ActionAid spotlight effects of economic climate on female gender

ActionAid Nigeria recently launched two reports on the prevailing economic situation in the country and the attendant adverse effects on the everyday lives of Nigerians, especially the female gender.

The reports which were an outcome of meticulous research are respectively entitled, ‘Austerity Measures, Poverty and Gender Inequality in Nigeria’, and ‘Impact of the Removal of Fuel Subsidies and Naira Floatation Policies On Nigerian Women, Girls.’

The two reports are detailed, insightful and thought-provoking. They expose the vagaries and sufferings Nigerians face daily, especially the female population, in the face of the economic policies of the current administration.

However, ‘Impact of the Removal of Fuel Subsidy and Naira Floatation Policies On Nigerian Women, Girls’ is more gender-specific as it casts the spotlight on what some Nigerian women and girls are going through under the current economic climate.
The findings were startling, distressing and unsettling. It revealed several unethical and morally degrading strategies some women and girls have resorted to in a bid to survive the economic situation.

For example, in today’s Nigeria, to pay school fees, feed and take care of their personal needs, some female undergraduates in various institutions of higher learning who are either self-sponsoring or from poor homes now engage in disguised prostitution popularly known as hook-ups. They pay their fees and meet their personal needs with proceeds from the hook-up trade which in essence is transactional sexual activities.

Similarly, some economically vulnerable women now pimp their underaged daughters to rich men in exchange for financial gratifications thus exposing such young girls to dangers.
Street begging by able-bodied women and girls is equally on the increase just as uninvited appearances at social events to get free food and trek long distances as a result of skyrocketing transport fares are now a new fancy among the female gender.

The inability to afford kerosene or cooking gas due to high costs has forced many housewives to switch to charcoal and firewood, the attendant health risks notwithstanding.

In the bid to either feed their children or establish low-scale businesses, mostly roadside table businesses, according to the reports, more women have, in response to the current economic hardship, made recourse to online loan apps for quick financial help.

However, online loan lenders have proved to be sharks and predators to women with their (the online lenders) cut-throat interest on loans and the propensity to harass and embarrass defaulters, including the publication of their names and phone numbers online.

The ActionAid reports indicate that the economic policies of the government place women and girls in disadvantaged and disquieting positions in some critical sectors of society in comparison to men in terms of survivability.

In the education sector for example, the report revealed that 75 percent of female undergraduates who are averse to quasi-prostitution to meet their personal needs and school bills are most likely to drop out of school.

In a nutshell, the reports established that more females than males are predisposed to either dropping out of school or not having access to education because of the policies.
Similarly, the reports emphasize some women’s and girls’ lack of access to social support programmes and financial resources. While some of such women are in formal employment, others are economically dependent.

The prevailing economic policies are equally impacting negatively on women and girls’ access to healthcare as could be gleaned from the reports.

Since the naira floatation and removal of fuel subsidy, about 90 per cent of women and girls have not been able to access health insurance. Poor wages are, according to the reports, attributable to this.

The studies have the overall goal of contributing to the building of a just and equitable economic policy environment embedded in a macroeconomic framework devoid of discrimination and inequality in a patriarchal society like Nigeria.

Sadly, however, more women and girls have since May 2023 when the Tinubu administration introduced the economic policies as highlighted by the ActionAid reports, suffered untold gender inequality more than ever before.

Decreased women and girls’ economic independence, says ActionAid, means that their empowerment is generally affected by socio-economic factors, chiefly the government’s economic policies.

The reports under review indicate that there has been a downward slide in women’s economic making decisions since the removal of subsidies on petrol and flotation of the naira by the Tinubu administration.
Mercifully, however, various women network groups in the country, according to a study, have risen to the occasion by putting strategies in place to ameliorate the perilous economic situation.

Many of these network groups play pivotal roles in providing financial and emotional support to economically vulnerable women and girls. The network groups are organised along socio-ethnic, cultural and religious lines.

ActionAid’s reports show that despite various coping strategies adopted by women and girls across the country, the stark realities of pitiable and worsening living conditions continue to stare them in the face.

Consequently, ActionAid believes and recommends so too, the need to reverse the policies- fuel subsidy removal and naira flotation.

It also recommends, among others, the enhancement of access to microfinance credit facilities targeted at women entrepreneurs to help them start up and sustain businesses, implementation of vocational training and skill development programmes to enhance women’s employability and entrepreneurial capabilities, subsidising healthcare, especially in the rural areas where poverty is prevalent, to make it more affordable, strengthening community health programmes and ensure they are adequately funded to provide basic healthcare services to women and girls.

ActionAid also recommends enhanced targeted cash transfer programmes to provide financial support to the most vulnerable women and girls, ensuring they are directly reached, investment in community-based social protection and interventions that are tailored to the specific needs of women and girls in different parts of the country and the engagement of women organisations and community leaders in the policy-making process, especially financial and economical, to ensure that the needs and voices of women and girls are adequately represented.

On the whole, ActionAid has succeeded in laying bare and bringing to the front burner of national discourse Nigeria’s macroeconomic fundamentals alongside austerity measures imposed by economic policies which deepen poverty and economic inequality as regards the economic status of women and girls.