Network of Women with Disabilities in partnership with Federal Ministry of Women Affairs on 10th and 11th of November, 2022 organized a two days training for 12 desk officers in situation rooms from the 6 spotlight states of UN Women to address data collection and utilization gaps on Gender-Based Violence(GBV) against Women and Girls with Disabilities (WGWD). this project was supported and funded by UN Women Nigeria.
Tosin Akabie, Programme, Manager Spotlight Initiative UN Women Nigerian in her remark appreciated Network of Women with Disabilities for coming up with such a training, she said it is coming at the right time because the issues of GBV cannot be over emphasized especially as regards to women and girls with disabilities and they do not have disaggregated data to give the accurate number of WGWD that faces GBV because of this, it is difficult to capture their issues on GBV.
She said that UN Women Nigeria in this primary target is promotion, data collection and women strengthening including WGW that is why this training of desk officers is to mainstream them on issues of GBV, data collection of women and girls with disabilities that faces GBV, promoting WGWD and strengthening women with disabilities on issues concerning GBV and lastly knows the referral pathways and case management.
She also said that UN Women Nigeria is supporting the states coordinators which spotlight have equipped so that when they go they can step it down to their states and local government areas in their various states.
Rose Daniel, Gender inclusion officer network of women with disabilities in giving the overview of the project said the training of 6states coordinator on issues of GBV and how to handle a case when the need arises where and who they can refer cases to depending of the form of GBV and most importantly how to step it down to their state coordinators and hopefully to get recommendations on this training.
Mrs Funke Oladipo Director, Gender Development, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in her sessions talked about understanding violence against women and girls with disabilities, concept and institutional frameworks and understanding referral pathways for survivors with disabilities.
Mr. Sunday Agbabiaka Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in his sessions talked about national data tool for reporting GBV cases and management of data/GBV information.
At the end participants gave recommendations based on cases they have handled and experience sharing which are women empowerment, accessibility of environment for WGWD, assistive devices for WGWD, accessible information for all forms of disabilities, advocacy for empowering of girls with disabilities both technical and educative aspect, equipping shelter houses for easy accessibility of GBV survivors, survival being in appropriate quarters according to their needs, economic empowerment, constant sensitization of women especially WGWD, collaboration in referrals proper networking of GBV response teams, segregation of data of GBV survivors and victims, and finally training of desk officers in every sector on survivor management.
Network of women with disabilities expects participants in their next step to go back to their states and start awareness creation on GBV especially as it affects WGWD, training of 30 WGWD and stepping down what they have learnt in their own training which network of women with disabilities promised to support them in the training and finally data capturing of all women including WGWD who are GBV survivors and victims.
The six spotlight state in participation are FCT, Lagos state, Ebonyi state, Cross river state, Adamawa and Sokoto.
