The United Nations Women and Gender Equality in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Over the years, the United Nations made several attempts to
prioritise gender equality through the establishment of
international treaties, conventions, and creation of entities
dedicated to address the needs of women. The UN Women
is one of such laudable initiatives. It is in this connection
that this paper examined the challenges of promoting gender
equality in Nigeria, focusing on the agenda set by UN Women.
Specifically, the paper looks at Nigeria’s progress so far in
attaining the four target areas of the UN Women in Nigeria.
The target areas include: Peace, Security and Humanitarian
Action, Economic Empowerment and Resilience, Leadership
and Political Participation, and Ending Violence against
Women. The paper leveraged the critical and liberal feminist
theories to analyse gender equality issues and the challenges
posed to the UN women efforts in promoting gender equality
in Nigeria. The paper argues that Nigeria has made some
progress in the target areas of the UN Women through the
ratification of international treaties, policy formulation, and
creation of agencies. The UN women has also demonstrated
commitment to its aim of promoting gender equality in Nigeria in its four thematic areas of engagement through campaigns
and advocacy, capacity-building, partnerships and strategic
alliances; service delivery and improving access to services.
However, there are challenges that hinder the promotion of
gender equality in the country. These challenges include: the
Nigerian law, insecurity, the political terrain, cultural and
religious practices, human rights record, funding, poverty;
and COVID-19 Pandemic. The findings of this paper reveals
that UN Women plays an important role in advancing gender
equality in Nigeria. The paper concludes that institutional
structures that hinders the progress of gender equality in
Nigeria should be addressed so as to solve the socioeconomic problems that has posed a major threat to the UN
women programmes and works. This, the paper recommends
that a lot can be achieved by creating institutions and
implementing policies that encourage and drive economic
growth among women in the country. Domesticating
international conventions and eliminating discriminatory laws
against women in the Nigerian constitution will also help
address the challenges of the UN Women in Nigeria.
Article Details
Authors hold the copyright of all published articles except otherwise stated.
References
Politics. In O. S. Akinboye, Paradox of Gender Equality in Nigerian Politics
(pp. 232-236). Lagos: Concept Publications.
Anderson, L. M. (2007). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.
Ballington, J. (2008). Equality in Politics: A Survey of Women and Men in
Parliaments. Geneva: Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Bamberger, M. S. (2016). Evaluating the Sustainable Development Goals. California
: Eval Partners.
Bari, F. (2005). Women’s Political Participation: Issues and Challenges. Bangkok
: Division for the Advancement of Women.
Bhasin, K. (2003). Understanding Gender. New Delhi : Women Unlimited.
Blackstone, A. (2003). Gender Roles and Society. Human Ecology: An Encyclopedia
of Children, Families,, pp. 335-338.
Bohman, J. (2019). Critical Theory. In E. N. Zalta, The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (pp. 1-18). California : Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford
University.
CEDAW Nigeria. (2008). CEDAW and Accountability to Gender Equality in
Nigeria. Lagos: Women’s Aid Collective.
Center for Reproductive Rights and Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP).
(2020). The Conflict in Northeast Nigeria’s Impact on the Sexual and
Reproductive Rights of Women and Girls. New York and Lagos: Center for
Reproductive Rights (the Center) and Legal Defence and Assistance Project
(LEDAP).
Cohen, N. P. (2015). The Family: Diversity, Inequality and Social Change. New
York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Crossley, A. and Hurwitz, H. M (2013). Women’s Movement. In P. D. David A. S.,
The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements (pp.
1-7). New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Dasylva, O. A. (2013). Politics of Development: Interrogating Phallocentric Space,
Renegotiating the Gender of Mordern Nigerian Politics. In T. A. Falola, The
Power of Gender, The Gender of Power (pp. 431- 448). New Jersey: Africa
World Press
Dauda, O. S. (2004). The Economic Context of Gender Equality in Nigeria. In O. S.
Akinboye, Paradox of Gender Equality in Nigerian Politics (pp. 62-90).
Lagos: Concept Publications.
