Field Updates

 

Men's Leadership Training

In Nigeria, where a woman’s health and personal freedom is often threatened by traditional customs and religious law, many men are abandoning long-entrenched gender discrimination and promoting equal rights for their wives and daughters. As the women enrolled in Women for Women International’s Nigeria Sponsorship Program encouraged development in their communities, male friends and family members began approaching WfWI. The stories unfurled one after another, all recounting how Sponsorship had indirectly restored family relationships and brought communities together.

Rather than resenting the women for their increasing economic and social power, the men appreciated the new changes in their communities and wanted to participate in the process. WfWI, recognizing that men who understand the value of women often become their strongest advocates, launched the first Men’s Leadership Program (MLP) in Nigeria in 2003, in response to this demand.

The program works with men leaders to create awareness of the marginalized sectors of communities—and these sectors’ needs—and to sensitize the men to issues of gender discrimination and economic empowerment. Since the very first MLP, WfWI has graduated more than 500 men leaders in Nigeria and has brought the program to Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with great success.

            The MLP recently concluded its latest training session in July in Enugu, the capital city of Nigeria, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation. Thirty men representing 10 communities came together to study and discuss the role of women and the many ways in which promoting women’s rights can benefit communities as a whole. Selected as the most proactive and open-minded members of their communities, the men committed themselves right away to the two-day-long schedule of courses and approached the intensive planning session—where they designed projects to share the program’s results with their communities—with a serious and earnest attitude.
Amid concerns about security and the inevitable challenges they would face when they returned home with these projects, the men remained focused on the new ideas and information. The issues broached by the courses, though at times controversial, introduced new perspectives on the role of women. As participants discussed reasons to invest in daughters, they acknowledged and discredited many negative cultural beliefs that devalue women and girls. A lecture on HIV/AIDS then led to talks about discrimination against affected women and practices that could improve the health and happiness of their families, as the men began to understand that HIV/AIDS did not need to spell the destruction of relationships.

Other deeply engrained beliefs proved more difficult to overcome in such a short period of time, however. Many men continued to perceive gender equality as a threat to their identity as leaders and breadwinners and to the associated respect this role brought them. At the same time as they acknowledged the weakness of the argument for male domination, the men feared that the loss of this supposed superiority would inevitably demote them to an inherently inferior social role—an unacceptable fate.

Despite these obstacles, the participants recognized the value of women in their communities. “The men appreciated the fact that an empowered woman will lessen the burdens they face at family and community level,” said a member of the MLP committee. Pushing their personal reservations aside for the sake of their communities, the participants pledged to encourage community development by cultivating the participation of both men and women thorough communication, advocacy and lobbying.

As the two days of intensive training drew to a close, the men set about outlining projects that would share their new perspectives with their communities. While the plans varied—some focused on creating spaces for community discussions about this evolving gender-equal consciousness, while others sought to eliminate female genital mutilation and early marriage and to sensitize individuals to HIV/AIDS issues, and still others planned to create educational opportunities for girls and to include women in inheritances—all revealed a heightened awareness of the value of women. One participant even moved to establish Sponsorship funds for the women in his community, testifying to the very real change that WfWI sponsors are creating every day.

Although “too little time!” was the one regret voiced throughout the courses and planning session, the participants, instructors, and organizers all concluded the program amid a feeling of success. The goals of the MLP reached not just the 30 participants and their communities, but more than 50,000 men and women around Nigeria through coverage by local and national media.

Preparing to return to their communities, the men expressed enthusiasm for the changes the projects could bring. The new respect for women cultivated by the MLP will not flourish left to itself, however, but will require constant collaboration by both men and women in each community. As they work together to make these new projects realities, no one group will ever be able to question the power and importance of women in building and enriching communities.

 

Rice Mill in Nigeria

In 2007, WfWI-Nigeria enrolled 640 women of Enugu State, Nigeria in a rice cultivation training program to ease the pressure of rising food prices due to high levels of importation. Their collective efforts to create a sustainable income and produce locally-grown rice for their communities led to the commission and construction of a 3.5 ton modern rice mill on government-donated land to increase the production and quality of the rice they cultivated. At the December 2008 dedication of the rice mill, hundreds of men and women came to Ekoli-Okpanku to celebrate the women’s achievement and thank WfWI-Nigeria for its contribution to increased food security for the surrounding communities.

Rice is a crucial dietary staple for most Nigerians and its consumption has increased dramatically since the 1970s. Nigeria has grown to become West Africa’s largest rice producer, yet it is also Africa’s top rice importer. With the largest population in Africa, 125 million Nigerians still rely on importation for one third of their rice supply. To ease the pressure of rising food prices in the Ekoli-Okpanku community of Enugu State, Women for Women International-Nigeria (WfWI-Nigeria) enrolled 640 women in 2007 for training in rice cultivation. Learning this trade not only provided these women with a source of income and pride of purpose; their training also helped to meet a nation-wide demand for locally-produced rice. Nigerian rice imports come from neighboring states in sub-Saharan Africa or from as far away as Thailand. As energy prices rise and costs of food production increase worldwide, high levels of importation have caused the price of rice in Nigeria to more than double in recent years. Locally cultivated rice was an important first step for the women of Ekoli-Okpanku, but as the project grew they quickly saw the need to increase the production and quality of their rice to meet the large demands of their community.

