Rise Up Nigeria Moves To Advance Social Justice Impact For Women, Girls

Twenty-four visionary leaders have completed Rise-Up Nigeria’s intensive Advocacy and Leadership Accelerator training.

The participants were selected from the Federal Capital Territory, Rivers, Anambra, Nasarawa, and Kaduna states.

At the event in Abuja, the Country Director, Rise Up Nigeria, Theresa Kaka Effa, said the training was to enable the leaders to strengthen their organizations, lead change in their communities, and advance national and local-level impact for women and girls.

Theresa Effa noted that the leaders would have the opportunity to apply for competitive grant funding to launch their advocacy strategies to advance economic opportunity and social justice for women and girls at the community level and across Nigeria.

According to her, ”In Nigeria, women and girls face significant obstacles in reaching their full potential and accessing education, health care, employment, and leadership opportunities in the public and private sectors.”

The Country Director noted that Child marriage was still prevalent in the country with 40 percent of Nigerian girls marrying before the age of 18 and over 7.5 million girls are not enrolled in school.

”Women’s representation in political leadership roles has been on a downward trend since 2011 and Nigerian women performed poorly in the 2023 elections.”

”In addition, gender-based violence remains a pervasive issue, with about 33 percent of Nigerian women having experienced physical or sexual violence.”

“Despite the challenges we face in Nigeria to achieve gender equity, I am hopeful that the more NGO leaders that are engaged in policy advocacy, the more systemic changes we will see at all levels,” Theresa Effa said.

She noted that the program which was with the support of Cummins would build on the success of Rise Up’s previous work in Kaduna State, Lagos State, Abuja Federal Capital Territory, and throughout Nigeria.

Effa, therefore, stressed the need for the government to put women in their rightful positions adding that women contribute to the development of the country

Rise Up works to advance gender equity and justice in education, health, and economic opportunity by partnering with visionary local leaders around the world.

The organization also builds power with women, girls, and their
allies by providing training, funding, and connections to a global network to help them achieve meaningful, lasting change.

Rise Up works with leaders in Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the United States to create a future where all people can thrive.