Dauda, R. (2019). The paradox of persistent poverty amidst high growth: the case
of Nigeria. In R. S. Kanbur, Immiserising growth: When growth fails the poor
(pp. 1-3). UK: Oxford Univeristy Press.
Ferree, M. and Mueller, C.M. (2007). Feminism and women’s movement: A global
perspective. In D. S. Snow, A., Soule, S.A., and Kriesi, H. The Blackwell
Companion to Social Movements (pp. 576–607). Oxford: Blackwell.
Geeta, R. G. (2018). Progress Toward Gender Equality: Backlash and Resistance.
California : UN Foundation.
Giddens, A. D., Duneier, M., Applebum, P. R. and Carr, D. (2013). Sociology.
Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giddens, A. D. (2011). Essentials of Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
Inc.
Harney, B. (2014). Encyclopedia of Management. Freeny: Wiley Publications.
Ikpe, E. B. (2004). The Historical Legacy of Gender Inequality in Nigeria. In S.
Akinboye, Paradox of Gender Equality in Nigeria Politics (pp. 20-40). Lagos:
Concept Publications.
Iman, A. M. (2010). Adopting Women’s Human Rights Legislation in Nigeria: A
Synthesis Analysis and Report. . Lagos: Nigeria: InfoVision Limited.
Inglehart, R. and Pippa, N. (2003). Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural
Change around the World. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Conference Papers & Reports
African Union Commission. (2015). African Gender Scorecard. Addis Ababa:
African Union Commission (AUC).
Amnesty International. (2018). Nigeria: Still No Accountability for Human Rights
Violations (AFR 44/8529/2018). London: Amnesty International.
Akanji, O. O. (2000). Incidence of Poverty and Economic Growth in Nigeria.
Montreux: International Association for Official Statistics
conference,”Statistics, Development, and Human Rights.
Aluko, E. O. (2000). Gender and Poverty Allevation in Nigeria. 31st Annual
Conference of the NITP (pp. 1-9). Minna: NITP.
Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Development. (2006). National
Gender Policy Situation Analysis . Abuja: Federal Ministry of Women Affairs
and Child Development.
Gabriel, C. (2015, June 19). Elective positions: Why Nigeria Records more Women
Losers than Winners. Vanguard, 4.
Gula, M. L. (2020). Gender Equality. United Nations Global Compact, 126.
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. (1996). Summary of the Beijing Platform
for Action . Minneapolis: Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.
Mittal, S. &. (2020). Gender-Based Violence during COVID-19 Pandemic: A MiniReview. Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, 1-4.
Moodley, L. K. (2019). The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in
Africa. Addis Ababa: McKinsey Global Institute.
National Population Commission and ICF International. (2014). Nigeria
Demographic and Health Survey 2013. Abuja and Maryland: NPC and ICF
International.
Oloyede, O. (2020). Monitoring Participation of Women in Politics in Nigeria.
Abuja: National Bureau of Statistics.
Oluyerni-Kusa, D. (2001). Electoral Law Reform in Nigeria: A Critique. Development
Policy Management Network Bulletin, XIII, 3, 27-29.
Pietilä, H. (1999). Women’s Movement and Internationalisation . Mannheim: ECPR
Workshop.
Rengger, N. (2007). Introduction: Still critical after all these years? The Past,
Present and Future of Critical Theory in International Relations. Review of
International Studies, 3–24 .
Salaam, T. (2003). A Brief Analysis on the Situation of Women in Nigeria. Abuja:
DSM.
The Division for the Advancement of Women. (2007). Financing for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women. New York: Division for the
Advancement of Women .
UNDP. (2015). UNDP Nigeria Annual Report 2015. Abuja: UNDP.
UNDP. (2005). Human Development Report 2005: International cooperation at a
crossroads - Aid, trade and security in an unequal world. New York: UNDP.
UNDP. (2015). UNDP Nigeria Annual Report 2015. Abuja: UNDP.
William, A. (1995). The Revolution for Gender Equality. Human Development
Report, 1-10.
World Bank. (2016). Poverty Reduction in Nigeria in the Last Decade. Danvers:
World Bank