SGBV Advocacy: Women Activists Chart Solutions To Funding Challenges.

It is no longer news that about one in three women are victims of gender-based violence according to World Health Organization (WHO), or that the world witnessed an upsurge in sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) at the heights of the COVID 19 pandemic lockdowns.

It is more alarming though when local reports of SGBV are seen as often as ten cases per month, as affirmed by medical doctor, clinician and SGBV advocate Stella Kokoricha Essiet; or as minimal as 18 SGBV cases daily as confirmed by Ezinwa Obiajunwa of Nigeria International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).

Increase of SGBV cases in recent times have been attributed to the role of civil societies in creating awareness on Sexual and Gender-based violence, which has encouraged more victims to speak out without fear of discrimination or shame. However, the problem of funding to effectively address SGBV matters persists – as government never seem to have the fund to address this crucial issue.

As part of the global 16 Days Activism Against Gender-based Violence, organized by the Embassy of France Nigeria, and the French Institute, Abuja, female SGBV activists have proffered solutions to funding challenges hindering progress in the cause.

For Dr Essiet, a global treaty is the way forward, as it is binding on nations who are signatories to it. Introducing the Every Day Women Treaty, Essiet said the treaty covers all the loopholes and gaps found in local and international SGBV laws such as the VAPP Act, CEDAW and Maputo declarations.

The treaty, she said will not only provide a direct and dedicated source of funding for SGBV cases globally, that is devoid of government bureaucracies, but also ensures monitoring from a global level which engenders responsibility from signatory countries.

“The treaty is focused on SGBV alone. It will attract money to frontline activists in SGBV advocacy; and it makes provision for education, changing mindsets, communities among others. As it evolves, there will be other additions. A treaty as such will challenge government to dedicate funds to it just as they do for climate change and AIDS,” said Essiet.

Barr Ezinwa Obiajunwa is of a different opinion. She suggested in the interim of advocating for global treaty, the Legislative Advocacy Coalition On Violence Against Women (LACVAL’s) approach should be the way forward. LACVAL is seeking to mainstream gender issues into MDAs desk via its VAPP implementation budget.

“They have started an implementation budget for the VAPP which they are selling to the MDAs by saying “Where does your component fits in, on this budget? And this is what you must include in your annual budget to present to legislators for passage every year.

“We did the same with the UNSI by inviting the senior officials of the MDAs to come to the table to talk. They all have gender desks but they are not functional. Mainstreaming these issues in their annual budget is the way to address the funding problem,” said the Assistant Programme Manager at FIDA.

Mainstreaming gender into agencies budget, she added, will further address a major challenge posed by the law against the effective address of SGBV, which is poor evidence documentation. The absence of effective preservation of evidence have led to courts meting out minimal sentences in cases of SGBV as they often are no evidence that can be judged.

“We have people who have had issues of SGBV but there is poor system of preserving evidence. So, when we investigate and conclude that there has been an act of GBV, we find that there are no evidence.

“The prosecuting agencies in most SGBV cases are government agencies like the police, NAPTIP, the ministry of justice (which you know now have an SGBV Unit and they also prosecute). We are saying let them have the money to be able to function, to help victims that come to them. Let them have money to examine evidence, preserve evidence, document evidence and be able to present evidence in the courts,” concluded Obiajunwa.