By Nneka Nwogwugwu
In commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day, Vision Spring Initiatives in partnership with The Rose of Sharon Foundation, held a dialogue with CSOs and the media to deliberate on the challenges of climate change as it affects the women and sexual and reproductive health.
The event was recently at the ShoreGate Hotel in Lagos and the dialogue centered around ‘Sexual and reproductive health and rights and Climate Action’.
Executive Director, Rose of Sharon Foundation, Dr. Ndudi Bowei, speaking on ‘Climate change and its impact, peculiarities gender impact and what we expect’, said 87% of the world’s problem are related to climate change.
She listed factors responsible for climate change to include the trapping of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, disappearance of farmlands, destruction of soil quality, and submitted that women are closest to the natural resources that climate change is threatening.
According to Dr. Bowei, 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living below poverty across the globe are women. She also said women are involved in 50 percent of food production but own only 20 percent. Notably, she said this may lead to more child marriages.
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She listed things to address as women across the world seeks to #Breakthebias to include Land rights, Agricultural finances, Environmental justice and Gender equality.
Ngozi Nwosu Juba, Project Director,, Vision Spring Initiatives, speaking on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and government biases that have to be broken, said young girls should be apprised of sex education from childhood, so that they know the dos and don’ts; the no-go areas and things they shouldn’t tolerate from the opposite sex.
On women and the challenges of climate change and agriculture, she advocated education for the girl-child, as a way of redeem ing them. She cited her Igbo culture, where women are not expected to inherit land and posited that, “If you are not redeemed by education, you may not even know that you can buy and own land.”
Delivering the Health Commissioner’s speech, Mrs Olugbade said Lagos State will continually strive to ensure access to quality healthcare for women and girls. A testimony to this, she said, is the establishment of maternal and child centres across the state, and the renovation/upgrading of Primary Health Centres.
Bankole Michael, representing the Lagos Ministry of Environment, said Lagos State is already gender-sensitive, as more than half of its top officers as women.
Source: The Nation
