Site visits are one of the numerous ways in which the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) keeps in touch with its diverse constituencies. These visits enable AWDF to interact directly with grantee partners, learn about issues of concern to women’s rights organisations, identify the developmental needs of grantee partners, assess the impact of grants provided, and offer technical assistance to the women’s rights organisations funded.

 

A bird’s eye view of the 2013 Nigeria site visit

 

In June 2013, a 3-member team from AWDF visited 19 grantee partners (and 3 potential grantee partners) who had received financial support between 2011 and 2013. The organisations visited worked in the following thematic areas:

 

Number of organisations	Thematic area of work
7	HIV and AIDS
6	Women’s Leadership, Governance and Political processes
2	Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods
4	Health and Reproductive Rights

 

Overall, AWDF’s grantee partners in Nigeria are creating significant change with relatively small amounts of money. Some of the change created has led to the creation of new policies at the level of state government. Family Resources Development Motivation (FARDEM) for example, successful lobbied for a gender equality law resulting in Imo State Community Administration Law No.1 of 2012.

 

The main challenges grantees spoke of were linked to a lack of resources, challenges with fundraising in an economic downturn, and the inability of non-governmental organisations to retain well trained staff. Many spoke of the need for consistent institutional support, something that many funders outside of AWDF are often reluctant to consider. Grantees also spoke of the difference AWDF’s resource mobilisation capacity building support had made to those organisations that had benefitted. Organisational outcomes included completed fundraising strategies, diversification of funding sources and more innovative and robust fundraising programmes.

Highlights of the visit included:

Towards Gender Parity in Politics and Governance

 

The women politicians being supported by Ajengunle Community Project (ACP), an AWDF grantee partner in Lagos sing:

ACP song

No longer men in front

And women at the back

Together we shall walk

Side by side

Side by side

 

‘2015’ came up several times during AWDF’s monitoring visit. That is the year when Nigeria next goes to the ballot box, and there is already considerable anxiety around the forthcoming elections. There are concerns around potential political and physical insecurity in the context of increased conflict in parts of the country, as well as numerous challenges affecting women’s political participation in the next general elections. The Ajengunle Community Project (ACP) has already started working with women politicians in the Lagos and Delta States with the goal of increasing the number of women politicians in public office. Towards this goal, ACP has trained 20 advocates in their target states who are in turn reaching out to women involved in politics at various levels in the states. A key success has been changing the mind-set of women who previously supported partisan parties by mobilising other community women as voters, cooks and dancers for the benefit of male politicians.

 

Grace Bayo, participated in ACP’s training programme and stated:

 

I used to be quiet until I joined ACP. Politicians had reduced women to singing and dancing. I had become disappointed in politics until I came to ACP. I have learnt to demand my rights. Women are not elected into office or given [government] contracts. Now we negotiate with the men.

 

Women trained by ACP now want to play active roles within their parties, and have learnt the art of negotiating with the key figures within their chosen political parties to gain more substantive political office. Women like Alhaja Babs-Olurun Kemi Ndurat, a local government Chairperson of the ruling PDP, and a beneficiary of ACP’s training programme, has taken on the responsibility of mentoring younger women politicians.

Living Positively

 

Several of the projects visited (for example ‘Women and Children of Hope Foundation’, ‘Positive Action for Access Treatment’ and ‘Heal the land Initiative’) have been working for many years with some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people living with HIV/AIDS. They spoke to the AWDF team about some of their key learning points over the years, including the importance of ensuring that women living positively are “economically empowered”. This translates to having sustainable and adequate incomes, and being able to afford nutritious foods and supplements, which are essential for those on anti-retroviral medication. Grantee partners also reported that stigma is still very much an issue of concern for women living positively. Click here to listen to a member of a support group run by Women and Children of Hope Foundation in Lagos share her experience of dealing with stigma.

A third key concern related to ensuring the sustainability of their organisations and services. An important part of AWDF’s support to grantee partners includes organisational strengthening in multiple ways. Organisations like Heal the Land, who had benefited from initiatives such as AWDF’s resource mobilisation training (run in conjunction with Resource Alliance UK), reported that training had provided greater knowledge in fundraising, with some organisations reporting a more diversified approach to fundraising including elements such as reaching out to the corporate sector, implementing work place giving schemes and even starting small enterprises.

Watch a video of Jacinta Ine, Finance Manager of Heal the Land Initiative of Nigeria share her experiences of attending a resource mobilisation workshop organised by AWDF.

 

Reducing Maternal Mortality

 

The International Centre for Environmental Health and Development (ICEHD) has been working with the Ogun State Government towards reducing maternal mortality rates. Towards that goal, ICEDH has focused its efforts on training traditional birth attendants (TBAs) whose services are in high demand from women in the community because TBAs are more affordable than some other maternal health services. The traditional birth attendants AWDF spoke to said they often accepted whatever sums of money women were able to pay, and even provided services when clients had no money. However, they highlighted how a lack of money still affected women’s health choices as some women are reluctant to attend clinics because they have to pay for consultations; treatments, and medication – which sometimes include paying for services that are supposed to be offered for free.

 

ICEDH has worked with local hospitals to train TBAs on a broad range of topics including menstrual cycles, diagnosis and management of pregnancy, and dangerous signs and symptoms in pregnancy. TBAs are then provided with a certificate of training and a birth attendant kit filled with sanitary equipment. More importantly, the hospitals involved have built and continue to maintain relationships with the TBAs.

 

Grace Olubunmi Popoola, a traditional birth attendant shared,“I used to run away from the police, but now that I am certified, I am free to work. I also practice family planning. Before I would use Dettol, now I use Jik, cotton wool and forceps. I also use a surgical blade instead of an ordinary blade.”