2019 ANNUAL ANALYTICAL OVERVIEW In the year under review, WEP implemented the following activities: 1 . Sub-Grants on Monitoring of State Budget In the period under review, eight civil society organisations were provided technical support and seed grant to conduct monitoring of capital project in the target States. The CSOs received sub-grants to monitor five State and five Federal Capital projects with the aim to ascertain the status of implementation and whether they address issues of women. The Projects were selected based the impacts on Women, Girls and Youths. The selections were done from the provisions of the 2017 state and federal budgets in consultation with the State’s Ministries of Planning and Budget and other respective Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) involved in the implementation of those projects. Majority of the projects were selected from the Ministry of Health, Water Resources, Environment, Women Affairs, Power, Works and Housing. 80 Projects were monitored by the CSOs between the 2 states –Benue and Zamfara which showed that most of the projects that would have impacted the lives of women and girls were abandoned while some were completed and not being put to use. 2. Project Monitoring Information Sharing with Stakeholders by the subgrantees from Zamfara and Benue States: A meeting was jointly organised by 8 subgrantees in their respective states to share their findings on budget monitoring with stakeholders. The status of the 80 projects monitored to access the gender balance in design, implementation and impact of the projects were shared with the participants; who were drawn from Ministries Departments and Agencies, House of Assembly, Traditional rulers, Religious leaders, women leaders from communities of projects monitored, Media and CSOs. The organizations thus publicized the findings of the monitoring exercise with conventional and social media, and other online platforms to elicit further discussions and advocacy for gender sensitive budget implementation. The information sharing meeting increased coordination between government and CSOs and also further created awareness and sensitisation on mainstreaming gender in project development. 2.1 CSOs Review meetings: This was a one day meeting conducted in each state with the 4 subgrantees in Benue and Zamfara States respectively. The meeting entailed review of their implementations so far and their capacities on communications were built. During the meeting with the CSOs sub-grantees, they all presented their activity implementations on the project. During the feedback on their presentations, the subgrantees were advised not to lose focus on the overall objective of the project which is to ensure gender is mainstreamed in government projects. The CSOs were also advised to develop a media strategy to communicate their findings on the status of government projects with other citizens. It was emphasised that social media is a strategic platform to share findings to generate public interest towards holding government accountable to projects that impact on the health, economic and overall welfare of women and person with special needs. Three areas of public financing were identified from the MDA budget allocation, Constituency projects of the parliament and Local government statutory budget allocation as sources of funding for uncompleted projects. CSOs were strongly advised to continue advocating to Members of the State Parliament for gender responsive budgeting. At the community level, CSOs were advised to sensitize traditional leaders, women and youth groups on holding government accountable to gender responsive projects. 2.2 Peer Review Meetings: The peer review was organised to discuss the progress made on the project, lessons learned and challenges on implementations from Zamfara and Benue State. The meeting also created platform for peer learning on practices and strategies that can be replicated in both states to strengthen accountability to gender equality in policies, programmes and legislations. A meeting was held in Benue and Zamfara States respectively. It was a forum for experience sharing and comprised the CSOs subgrantees and some beneficiaries who had received training during the course of the project. Benue beneficiaries were –Deputy Clerk of the House from state assembly, Director Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives and representative of the permanent secretary – Benue state Ministry of Justice. While Zamfara state had -Director of Legislative Matters and the Clerk representing their House of Assembly, Director Legal Drafting for State Ministry for Justice, and Director for Gender who represented the Ministry for Women Affairs, the CSOs subgrantees and some other MDAs. At the meetings all the stakeholders presented their working experiences after the trainings and how they have been able to work with gender lens. During the feedback on the presentations the stakeholders were advised to keep their focus on achieving the overall objective of the project which is to ensure gender is mainstreamed in government programmes. Their shared experiences also gave the team the view for some future steps and a presentation on the Benue VAPP Law domestication raised the discussion on Gender Based Violence in Zamfara which is prevalent with the insecurity being experienced within their communities. 