By Josephine Agbonkhese

In commemoration of the Pan African Women’s Day maiden celebration today (Sunday), women in Lagos State have called on government to adopt a more gender-sensitive approach in policy formulation.

Making this plea at a policy dialogue with lawmakers on “Gender Equality and Participation” organised by the Women’s Advocate Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, in partnership with Voices4Change/UKaid, in Lagos, the women, drawn from the Nigerian Labour Congress, Nigerian Employers Consultative Association, Civil Society Organisations, student associations, paralegals, and more, lamented that most policies on health, education, domestic violence, security, poverty alleviation and much more, poorly addressed the challenges faced by women.

Speaking at the dialogue preceded by a rally and attended by members of the state House of Assembly, Founding Director, WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-AfolabI, said: “When making certain laws, government should come up with alternatives.

In a society where people are poor and cannot afford the basic things of life,  if you are making laws to prevent people from hawking for example, you will probably end up turning us all to convicts if there are no alternatives. Soon, you will have a jail that can no longer be enough for the people.

“We are saying the state should be more sensitive because women are the ones selling and also sending their children to go hawk, as a means of addressing poverty in the family.

“The rising insecurity in the state is also a result of poverty. This is why we are calling on government to do more to make life comfortable for the people of Lagos State.”