Message from The Country Director: Ene Obi
ActionAid has continued to support social justice, poverty eradication, and gender equality in various communities in Nigeria. Promoting human rights, sustainable development, and empowerment of marginalised groups, with an emphasis on women, girls, children and persons with disabilities has been our core mandate and we remain committed.
This year Nigerians experienced the worst floods with a significant percentage of loss in human lives and livelihoods, significant increase in sexual and gender-based violence that affected women and girls, rubbing them off their dignity and social support. Our ability to respond efficiently and accountably and seeing the smiles on the faces of survivors, remains a critical achievement and we continue to build on our experience and learning.
2022 provided an opportunity to consolidate on our strategic objective of enhancing people’s power in democratic and inclusive governance. We continued to mobilise citizens for participation in democratic processes and spaces; building citizens consciousness in demanding accountability and transparency on governance from local to national levels. Sadly, Inequality, in terms of income and opportunities, still remains high and has negatively affected poverty reduction. The lack of job opportunities is at the core of the high poverty levels, regional inequality, social and political unrest. High inflation has also taken a toll on household’s welfare and high prices in 2023 are likely to have pushed more Nigerians into poverty. It has become more critical to generate policy recommendations for ensuring better living standards for the average Nigerian.
Through the support of our donors at national and international levels. we are breaking new arounds. supporting life changing initiatives and creativity of women. young people and persons living with disabilities. Although the country continues to face huge developmental challenges, we still see a window of opportunity for solution, in view of the diverse natural and human resource endowment, the need to reduce dependency on crude oil and diversify the economy, address insufficient infrastructure, build strong and effective institutions, as well as address governance issues and public financial management system.
ActionAid believes poverty eradication is an act of solidarity.