The need to have an Agro-women budget allocation lined up in the 2023 budget of all Southwestern States in Nigeria has again been stressed.
This was part of resolutions made at a clusters planning meeting of cluster members of the Inclusive Agricultural group of the USAID-SCALE project held yesterday March 30, 2022 at the Sun-View Hotel, GRA, Alagbaka, Akure Ondo State.
The meeting which aimed at providing accurate and adequate information on the USAID funded project enlightened participants on expected deliverables, roles and responsibilities of cluster members, and the overall goal of the project.
The laudable initiative signaled the beginning of a new dawn for women in agriculture, especially Women with Disabilities in the Southwest.
Executive Director of LAPDO, Mr Franklin Oloniju, while delivering the opening remarks went down memory lane to recall previous project on inclusion of Argo-women in the Ondo State budget with support of USAID. He also mentioned the successes recorded.
These, according to him, has led to the decision to implement same in all states of the Southwest.
Oloniju further emphasized that women in agriculture shouldn’t be asking for money, rather, they should be advocating for gender sensitive issues like inclusive agricultural policies, laws and budgets.
The Executive Director also led the participants through reviews on cluster advocacy while highlighting roles and responsibilities of cluster members. He gave insights on advocacy and its roles in USAID-SCALE project.
Olajide Funso, Executive Director of DINABI Nigeria and a cluster member of the project expressed genuine delight at the disability friendly approach adopted by the groups (USAID, LAPDO and Palladium LLC) in the SCALE project.
Funso noted that Women with Disabilities suffer double discrimination, first as women and also as Persons with Disabilities. He went on to acknowledge that the project will improve economic well-being and visibility of Women with Disabilities in Southwest Nigeria.
The USAID-SCALE Project and Palladium LLC are supporting the Life and Peace Development Organization (anchor organization) and other cluster members like DINABI Nigeria, HUFFPED, DAWN Commission, etc, to implement an advocacy project titled “Enhancing Inclusive Agricultural Governance through Smallholder Women Farmers participation in Agricultural Sector in the Southwest”. The project addresses two key areas of the SCALE initiative, namely: “economic growth” and “agriculture”.
The 5-Year project targeted at the five Southwest states of Nigeria also seeks to facilitate the inclusion of smallholder women farmers living with disability into the agriculture governance system. It will at same time strengthen cluster members capacity for engagement through advocacy for better representation in the agricultural sector.
USAID-SCALE also supports the creation of an Agro-Women budget line in the Agricultural Development Project budget of the 5 States in Southwest Nigeria in the coming year.
Meanwhile, opportunities will be provided for smallholder women farmers’ network to develop systems, procedures, and byelaws that will enable functioning as structured entities.
The Project Officer, Mr Segun Ojo facilitated a session on “Stakeholders Mapping and The Roles Of State And Non-State Actors” where he led cluster members in group work on stakeholders mapping and analysis.