2.3 Meeting with Women contestants: The project team used the occasion of their visit to Zamfara State to meet with the 4 women that contested under different political platforms for the positions of Senate, Governorship, House of Representative and House of Assembly Members. The meeting was essentially to share on their experiences, challenges and successes. Though none of them won any position contested for; it was worthwhile to share in their experiences. They all admitted that they all received support from their political parties and families. Most notable was that two of them were married; a complete departure from the former posture where only widows and divorcees contested. Though they won their party primaries, they did not have enough resources to mobilise for a robust campaign that could have given them a win at the general election. But their confidence and resilience indicated that they were going to try again. 2.4 ADVOCACY FOR LEGISLATION ON QUOTA INCLUSION OF WOMEN 2.4.1 Violence against Persons Prohibition Act: WEP provided technical and financial support to the International Federation of Women (FIDA) Lawyers Benue State Chapter and CSOs coalition for the advocacy for the domestication of the Violence against Person’s Prohibition Act (VAPP) by the Benue State House of Assembly. The VAPP Act which has been passed at the national level provides a legal framework for the prevention of all forms of violence against vulnerable persons, especially women and girls. The law also prohibits economic abuse, forced isolation and separation from family and friends, substance attack, depriving persons of their liberty, incest, among others. It also intends to eliminate violence in private and public life and provide maximum protection and effective remedies for victims of violence, and punishment of offenders. 42 copies of the VAPP bill were produced and submitted to the Benue State House of Assembly through the Co - sponsor, Hon Mrs Ngunan Addingi, a female legislator who has been a beneficiary of the training for Legislators on the project. . FIDA and the CSOs working group agreed on joint advocacy to office of the Honourable Speaker and members of the Benue State House of Assembly before the elections which could not be conducted due to the general electioneering activities in the country. 2.4.2 A Law to Provide for Women Affirmative Action in All Positions in Zamfara State and for Other Matters Related Therewith After the merger of the 35% Affirmative action bill and the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) bill on 30% inclusion of women and girls in the Education sector, the Zamfara State Ministry of Justice through the Office of the Attorney General/ Honourable Commissioner submitted 30 copies of the proposed bill to the office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) for onward presentation to the State Executive Council. The electioneering activities in state however delayed the Council’s meeting to hear the bill. In pursuit of the passage of the bill into law in Zamfara State, the team paid courtesy visits to the Zamfara State 9th House of Assembly (All the members are new), they were received by the deputy speaker on behalf of the speaker and principal house of assembly officials. The team with the support of the Director on Legislatives Matters and the Deputy Clerk gave an overview of the project to keep them abreast of the project since they were all new to the house. WEP also informed them of a proposed advocacy Meeting on Affirmative Action Bill for Zamfara State to sensitise the incoming House members and MDAs. The sensitisation meeting was fixed for the 27th -29th September 2019 and scheduled to take place in Kaduna town away from the base of the key Honourable Members (Speaker, his principal officers, others) and stakeholders expected to participate. 4.2.2.1 Advocacy Meeting on Affirmative Action Bill for Zamfara State in Kaduna: This was a two day follow up meeting (of our advocacy meeting with the Zamfara State House of Assembly) and it was held in Kaduna State with the Speaker of Zamfara State, his principal officers, some key House members, House of Assembly staff, the permanent secretaries from Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Children, Youths, Women and Social Development Affairs. The aim of this meeting was to get the members of the Zamfara State House of Assembly who were new to the project to know the goal and objective of the project under which the Affirmative Action bill was been pushed. The Speaker in his goodwill message commended WEP and Netherlands’ effort at ensuring that women in Zamfara state are emancipated and empowered despite the endless security challenges. He urged the participants to be attentive on building their capacity on legislation which apart from assisting them on passage of the proposed bill, will also help them on other legislative matters. In his words- the aim of changing the fortunes of women in zamfara state “will ins ha-Allahu receive the blessing of this house” he assured. The highlights of the meetings were: i. Project overview by WEP to give the participants the first-hand information on the project objectives and the implementation so far. ii. The participants did a page by page review of the proposed bill “A BILL FOR A LAW TO PROVIDE FOR WOMEN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN ALL POSITIONS IN ZAMFARA STATE AND FOR OTHER MATTERS RELATED THEREWITH”. This, participant assured was to accelerate the hearing and passage of the bill when presented on the floor of the House. The inputs generated were to be done by WEP team and the bill forwarded to the State Ministry of Justice. The meeting ended the second day with an action plan developed and a closing remark from the Chairman House Committee on Women and Children Affairs, who reminded the members of the house and relevant ministries represented that civilization has necessitated women’s inclusion and participation in decision making which is key in the global move towards inclusive development. He cited examples of Northern women in leadership such as Amina Mohammad the Deputy Secretary General of UN and the Current Deputy Governor