Organised to strengthen women’s movements in Nigeria, the event is coming up 30 years after the historic Beijing, China, International Women’s Conference of 1995, as a platform to review the decades past while projecting for the years ahead.
Themed Beijing+30 Women’s Summit – Holding the Line for Women’s Rights: Looking Back and Marching Forward, the event aims to re-examine the pivotal roles played by African women, both on the continent and in the diaspora, in shaping the agenda, while facilitating intergenerational exchange and galvanising collective agency to advance feminist sensitive rights issues.
To set the ball rolling, three distinguished African feminists, ‘Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Co-founder, Amandla Institute; Prof. Funmilayo Para-Mallam, Chair, AWLN-Nigeria; and Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi of Womanifesto, would give welcome remarks and provide instructional context setting for the event. Thereafter, goodwill messages will be delivered from selected leaders and experts, ahead two panel sessions that will address issues related to women’s rights, abuses, and gender-based violence in Nigeria.
Recall that the Secretary-General of the Beijing Women’s Summit foregrounded the struggles of African women. Over the years, several African countries have made progressive strides through legal and constitutional reforms in their determination to chart a bold, transformative agenda for the empowerment of women.
Women constitute 60–79% of the rural workforce, yet men are five times more likely to own land. In the annals of international policy, the issues of power, politics, and policy were placed squarely on irregular measures.
In Rwanda, female parliamentary representation is the global highest at 61.3%; Senegal has passed a 50/50 parity law, Sierra Leone has a 30% affirmative action law, while Uganda has a constitutionally guaranteed representation for women. However, in Nigeria, the persistent gender gap in access to resources, representation, and opportunities remains painfully low for women.
These examples underscore what is possible when political will aligns with women’s agency. In regard to these concerns, the Women’s Summit is thus geared towards enhancing understanding of the historical significance and continuing relevance of the Beijing Conference of 1995 and its numerous outcomes, strengthening leadership and coordination among women’s organisations, renewing the advocacy for the call to action and especially to expand the mentorship networks linking with younger and seasoned women leaders across Nigeria.