The need to have an Agro-women budget lines in the 2023 budgets of all the states in the southwest Nigeria has again been stressed. This was part of the resolution at the cluster planning meeting for the cluster members of the Inclusive Agricultural cluster of the USAID-SCALE project held on Wednesday 30th of March, 2022 at the Sunview Hotel, GRA Alagbaka, Akure Ondo state.
The meeting which aimed at providing accurate and adequate information about the project, expected deliverables, roles and responsibilities of cluster members and the overall goal of the project to the cluster members signaled the beginning of a new dawn for women in agriculture especially women with disabilities in the southwest.
The executive director of LAPDO, Mr Franklin Oloniju while giving his opening remarks went down the memory lane on their previous project on inclusion of Agrowomen budget line in the Ondo state budget with the support of USAID coupled with the successes recorded which now led to the decision to implement same in all the southwest states. He said further that women in agriculture won’t be asking for money, rather, they shall be advocating for gender sensitive and inclusive agricultural policies, laws and budgets. Mr Franklin also took the members through reviews of the cluster advocacy ask and highlights roles and responsibilities of cluster members. He also spoke on understanding advocacy and its roles in SCALE project.
DINABI Nigeria’s executive director, Olajide Funso who is also a cluster member on the project expressed his delight to LAPDO, USAID and Palladium for being disability friendly and inclusive in the SCALE project. He said women with disabilities suffered double discriminations for being a woman first and for also being a person with disabilities. He said the project will no doubt improve the economic well-being and visibility of women with disabilities in the southwest Nigeria.
USAID-SCALE Project and Palladium LLC is supporting Life and Peace Development Organization as the anchor and other cluster members such as DINABI Nigeria, HUFFPED, DAWN Commission and others to implement an advocacy project titled “Enhancing Inclusive Agricultural Governance through Smallholder Women Farmers participation in Agricultural Sector in the Southwest” which addresses two of SCALE project key sectors of “economic growth” and “agriculture”.
The 5 years project in the 6 southwest states seek to further facilitate the inclusion of smallholder women farmers living with disability into the agriculture governance system while also strengthening cluster members capacity for engagement through advocacy for better voice in the agricultural sector. It will also seek to support demand for creation of Agro-women budget line in the ADP budget of the 5 states in southwest and 18 LGAs in Ondo state in the 2023 budget as well as provide space for smallholder women farmers’ network to develop systems, procedures, and byelaws to function as a 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 the cluster members on group work on Stakeholders mapping and analysis.
