National Coordinator of the Spotlight initiative in Nigeria, operating under the United Nations (UN) Residence Coordinators Office, Anu John has urged the three tiers of governments and civil society groups to ensure the domestication of Violence Against Person’s Prohibition Act (VAPP) of Nigeria which has been enacted in the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory (FCT). John who spoke at the sideline of The Spotlight Initiative in Africa 2nd Annual Review and Learning Workshop which was held in Lagos from August 22 to 23, said, “The next stage of the VAPP is to be domesticating this Act and taking it forward and implementing it.
“We can’t do this without the support of governments and other civil society groups who are working on the field. The second annual review brought together government officials, civil society organisations (CSOs) and development partners from across Africa where they discussed progress made in implementing the Spotlight Initiative and identified new ways to accelerate progress. John said, “We are talking about Child Right Acts (CRA), and gender based violence (GBV) is now in the forefront of everybody’s discussion.”
The global Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls is a United Nations initiative in partnership with the European Union (EU) and other partners. The Spotlight Initiative is the world’s largest targeted effort to end all forms of violence against women and girls. According to the national coordinator of the Spotlight Initiative in Nigeria, GBV has been declared an emergency in the country.
Besides, within the UN, especially in line with ‘The Leave No One Behind Agenda,’ John stated that one of the clear areas for the transformative work which the UN is now supporting for the next five years is “addressing GBV, not at a programme level but in moving it forward a little so that Ni- geria sees the shift which has already been initiated.” She said since the beginning of the Spotlight Initiative five years ago, the programme has recorded successes, and getting the policy implemented was the next phase of action.
According to the Executive Secretary, Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, Titilola Vivour Adeniyim an average of 5,333 GBV cases were treated in Lagos in 2022. Similarly, in 2023, there is an average of 250 new cases of gender violence every month. Against this background, John further highlighted: “The very issue of GBV is so deep-rooted that it is not something that one person or agency can go out and make an impact on.
She said, “The donors have shown us the way and all the UN organisations that have shown us the way in this activity at the field level. And the way we can look at this is that the fact that this VAPP Act enacted in 36 states is a big one. “To be domesticating this act and then we will be taking it forward for implementing it. “We can’t do this without the support of the government and other civil society groups who are working in the field,” John said.
According to Meltem Agduk, the GBV Gender Technical Specialist of the UNFPA/ UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), though, progress was being made yearly in reducing the number of females that suffer mutilation, several factors were not allowing the work to progress as it should. “The programme started in 2008 and I can say that some of the highly prevalent countries started to show a decrease in female genitalia mutilation. However, we have a very long way to go. I must say that 200 million women and girls are still faced with it.
We have been working since 2008, but because of some issues from Covid-19 and other conflicting issues the number will not decrease as we want it to.” “We know that we need to collaborate with other partners like religious institutions, community leaders, and governments. “When we are working on issues like GBV and FGM we always have been working with the governments of the countries and CSOs,” she said. On her part, the executive secretary of Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, said that the Lagos State Government needed to adopt policies from the Spotlight Initiative and use them to better the lives of citizens in Lagos.
“We have the data that shows that and it is a problem. During Covid-19 it was referred to as a shadow pandemic within the pandemic and as I said we continue to demonstrate the political will. It’s not enough for you to have the passion. You should have the political will to tackle it. “Just to reiterate the fact that we are committed as a state to ensuring full implementation of the Spotlight Initiative policies and ensuring that they work.”
“For instance, the programme that we are implementing is the Gender-based Violence Center which was established in 2020 as a result of Covid. “Even after the spotlight initiative rounds up we have it embedded as a part of our mandate and response mechanisms.
It’s important for us as a government to leverage the resources of the Spotlight Initiative because we cannot do this on our own and most importantly take ownership because we must ensure that our citizens are free from sexual and gender-based violence,” Adeniyi concluded. Keynote speakers at the workshop in- clude Victoria Maloka, head of division for the Cooperation and Outreach Division, Women, Gender and Youth Directorate, a representative of the United Nations Development Coordination Office (UNDCO).
