Gombe: UNESCO-Japan project records 100% success in Women literacy programme

The Japan-UNESCO Project on the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Marginalised Communities for better Wellbeing through Education and Advocacy has recorded 100% success in its literacy pillar in Gombe State.

The literacy programme, sponsored by Japanese Government and implemented by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, is part of the first pillar of the project, which focused on the Conduct of Non-formal education, NFE, for women and girls.

The Representative of the Senior Programme Specialist of the UNESCO Regional Office, Abuja, Mrs. Magdalene Anene-Maidoh, said this in Gombe during the presentation of the End-line Report and Closing event for the Project.

The UNESCO official said there was sensitisation of the public on hate speech and fake news and COVID-19, because of the sharp increase in gender-based violence and poverty amongst women.

Mrs. Anene-Maidoh said 99 learners, out of the 100 went through the programme and could now read.

She said the Japan-UNESCO programme had also developed a manual on psychosocial counselling and rehabilitation for survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, SGBV.

According to her, 10 trained media personnel developed programmes on their platforms, which advocate for the rights of women and girls in marginalized communities.

She said 15 Civil Society Organisations and their partners had stepped down the training in their communities, while 20 community media personnel were equipped with relevant skills and competencies for tackling hate speech and fake news on COVID-19 and the development of quality information and content on gender-sensitive reportage.

“Capacity of over 50 CSOs and stakeholders including youth, women, men, religious and traditional leaders, media, policy makers, security, and medical personnel was built on the knowledge and respect of existing rights of women and girls becoming key advocates and actors in preventing SGBV, preventing COVID-19, countering violent extremism and hate speech,” Mrs Anene-Maidoh said.

Presentation of Report

During the presentation of the End-line Report and Closing event for the Japan funded UNESCO Project in Gombe, beneficiaries expressed their satisfaction with the organisation and course content in respect of training on SGBV, quality of resource persons, supply of manuals, equipment and materials for the training.

Because of the success recorded in the literacy programme, Mrs. Anene-Maidoh recommended funding of and provision of post basic literacy and vocational skills programmes for women who have completed the literacy programme for economic empowerment and improved livelihoods.

She also appealed to the government to continue paying facilitators allowance for the continued professional development, while appealing to local philanthropists to also support the payment of facilitators, so that Non-Formal Education, NFE would be expanded to prove and increased support to the State Agency for Mass Education.

She said, “Funding of and provision of post basic literacy and vocational skills programmes for women who have completed the literacy programme for economic empowerment and improved livelihoods. Support from local philanthropists for payment of facilitators to expand NFE provision. Increased support to the State Agency for Mass Education to conduct effective monitoring Provision of learning equipment and materials, including furniture in literacy centres.”

Call for Effective Monitoring

She called for the conduct of effective monitoring, provision of learning equipment and materials, including furniture in literacy centres.

Mrs. Anene-Maidoh also solicited support for community media personnel in using their platforms to advocate and educate their listeners on SGBV and COVID-19 and Support to CSOs for continuous engagement with stakeholders and gatekeepers to address issues of SGBV.

The UNESCO-Japan project also recommend that more copies of the manuals produced should be made available, while capacity building activities should be stepped down to CSOs in rural communities to use counselling manual.

Similarly, stakeholders agreed that the Japan-UNESCO project was highly relevant in empowering women and girls in marginalized communities in the 3 states, while interviewees suggested of having another phase of the project in view of the achievements recorded.

The Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Matsunaga Kazuyoshi, appreciated the community members of the three implementing states, including Gombe State for formulating and implementing the project.

Kazuyoshi said he was encouraged by their continued efforts to carry out high-quality activities in education and advocacy, which encourage women and girls empowerment and GBV.

He said; “I am very grateful to UNESCO and those involved in this project for letting the embassy know the latest situation and challenges in the affected areas and to be able to implement assistance to UNESCO.

“Japan is working to help Nigerian women and girls to endure the crisis, recover from its effect and become resilient to future crises.”

According to him, much has been achieved during the project implementation and the lessons learnt would be applied to future crises.

“There are too many gender disparities in this country and as the Japanese Government, we will continue to work together to solve this problem,” Kazuyoshi said.

The Commissioner for Education, Mr. Dauda Batari Maji, acknowledged that the project had recorded huge success in the education sector during its six-month life cycle in Gombe State.

He said the ministry participated fully in the programme to its logical conclusion.

“The Japan-UNESCO project in liaison with the state Agency for Mass Education had successfully, during the period under review identified and selected ten marginalized communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state, where about 101 women and girls were trained. Of this total, 99 graduants qualified to be certificated, having sat and passed the prescribed examination,” Mr Maji said.

He said the outcome of the project was highly commendable, because 99 women and girls were salvaged from the status of literacy to that of literates and economically empowered citizens.

Mr Maji hoped that the project would be renewed or extended to give room for its transition to post literacy and vocational education, skills acquisition for the actualization of economic empowerment and self-reliance.

 

Confidence Okwuchi