HOPE for FAMILY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE (HFDI) To
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EECSP END OF PROJECT REPORT Submitted by HOPE FOR FAMILY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE (HFDI) To National Democratic Institute (NDI) Project Name: Name: Promoting Women’s Participation in Osun Governorship Election (PAGE Project) Agreement Number: #AID-620-A-14-00003 Submission date: 10th October, 2018. 1.0 Executive Summary This report is the end of project report for PAGE Project. This report covers all the activities and achievements of Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI) in the implementation of Promoting Women’s Participation in Osun Governorship Election (PAGE Project) between the Month of July and September 2018. This Project focuses on campaign about women getting out the vote (GOTV) and Stop violence against women in election (VAWIE) in Osun state. The interventions of this project focused on improving several aspects of women’s involvement in the political and electoral process e.g. awareness creation on voter registration, increased participation of women during election, and reduction of violence against women in election. The project has recorded incremental integration and women political participation as more awareness programmes conducted are yielding positive response in political will of people. Similarly there was improved involvement of women in Pudah during 2018 Osun governorship election. The community people and the electorates are aware about their roles as citizens to get involved in electoral process. The activities were majorly carried out in 18 LGAs across the three senatorial districts of Osun state. The intervention LGAs are; Iwo, Ayedaade, Ife East, Ife South, Olaoluwa, Odo-Otin, Ifedayo, Ejigbo, Egbedore, Irewole, Ife Central, Ilesa East, Atakunmosa East, Olorunda, Ifelodun, Ila, Irepodun, and Oriade. The campaign majorly targeted the highlighted LGAs to mobilize women’s participation during the election. The activities carried out in the period under review (July-September 2018) includes; Orientation meeting with PMT, Preliminary visits, Training of women Electoral Committee (WECO), Advocacy Visits to relevant stakeholders, Consultative meeting with relevant stakeholders, Town Hall Meetings, Inauguration of Osun Law against domestic violence, Security Dialogue, Community based Rallies, GOTV/Stop VAWIE Media campaign, Sensitization Outreaches, VAWIE case tracking, Production and Distribution of IEC materials. The above mentioned activities were successfully carried though it encountered some challenges which were later overcome. Some of the achievements recorded in the months under review are; influencer women were mobilized to participate in the campaign, the WECO members conducted advocacy visit using their influences to secure platforms for the campaign in the various groups meetings and programmes, the presence of INEC and security agency add values to the programs conducted, women were encouraged with the measures put in place by INEC for the upcoming in election the security agencies (NPF and NSCDC) committed to prosecute the perpetrators of VAWIE. More so, 56 people (8 male and 48 female) were commissioned across the three senatorial districts as stop VAWIE ambassadors. Five (5) women groups/association were reached with GOTV/stop VAWIE messages. To this effect, 11,957 people including 9,926 female and 2,031male were directly reached while over 2 million were reached indirectly with GOTV and stop VAWIE messages across the three senatorial districts of Osun state in the Period under review (July-September 2018). The expected outcome of each activity was well achieved. 2.0 Introduction National Democratic Institute through the support of USAID and UKAID granted HFDI a total grant of US $ 23,997 over three Month starting from 1st of July 2018 to 31st of September 2018 to implement a project on Promoting Women’s Participation in Osun Governorship Election (PAGE Project) under the funding agreement #AID-620-A-14-00003. The contextual issues raised by HFDI in seeking the funding included the following findings: 1. A Larger percentage of women in some selected Local Government are not interested or are not allowed to vote in the elections. Majority of this woman attributed this to religious inclination of the community that does not agree with them voting. A participants said, " As a woman I think it's not accepted by my religious believe to vote since my husband who is the head of our household can take decision on who is best placed to become our representative or leader in the state or country at large". 2. There is a widespread of violence against women before and during elections in the community therefore most of the community people that's why most women are scared of participating in the electoral process. There is no gainsaying that most of the women in the community will not participate in electoral process so as not to be seen as prostitutes because there is still a widespread believe that women who participates in politics are no good. 3. Most of the respondent claimed that the less educated the women are the less likely they participate in the electoral process. Most of the women who are really interested in politics are most likely uneducated and are not given chance to participate very well in the election process 4. According to a respondent, most women are not financially healthy to be able to embark on politics and this has really impeded women who are interested in politics from performing their civic duties. They believe you need to have a large amount of money to be able to compete on the same level with their male counterparts. 5. Some religious leaders cited low turnout in some LGAs is due to the religious harassment in those LGAs. Most of these women are afraid to come out and vote because they are wary of being harassed by the men folks based on their religions. 6. Sequel to the Focus Group Discussions held with women groups in Osun State and interaction with Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) HFDI was able to find out that activities should be more focused on 18 LGAs namely In Osun West the LGAs are (Iwo, Olaoluwa, Ejigbo, Egbedore, Irewole and Ayedade), In Osun East the LGAs are (Ife East, Ife Central, Ife South, Ilesa East, Atakunmosa East and Oriade) and Osun Central the LGAs are (Olorunda, Ifelodun, Ila,Irepodun,Odo-Otin and Ifedayo). 7. It was also noted that less activities should be conducted in local government with less challenges in women participation and violence against women during election needs to be sustained so that the challenges will not rear its ugly head again. The LGAs that needs to be sustained are Osogbo, Boripe, Obokun, Ilesa West, Ife North, Ede South, Ede North, Atakumosa West, Orolu, Ayedire, Isokan and Boluwaduro. Therefore, the overall aim of the project was to create awareness and increase the number of women’s participation in 2018 Osun governorship election. The specific objectives are to; • Inform and educate Osun women on electoral processes • Mobilize for women’s participation in the Osun gubernatorial elections • Sensitize electorates on what constitutes violence against women in elections (VAWIE) • Track incidences of electoral violence against women in the 2018 gubernatorial election and to make referrals where appropriate, for further action by the police and legal service organizations. These objectives were achieved by HFDI using the following key methodologies for the intervention includes: Advocacy Visits, Consultative Meeting, IEC Materials, Dialogue, Town Hall Meetings, outreach, Media Campaign, Community Based Rally, hotline and VAWIE incident tracking. At the inception of implementation, the project was able to concentrate on objectives one to three and its main activities were centered round identifying and formation of relevant women groups by strengthening their capacities for promoting consultations among the different stakeholders and setting up of the project structure through the formation of Osun Women Electoral Committee (WECO). Women and men engagement on GOTV and stop VAWIE, involvement of Security Agencies. Other activities included the extensive use of the mass media to create awareness on women participation in election (women Go out to vote) and stop VAWIE campaign. The achievement recorded on this project could be traceable to the involvement of relevant women groups in the course of implementation of the project. So, HFDI worked with women groups such as Women wing of Christian Association of Nigeria (WOWICAN), Federal of Muslim women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), National Council of women society (NCWS), Baptist women Missionary Union (BWMU), Market women, women wing of person with disability, Professional female groups and political parties in the State This report will give a narrative of the project activities, highlight achievements and relate these to the prevailing socio-economic and political culture of Osun State Nigeria. It will track the indicators identified for the project and expatiate on how this will affect the general election preparedness in Osun state. 3.0 Narrative: The activities and the achievements for the period of implementation of PAGE project shall be examined under the following headings; 1. Capacity Building for Project Management Team (PMT) 2. Advocacy Visit to Relevant Stakeholders in Osun state. 3. Consultative meeting with relevant stakeholders 4. Town Hall Meetings with stakeholders in 3 senatorial Districts. 5. Inauguration of Osun Law against domestic violence. 6. Securing Security commitment to mitigate violence in election Media campaign. 7. Community