Project profile — Women’s Voice and Leadership - Nigeria

This project is part of Canada’s Women’s Voice and Leadership Program, which supports local and regional women’s organisations and networks that are working to promote women’s rights, and advance women’s empowerment and gender equality in developing countries. This is done by supporting activities, building institutional capacity, and promoting network and alliance-building as women’s rights and feminist organizations are critical agents of change. The Program also responds to the significant, globally recognized gap in funding and support to women’s rights organizations and movements around the world. This project, implemented by ActionAid Nigeria, is expected to directly benefit 100 local women's rights organizations and their extended networks in six states across Nigeria. The project also aims to support the implementation of innovative ideas and approaches led by local women’s rights organizations.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved institutional capacity of local women’s and girls’ rights organizations (WROs) to set their agendas and manage the delivery of their programs in Nigeria; (2) improved effectiveness of WROs to deliver programs and advocate for women’s rights, including through innovative approaches; and (3) increased effectiveness of local women’s rights platforms, movements and networks to influence policy, legislation, social beliefs and practices in favour of gender equality and innovative approaches in Nigeria.

Results achieved as of September 2024 through the provision of over CAD 5.8 million in direct funding to 182 women's rights organizations across Nigeria through various funding streams, including fast-responsive funds, multi-year grants, and innovation funds, include: (1) 100% of women’s rights organizations trained and funded reported a greater reach of their program. This is reflected in increased number of beneficiaries, communities, or geographic areas served through their programs. Also, a total of 100 partners, including 18 Local Women's Rights Organizations (LWROs), 72 Community Based Organizations (CBOs), and 10 Networks demonstrated improved capacity to implement women's rights and feminist interventions; and 2) Women’s rights organizations supported through the project influenced 47 women’s rights related policies, laws, frameworks or other government plans. These include the Kwara State Action Plan 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, gender strategies for five Universities and the Gender Policy Amendment for the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria and (3) reached 7,150,153 women and girls across 24 states and the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria. As a result, women and girls’ rights and gender equality are advanced in Nigeria.