generation is needful for better and reliable outcomes of the project.

She averred that Oyo State was up and doing on quite a lot of the Key Performance Indicators considered,stating quite frankly that considerable political will and support from the State Governor is availed to the Ministry under her watch, thus enabling the Ministry to fulfill its constitutional role of providing succour to the broad spectrum of the Vulnerable Demographics of the state including women, children, the elderly, the physically challenged and the indigent

She stated further however,that as an MDA committed to continual reinvention with a view to creating better outcomes for the vulnerable demographics in the state which we represent and advocate for their interests, we will not accept the report wholesale because some of the premises the results are predicated on are defective but will take applicable elements of the study as a call to continued action , noting and working on areas needing improvement in order to ensure equal access to economic empowerment for both males and females in Oyo state

She also expressed the readiness of the state government,her Ministry inclusive, to partner with the World Bank in actioning interventions aimed at creating more opportunities for Economic Empowerment of Women