Anthonia Duru
Action Aid Nigeria (AAN) has called on the federal government to prioritise women, children and people living with disabilities in its conditional cash transfer and other palliative measures put in place to assist the financially weak in this period of COVID -19 lockdown.
In a statement issued by the country director, Mrs. Ene Obi on Thursday, She explained that the exclusion of the Ministry of Women Affairs from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 further hinders the voices and needs of women being captured in governments’ response strategy.
“Women constitute a higher number of Nigeria’s informal economic sector and the lockdown will significantly affect them due to the increased burden of unpaid care work, loss of work and markets for their goods. Yet, government’s palliative measures are not prioritizing women,” She said.
According to her, the federal government should prioritise vulnerable women in its palliative measures to cushion their loss of income because when women are reached, their household benefit.
She revealed that in AAN’s bid to render its support in this trying time, strategic funds have been released to their project partners in different states to cater for the protection of women during the period of the epidemic.
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Obi observed that “huge amount of funding has been committed to the COVID-19 response by both the government and private sector, yet there is no proper accountability put in place, which is likely to breed corruption and defeat the effectiveness of government’s noble efforts”
She added that “Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) who are the independent observers with workable solutions to coordination challenges are not carried along in the implementation of the strategy”.
Obi suggested that the federal government sets a clear accountability mechanism structure in partnership with Civil Society Organisations to track and monitor the utilisation of resources committed to the COVID-19 response.
“Expand the membership of COVID-19 response team to include CSOs for effective coordination, accountability and transparency in the entire response”. She said.
The director applauded some of the steps taken by the Presidential Task Force and other stakeholders including the media and first responders who are working tirelessly to ensure that the novel virus is exterminated from our shores.
However, she appealed that the government should ensure that the focus on COVID-19 does not lead to diversion of resources away from other existing health priorities such as efforts to eliminate maternal and child mortality.
She recommended that awareness and prevention campaigns are intensified at the grassroots to demystify the myths and misconceptions on the novel virus.
In her words, “Such campaigns should be audience specific considering the information needs of children, the aged, the blind and deaf”.
