Journalists, CSOs Trained on Sexual, Reproductive Health Rights Advocacy
Journalists and members of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) were trained on how to properly advocate to policy makers on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of women and girls.
The training which took place in Abuja from 4 to 6 October was organised by the African Women’s Development Communication Network (Femnet), Kenya and Education as a Vaccine (Eva), Nigeria under a project tagged “WeLead”.
Speaking on the aim of the training, Igwe Blessing, the WeLead project officer at EVA noted the importance of CSOs and journalists to understand how better to engage stakeholders to ensure “their advocacy needs are met”.
In addition, she canvassed for more young people particularly women and girls ” to be brought to the table and be part of decision making spaces” because they are mostly underrepresented.
The recent statistics of candidates in 2023 elections for the National Assembly released by the Independent National Electoral Commssion (INEC) testifed to it.
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As released by Invictus Africa, of 1100 senatorial candidates, only 8.4% are women while for the House of Representatives, only 9.2% are women out of 3114 candidates.
“This training will help elected government officials to know what specific needs to be addressed on sexual and reproductive health rights for adolescent girls and young women,” Ms Igwe added.
Similarly, Sylvia Kerubo, the lead communications person for WeLead project Femnet, said Nigeria was chosen for the training because her team noticed women and girls in the country lack adequate access to reproductive health services.
Consequently, they felt the need to train persons who can advocate to policy makers on this issue.
A participant, Florence Joshua, a reporter at Clearview Television, noted that the training helped her have a deep understanding of advocacy and she will write reports in line with the acquired knowledge.
Ms Joshua emphasised the need for journalists to advocate for a cause because “before we are journalists, we have a voice as a person and we have our value system” and as such should “push a certain agenda for the betterment of our country”.
Another participant, Kolawole Jayeoba, programme officer, Advocacy for women with disability Initiative, said he learnt how to actively engage stakeholders to prioritise issues of women and girls with disability.
