FES Nigeria hosts virtual roundtable on "Making Nigeria’s Response to COVID-19 Gender-Sensitive"

The COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging African nations, albeit slowly, with lockdown measures enforced in 52 Member States of the African Union, including Nigeria. Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, earlier announced the distribution of relief packages to the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians. However, Nigeria's response, just like most countries in Africa, is oblivious to gender components. To address this gap, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Nigeria, on April 24, 2020, held a virtual roundtable on “Making COVID-19 Responses in Nigeria more Gender-sensitive”. The roundtable was inspired by a policy paper compiled by various Nigerian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and individuals titled “Integrating Gender into Nigeria’s COVID-19 Response”. The paper exposed various gender-specific vulnerabilities during this period of dealing with the pandemic and of lockdown and it proposes a set of gender-sensitive interventions.

The roundtable brought active experts from CSOs, International Organisations/Donors, Academics, Informal sector organisations, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Nigeria Police Force, and youth-led organizations together on the subject.

The 90-minute virtual roundtable featured three key speakers and a keynote listener including Olabukunola Williams, Education as Vaccine; Abiola Akiyode, Women Advocacy, Research and Documentation Centre; Mr. Frank Mba, Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Police Force; and a member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, as the keynote listener.