Category: City Beats

The 2025 Gender Inclusion Summit (GS-25) held in Abuja on Thursday renewed calls for concrete action on women’s empowerment and inclusive development in Nigeria.

The event, organised by the Policy Innovation Centre, brought together diplomats, government officials, development partners, and civil society leaders who stressed that gender equality is key to peace, stability, and economic growth.

In his goodwill message, the Mexican Ambassador to Nigeria, Alfredo Miranda, said gender equality should not be viewed as a foreign concept but as a universal aspiration built on dignity and opportunity.

“It is a true honor to stand before you today — here in a country of immense diversity, extraordinary resilience, and women of remarkable strength and wisdom,” he said. Quoting an African proverb, he added: “If you educate a woman, you educate a nation. In Mexico, we believe that to be profoundly true.”

The envoy highlighted Mexico’s progress in recent years, including constitutional parity in elected positions, institutionalized gender policies, and, for the first time in its history, the election of a female president. But he admitted these gains came through persistence, legal reforms, political will, and civil society advocacy — not automatically.

Miranda stressed that inclusion must go beyond gender to embrace youth, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. He also pointed to the economic benefits, noting that closing gender gaps in labor markets could add trillions of dollars to global GDP.

“Empowering women and excluded groups is not only a moral imperative — it is a smart economic strategy for growth, innovation, and stability,” he said, adding that Mexico stands ready to collaborate with Nigeria in advancing inclusive policies at home and in global forums such as the UN and G20.

In his keynote address, Ekenem Isichei, Deputy Director of Programme Advocacy and Communications at the Gates Foundation, painted a mixed picture.

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While acknowledging Nigeria’s recent progress on women’s inclusion, he warned of waning international support for gender-focused initiatives.

According to him, bilateral aid to Nigeria has dropped by 40 percent in the past year, with funding for maternal and child health plummeting by 67 percent. “That means for every three women in your community, two of them will not have access to critical health commodities they had last year,” he cautioned.

Despite this, Isichei highlighted important milestones, including Nigeria’s leap from 49th to 24th place on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Economic Opportunity Index, surpassing the government’s 2028 target three years early. 

He credited the progress to increased female labor force participation and reforms such as the adoption of the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Policy.

The WEE Policy, developed after an 18-month consultative process, serves as a blueprint for lifting women in key sectors such as agriculture, entrepreneurship, and formal employment. Lagos and Kaduna have already domesticated the policy, while at least 14 other states are in the process of doing so.

Isichei also cited the relaunch of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF 2.0) and the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) to funding as signs of stronger institutional intent. However, he insisted that policies must translate into delivery.

“We need more than policies. We need implementation,” he said. “Ministries, departments, and agencies must invest in skills, systems, and staying power to deliver impact — not just to launch programmes.”

The Gates Foundation official urged governments to dedicate public resources to women, ensure gender-responsive budgeting, and release funds promptly for women-focused programmes. He also called on the private sector to view investment in women not as charity but as good business, citing examples of WEMA Bank and Access Bank, which have introduced progressive maternity leave policies and mentorship schemes for women.

“Data repeatedly shows that gender-balanced teams and women-led businesses outperform their peers,” he said.

Turning to civil society, Isichei acknowledged their advocacy as a driving force behind recent gains but urged groups to pair urgency with operational clarity to ensure that progress reaches women in real and measurable ways.

Looking ahead, he outlined key targets before the next summit in 2026: full domestication and funding of WEE plans across states, nationwide expansion of women-centered health innovations, increased access for women to credit and digital tools, more women in leadership, and robust data systems to track gender outcomes.

“The test of inclusion is not the summit,” he concluded. “The test is what we change after the applause dies down.”

For participants, the summit served both as a reflection of progress and a call to action. With global aid for women’s health shrinking and competing national priorities growing, speakers agreed that Nigeria’s development will depend heavily on how it centers women and marginalized groups in policy and practice.

As Ambassador Miranda summed up: “Gender equality is not a luxury. It is not a distant goal. It is an urgent necessity for peace, stability, and prosperity — for men and women alike.”