Centre LSD commences gender justice project with faith, traditional leaders

The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) with funding from Christian Aid Nigeria, said that it has commenced a gender justice project to strengthen the advocacy skills of faith and traditional leaders in Nigeria. Senior programme Officer of the centre, Mr. Vincent Dania, said in a statement that the project, to be […]

The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) with funding from Christian Aid Nigeria, said that it has commenced a gender justice project to strengthen the advocacy skills of faith and traditional leaders in Nigeria.

Senior programme Officer of the centre, Mr. Vincent Dania, said in a statement that the project, to be implemented by the Nigeria Side-by-Side Movement for Gender Justice, seeks to contribute to freeing citizens from cultural and interpersonal systems of privilege and oppression, as well as from violence and repression based on gender.

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According to him, gender injustice issues are prevalent across Nigeria, and mostly affects women.

“They include child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation, discriminatory widowhood practices, rape, spousal maltreatment and abuse, intimate partner violence, denying women access to leadership positions, limited access to economic assets,” Dania said.

He also said that the project will be implemented for six months, and is focused on establishing a mechanism for faith actors and traditional leaders to respond to identified issues of gender injustice within their congregations, social groups and communities.

He said, “The project is building on already established foundations laid by previous interventions. Activities of the project which are designed to have a national appeal, will also centre at the subnational, particularly in two states of Ekiti and Kaduna, directly targeting 150 faith leaders, traditional rulers, and gender champions.

“Indirectly, we seek to reach at least 10,000 persons across diverse groups of the society. It is expected that all the people reached with the message will push for gender justice in their own space.”