of Kaduna State; he called on the participants to take all the action that will support the passage of the bill to remove further marginalization of Zamfara Women. He observed that it will be a shame if women in Zamfara are left behind. He pledged the commitment of the Zamfara State House of Assembly to ensure that the bill is passed into law. 2.5. PREPARATION FOR SHADOW REPORTING: Consultants (for Benue and Zamfara) were engaged to assess progress made in achieving Gender Equality in Benue and Zamfara States. To do this, the consultancy agreements were signed. They are to undertake an assessment of how women and other vulnerable persons have fared in the state as it regards initiation and implementation of public policies, programmes and laws. They are expected to submit reports on the Literature review and field assessments which will be used for shadow 3.0 OUTCOMES • Strengthened relationship between CSOs and Government: The project has improved relationship between CSOs and government towards gender responsive budgeting. Government have become open to sharing information on budget, development programmes and budget. Also, sensitisation and awareness created by this project is a major milestone towards gender equality. This was achieved through the information sharing sessions of the two states and several engagements in the course of project implementation • 80 Projects were monitored by the CSOs which showed that most of the projects that would have had impact on the lives of women and girls were abandoned while some were completed and not being put to use. • From the testament on Zamfara state, it was affirmed that; women have moved from where they were 3 years ago in areas of appointments, Politics and even in the exhibition of their confidence. Notably more women contested for the political positions in the state, a woman was appointed a chief judge, 300 community women have been trained for community nursing and midwifery, 20 girls have been granted scholarships to study in various institutions outside Nigeria, 500 women have been empowered with monetary supports to boost their businesses across the states and 3 women have been made directors and heads of parastatals. • Increased women’s role in policy implementation: Women are being more vocal as the case was when the Benue State House of Assembly failed to pass the VAPP Act, women rose in protest and the House members had to revise their actions and domesticate it. Moreover, the VAPP Law has strengthened the fight against the increased violence against women and address some abuse on the rights of women in Benue State • Action plan on addressing community awareness creation to foster community engagement especially the community and religious leaders on budget formation and implementation especially with regards to gender sensitive programmes 4.0 CHALLENGES  Insecurity- this is a major challenge in the two states, while Benue is faced with Herders/Farmers clashes and cultists activities; Zamfara on the other hand is faced with Cattle rustlers’ attacks and herders/farmers clashes as well. This has delayed implementation  Elections and shift in election dates: This affected the activities that had to do with the advocacy for the passage of the bills in the two states  Lack of proper documentation of awarding projects by the MDAs- This was an issue for project monitoring for almost all the MDAs as some were not even aware of the project’s sites and locations, which showed lack of coordination within the institutions  One of the challenges of governance is political instability, this affects all facets of the Nigeria particularly development projects. Prior to the elections it was difficult to access government officials particularly members of parliament and the leadership of Government Ministries.  The change in Political Leadership affected implementation and implied more advocacy, sensitisation to get the new leadership awareness and buy-in to the project 5.0 CONCLUSION It has been four years of getting a system which has been in place to do things differently. Previously attention was not paid to any group least of all women in budget formulation and project implementation, women did not even have a voice concerning their perceived needs despite their positions as home builders and care givers; politically they were relegated to the background despite their 49% voting majority. However, the intervention was appropriate as communities were sensitized on participation in budgeting process, stakeholders had renewed perception about engagement in budgeting process and holding leaders accountable to gender budgeting. The synergies between policy makers and CSOs in States have also been bridged to ensure continuous engagement to reinforced continuous accountability to gender budgeting. Moreover, perception of women political participation that was peculiar to “women with perceived societal unacceptable behaviour” has change with women receiving support from their husbands and families. The 2019 general elections were a testimony to that though more need to be done to get them actually contest against their male counterparts and win. Going forward, WEP will develop the shadow report on gender mainstreaming in the two states, support the 8 CSOs subgrantees to further monitor the budget implementation of the preceding year, Pursue the passage of the “A BILL FOR A LAW TO PROVIDE FOR WOMEN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN ALL POSITIONS IN ZAMFARA STATE AND FOR OTHER MATTERS RELATED THEREWITH” into law and continue with everything necessary towards achieving the set goal of the project in the forthcoming year. Find on this link detail report of the year https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rKGV-WdMpAlZTrjnQQkhTx3FO1kXfX0Z