The women approached WfWI-Nigeria and expressed the need for a rice mill that would process the rice and remove stones in order for them to produce larger quantities of high-quality rice and have a competitive edge at the market. Under the direction of Ngozi Eze, WfWI-Nigeria’s Country Director, WfWI-Nigeria commissioned the construction of a rice mill. The women’s collective of rice cultivators collaborated to manage all aspects of the rice mill’s construction. They worked together to convince the ruler of Ekoli-Okpanku to donate land to the women on which to house the mill – a great achievement given that women rarely own the land on which they work. They saved their own earnings and secured sponsors to fund the purchase of the mill’s parts, and then constructed the mill themselves. Start to finish, the establishement of the Ekoli-Okpanku rice mill is truly a product of the women and their efforts.

For a town with no electricity, no running water, and only one road connecting the community to the rest of Enugu State, this 3.5 ton-capacity rice mill is a grand achievement for the community and has attracted widespread attention to the women of Ekoli-Okpanku. In December of last year, the dedication ceremony of the rice mill drew attendants from seven surrounding communities. School children were excused from their classes that day to take part in the celebration. “Not even the state government has remembered us in this way; not even [the fact that] our son [is]…in the National Assembly has attracted this kind of joy for the community,” one woman remarked during the ceremony.

The dedication ceremony included much dancing and celebration for the construction of the mill and the hard work of the women who made it possible. The ceremony also drew praise from Vivian Eze, the Enugu State Commissioner for Gender Affairs and Social Development, who promised to present the story of the women and the rice mill to the state’s governor. The community’s ruler, Professor Sam Ukpabi, thanked WfWI-Nigeria for laying a solid economic foundation for the women of the community.

The benefits of the mill constructed by the women in the WfWI-Nigeria program are widespread, improving the quality and availability of affordable rice throughout the region. With no such technology available to the surrounding villages, other farmers are bringing their crops to be milled by the women of Ekoli-Okpankuand for a fee. Professor Ukpabi also sees the potential for other lasting effects of the mill that go beyond rice cultivation and de-stoning; he has appealed to the Governor of Enugu State to improve the quality of the community’s only road, in order to increase the accessibility of the women’s rice mill and further stimulate the economy in Ekoli-Okpanku.

For the women of Ekoli-Okpanku, the construction of the rice mill means they can take a direct and active role in providing affordable, high-quality food for their communities while building a sustainable future for themselves and their families. For the town of Ekoli-Okpanku, the rice mill not only provides a necessary service, but also attracts investment from surrounding communities and the Enugu State government, buoying  the city’s infrastructure. The rice mill’s construction is also a step forward in lowering food prices as it supplies demand for locally-produced, rather than imported, rice and grains. In the context of the growing global food crisis that threatens the lives of millions, the Ekoli-Okpanku mill is a practical symbol of what occurs when women – simultaneously the most active and least resourced of the agricultural community -  are given the opportunity to apply their skill and vision to the improvement of their communities.   

 

Nigerian Women: Working Together to Succeed

Halima collects the peanuts and Larai prepares the machine that will extract the oil, while Binta develops a plan for marketing the final product. These activities are a regular part of daily life for members of Godiya Women, a peanut oil cooperative formed recently by graduates of Women for Women International’s program in Nigeria. Godiya, which means “appreciation” in Hausa, one of Nigeria’s local languages, is a group of 50 women who have pooled their skills and resources to produce and market peanut oil. Nigeria is one of the world’s top producers of peanuts, known locally as groundnuts, which form an important part of the economy.

Many of the women in Women for Women International – Nigeria’s program live in isolated rural communities whose economies are based upon a limited number of agricultural products. Forming a cooperative, in this context, helps prevent too many women from starting the same type of business. It also builds a strong network of community support for cooperative members and helps them to stretch their personal resources further. Habiba Nakande, a member of Godiya Women, said: “The formation of cooperatives to us is a good long-term investment, which is going to help us.” While cooperatives are not the sole source of income for most of their members, they provide women with a practical way to supplement their income.

In the third month of the sponsorship program, Women for Women International – Nigeria, introduces program participants to the nuts and bolts of cooperatives. They help women to identify potentially profitable business areas, navigate the legal process to officially register as a cooperative business, open a bank account and locate trainers to help them develop the technical and business skills they will need. Once the cooperatives are formed, they continue to receive advice and support from the organization.

Godiya Women is working hard to create a foothold in their community. Its members have recently acquired a store and paid rent for one year. While the group initially did not have enough funds to purchase the costly processing machine to extract oil from the nuts, new members joined and their funds enabled the group to buy the machine. They have now installed electricity and started processing their first batch of peanuts. They hold weekly meetings to discuss business activities and collect a contribution from each member to cover operating expenses.

Other cooperatives are also getting off the ground in Nigeria, including a group that makes batik products, one that leases a well and sells water and another that produces soap. Women in the program are pleased with the opportunity that being in a cooperative provides them. In the words of Hauwa Aminu, another member of Godiya Women: “Being in the cooperative makes me feel very secure and successful in business and in life.”

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