By Adeyinka Adeniran
A United Nations Peace Ambassador and Executive Adviser on Youth and Sports to Governor Seyi Makinde, Dr Seun Fakorede has assures that the state will begin work on domestication the National Gender Policy soon.
He gave the assurance while responding to an earlier request by the Principal Investigator, Advancing Resiliency in Self-Employed Young Women in Nigeria (Arise and Win), Professor Olayinka Omigbodun at the close out ceremony of about 90 self-employed women who were trained in various skills to enhance their vocations.
The project, a six weeks empowerment training called “Understanding the Gendered Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Young Self-Employed Nigeria Women and Co-Producing Solutions that Foster Better Systems and Well-being” which was branded as: Arise and Win held between December 2024 and January 2025.
Speaking, Fakorede, a former Commissioner of Youth and Sports in the state said he will initiate talks with the legislative arm of government through the Speaker, Rt Honourable Adebo Ogundoyin whom he described as a young progressive mind, to see how the policy can be operational in the state.
The self employed young women were trained in business management, finance and digital skills, health and wellness, legal and human rights, peer support and mentorship.
He said “One of the highlights of being here is to make sure that, one of the requests, being made principle of it is the domestication of the national gender policy and you know I made a commitment in a year and my commitment is not isolated from the knowledge of the right honorable speaker Honorable Adebo Edward Ogundoyin.
“After this engagement I’m still going to get back to him to tell him that I came here one leg also representing him to make sure that we see to the success of the domestication of this lofty policy.
“One of the things that I see that Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration has done so well is in the representation of young people and in the engagement of these young people too. We will continue to support platforms, bodies organizations that actually supports initiatives and ideas like this and by the special grace of God just like you know I made in a commitment here and which is also in line with the promise of the governor that we will continue to support projects like this.
“I have been looking at the participants, the self-employed women and I want the graduands to keep working. Let us keep doing what is expected of us, when we all excel economically individually, it brings about a national wealth and I know that soon we’ll look back and then we’ll be able to in a record impact that is traceable to the trainees of this empowerment scheme.
Speaking on the imperative of the policy, the lead postdoctoral fellow on the Arise and Win Project, Dr Iyeyinka Kusi-Mensah said the National gender policy is a wholesome policy which focuses on various areas that can help improve the outcome of the training project.
She said “It’s a wholesome policy. It’s focused on women’s work, their well-being, issues of gender-based violence and all issues that surround women, men and communities and so this was a policy that really fitted with the goals of our project.
“It will help to improve the financial, the physical, the mental, the social, the wholesome well-being of women and so we felt that this is a policy that needs to be domesticated in Oyo states and this is why we have made the domestication of the policy a goal of our project.”
Speaking on measures in place to ensure sustainability of the self employed women jn their various vocations after the training, Dr Kusi-Mensah explained that various levels of mo itoing and mentoring has been factored into the training and would be followed after the training of the women.
“Before they came on this intervention, we collected data about the trainees, about how much they earn, their mental health, their physical health and we are going to be collecting this data five times over the next four years to see the impact of our intervention. We will be on the field after this in February, we’ll be on the field again in March when our social protection intervention ends.
“We will be on the field in May and also in November to see how this intervention affects them over the next one year”, she added.
