Nigerian Women Seek More Reforms To Achieve Beijing+30

Thirty years after the historic 1995 Beijing Conference set a global roadmap for gender equality, Nigerian women leaders have warned that the country risks falling further behind if political will, accountability and institutional reforms are not urgently scaled up.

At the Beijing+30 Women’s Summit held in Abuja, which was convened by the Amandla Institute for Policy and Leadership Advancement, the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) and Womanifesto, the speakers traced how three decades of advocacy have reshaped policy, leadership pipelines and feminist organising across Africa, yet stressed that the struggle remains far from over. “We cannot afford to be tired”, Adeleye-Fayemi said.

In her keynote, founder of Amandla Institute and leading gender advocate, Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, said the Beijing Platform for Action remains “the single most defining global blueprint that enabled women to articulate their vision for transformation.”
She recalled participating in Beijing as a young activist, an experience she described as “a turning point that shifted global attention to African women’s struggles.”

Adeleye-Fayemi listed transformational gains inspired by Beijing, including the creation of the African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI), which has trained over 10,000 women, and the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) which has financed more than 4,000 women’s organisations across 42 African countries but she warned that progress is now under threat. “The forces opposed to equality are never tired. We must continue to think strategically, organise collectively and speak with one voice,” she said.

“Every ministry must present its project on women’s issues. How many women are included? What percentage of work addresses gender concerns? That is how progress is measured.”

She added that without data and accountability, Nigeria will neither meet the MDGs it previously missed nor achieve SDG 5 on gender equality by 2030.

Gender and governance expert Dr Amina Salihu, a Nigerian scholar, feminist and policy advocate with expertise in governance, equity and inclusion, reinforced the need for decisive action, noting that advocacy is no longer enough.

“We have been speaking for decades. Now we must move to doing. We must walk the talk.” Using the example of Ekiti State under Adeleye-Fayemi’s influence, she said deliberate policies, not slogans, expanded women’s political appointments and created mentorship platforms that elevated girls’ voices.

She urged women to join political parties, influence conventions, and “learn the language of politics. When we stay away, decisions fall to people less competent than us,” she warned.

The panellists agreed that the Beijing Declaration remains relevant because the inequalities it sought to dismantle persist. While Rwanda’s 61.3% female parliamentary representation and Senegal’s parity laws show what political will can achieve, Nigeria continues to lag behind.

Prof. Funmilayo Para-Mallam of AWLN-Nigeria emphasised grassroots mobilisation: “Women must organise from the ground up. Every woman must lift others, challenge harmful norms and be present where decisions are made.”