By Mustapha Salisu
The Bridge Connect Africa Initiative (BCAI) says its Women Against Violence Empowered Through Sustainability (WAVES) project has recorded notable progress in women empowerment, policy engagement and institutional strengthening in Kano State.
The Project Lead at BCAI, Nathan Bako, disclosed this during a dissemination event held on Thursday in Kano to present preliminary outcomes of the project after about nine months of implementation.
The initiative is supported by the French Embassy in Nigeria through its Civil Society Funds and implemented in partnership with AgrofixNG.
Bako said the event was organised to share lessons learned from the project with stakeholders and gather feedback to improve future phases of the initiative.
According to him, the WAVES project focuses on empowering women while strengthening systems that support survivors of gender-based violence and women’s economic participation.
He noted that although empowerment takes time, the project has already recorded encouraging transformation among beneficiaries within the nine months of implementation.
Bako explained that the project is built around three key pillars: capacity building, advocacy and policy engagement, and institutional strengthening.
Under the capacity building component, he said the project supported women to acquire business management skills and build networks to strengthen their livelihoods.
He added that about 50 women beneficiaries now form a support network that allows them to share experiences, build confidence and support one another within their communities.
On advocacy and policy engagement, Bako said the project has worked closely with the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs and other stakeholders to improve coordination on women economic empowerment initiatives.
He explained that the project supported the integration of the Gender Equity and Women Economic Empowerment Committee chaired by the Commissioner for Women Affairs to enhance collaboration among government institutions, civil society organisations, security agencies and faith-based groups.
Speaking on institutional strengthening, Bako said the project provided capacity building for gender desk officers across 20 divisions of the Nigeria Police Force in Kano State to improve survivor-centred responses to gender-based violence cases.
He added that the project also partnered with the Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) to strengthen gender-responsive agricultural extension services for women farmers.
Earlier, the technical partner’s Team Lead at AgrofixNG, Eric Andrew, said the project engaged civil society organisations, community leaders and women beneficiaries to develop learning products that could guide similar interventions in the future.
Andrew said materials presented at the event included a CSO advocacy guide and climate-smart agriculture training extension plans for crops such as tomatoes, cabbage and okra to support sustainable agricultural practices.