By Josephine Agbonkhese
As the curtain falls this June on the European Union, EU, Spotlight Initiative project, coalitions, networks of women groups, and civil society partners of the Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre, WARDC, have commended the EU over its commitment towards ending violence against women and girls.

Speaking yesterday in Lagos at a meeting organised by WARDC and attended by almost 200 community-based partners, the groups also commended WARDC for its role in driving the Pillar 6 of the Spotlight Initiative which focused on building movement, capacities of civil society organisations, women’s rights advocacy and engaging decision-makers on accountability.

According to them, aside triggering an increase in awareness about violence against women and girls, the initiative also afforded them the opportunity to be seen and heard in their various communities.

“We have been partners with WARDC in all of their Spotlight Initiative activities. I was part of those appointed to join the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, roundtable discussion on pre-election fact-finding in Lagos. Surprisingly, the issues highlighted at the roundtable were what generally played out in the 2023 election. The Spotlight Initiative has heavily helped to beam more light around the issues confronting women in the community, education sector, workplace and other areas,” said one of the participants, Duro Orike, representing Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights, a Lagos-based organisation.

Orike, however, advised that the next phase of the project be strenghtend with more budgetary allocation to enable the expansion of its scope to areas such as secondary schools to build young minds.

Another participant, Elizabeth Bassey Olubanke, representing the Women’s Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria, WOWICAN, told Vanguard the Spotlight Initiative activities organised by WARDC over the years had helped to transform the minds of members of her organisation, community and religious leaders around her.

“So many women believed they should depend on only prayers when faced with issues of violence; but the moment I began creating awareness on violence against women and girls based on lessons learned from at the various Spotlight Initiative activities organised by WARDC, they became more knowledgeable and began to speak about their experiences.

“That led to one of the reports that we got concerning a woman that was killed by the husband for refusing him sex. We eventually invited WARDC. They took up the case and as we speak, the man is in jail,” Olubanked said.

Meanwhile, the Founder/Director, WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, while speaking at the event, revealed that through the EU/UNWOMEN Spotlight Initiative, her organisation had worked with over 700 groups and organisations including the Federation of Muslim Women; the Women’s Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria, WOWICAN; Catholic Women Organisation; Federation of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria, FOMWAN; artisans and AREWA groups, to strengthen voices and accountability on ending sexual and gender-based violence.

She went on: “Through the project also, WARDC led the advocacy for a model action plan across six states and was successful at contributing to the Executive assent of the plan in Bauchi, Cross River, and Sokoto states. We currently look forward to the assent by the governments of Adamawa, Ebonyi and Lagos states.

“Our major work was to strengthen coordination among organisations and also grow grassroots movements as, hitherto, the movement appeared elitist.

“During the course of the project, we have moved and taken action as a group with our various partners on different issues and delivered justice.

“So far, I will say the project has been a success and I must say it was the first time we are having the opportunity of having the elite and the grassroots work together.”

On her part, Emmanuella Azu, Director of Programmes, WARDC, assured that work had only just begun.

“We believe this marks the beginning of our work at the grassroots rather than an end because in the course of the Spotlight Initiative project, we have experienced an expanded relationship at all levels and an increased awareness/campaign.

“We saw a lot of collaborations, even with government and civil society organizations. We worked across Lagos, Adamawa, Sokoto, Ebonyi, Cross River and the Federal Capital Territory, and the Ministry of Women Affairs served as our major partner and collaborator in each state, alongside other ministries,” Azu said.

The Spotlight Initiative is a 5-year joint global, multi-year project of the European Union, EU, and the United Nations, UN, focused on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls.