By Justina Auta
Change Managers International Network, in collaboration with network of organisations, has urged government and other stakeholders to create a gender based budget that will cater for out-of-school adolescent girls in communities across the country.
Mrs Tayo Erinle, the Executive Director of Tabitha Cumi Foundation, made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at the Dissemination Meeting on Findings from Pilot Project: Partnerships for Equity and Inclusion.
The Project has its theme:
Adolescent Girls Missing from the Radar of Development.
The research, which was a collaboration of three groups: Change Managers International Network, Tabitha Cumi Foundation and University of Abuja Centre for Gender Studies, was aimed at identifying adolescent girls missing from the radar of development.
Erinle said it was important for stakeholders to embark on a policy direction that would include out-of-school adolescents to break the circle of poverty.
This report is excellent and timely, so what it means is that there must be policy direction to include adolescent girls, there must be gender based budgeting.
Their peers in schools are on the school register, so their statistics is covered, but those other ones that are not anywhere and do not have National ID cards are excluded.
They do not have drivers license, so they are not captured in the demographics of the country.
Girls that are not in school must be accounted for and be included and covered in a budget; their health, their education, their financial empowerment must be taken care of, if we want to break the circle of poverty, Erinle said.
Also speaking, Dr Felicia Onibon, the President of Change Managers International Network, explained that the qualitative and participatory approach of research was conducted in the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) namely: Abaji, AMAC, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.
Onibon said that the research had a sample size of 78 people which comprised of 66 adolescent girls and 12 community leaders.
We chose two communities per area council, so we had 12 communities and we identified 10 girls which we trained on participatory research method.
We had six youth researchers who lived in those communities and worked with them, they became skilled to ask questions, became more confident and they could help their peers, she added.
In the same vein, Prof. Ekundayo Ocholi, former Director, Centre for Gender Security Studies and Youth Advancement, said the findings of the report showed more concentrating on children in schools.
Ocholi added that government had programmes and plans to give the best education to those in schools.
She said it was also important for government to design best programmes for drop-outs and out-of- school girls in communities.
She explained that if you go to the hinterlands, you will see that so many girls are wasting away, doing nothing and nobody is thinking about them.
We do not know what the future of this county will be without them going to school; there is a multiplier effect on these children and on the generation yet to come.
We intend to publish the report and let every stakeholder know about it and everybody that is responsible for taking a decision concerning them, so that they will know and act to bring them back into the radar of development.
The don also listed some findings in the communities to include failure of parents to educate their children due to poverty, poor living conditions, social vices such as unwanted pregnancies, forced and early marriage.
Alhaji Mohammed Bawa Makama, the Chief of Idu Community in the FCT, thanked the organisations for identifying and including his community in the research work.
The chief acknowledged that the research work had brought much awareness and enlightenment to his community.
He said I am very glad as the research started in my community because I have seen a lot of changes.
In those days, we do not send our girls to school, we only force them into marriage.
With the coming of the programme, I have learnt more, our girl-child education programme is also moving on now; I am very happy that they brought this to the grassroots.
Aisha Adamu, a participant and Research Lead from Mapa Community in Bwari Area Council of the FCT, also thanked the organisations for their interest on out of school adolescent girls in the FCT.
She said I was trained to get information about challenges adolescent girls face in our community in terms of education and health and we were able to get feedback.
This research has helped in giving girls a voice to speak out on what is bothering them and if we cannot do anything within our community, we can run to the organisations to help us, Adamu said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports
Change Managers International Network works with 14 different organisations, institutions, civil societies and academics working together to do different innovative research that could lead to informed policy formation. (NAN)
Source: NAN News