Women RISE (Women’s health and economic empowerment for a COVID-19 Recovery that is Inclusive, Sustainable and Equitable) is a new initiative to support action-oriented research on how women’s health and their work (paid or unpaid) intersect and interact in the context of preparing for, responding to, and recovering from COVID-19. This project is jointly Supported by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Women RISE activities are designed to:
- supports action-oriented, gender-transformative research on how women’s health and their work (paid or unpaid) intersect and interact in the context of preparing, responding to and recovering from COVID-19.
- encourages population and public health research aligned with research priority 3.5 identified in the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery: “How have recent economic changes disproportionately impacted women and how can recovery strategies be inclusive and gender-transformative?”
- contributes to filling the knowledge gap about macro- and micro-level factors affecting the relationship between women’s work and women’s health before, during and after COVID-19.
- informs solutions to improve the health and well-being of women while strengthening capacity for equitable recovery and contributing to gender-transformative policies and interventions that advance preparedness for future health emergencies.
- generates evidence that will inform immediate and medium-term solutions for post-COVID-19 recovery that improve gender equality and health equity.
CPED Collaboration with IDRC on the Women RISE Project
CPED in collaboration with IDRC on the new initiative project titled “Gender Inequality and Rural Women’s Health in post-Covid-19 Nigeria: Working with policymakers and non-state actors to promote inclusive and sustainable rural women’s health in Nigeria”, is being implemented in Delta State (Ethiope East LGA, Ika South LGA and Isoko South LGA) and Edo State (Esan central LGA, Etsako LGA and Ovia Southwest LGA).
Also, for the implementation of the project, CPED is in partnership with University of Windsor, Canada and the Edo State Government through the Ministry of Health.
Project Title: Gender Inequality and Rural Women’s Health in post-Covid-19 Nigeria: Working with policymakers and non-state actors to promote inclusive and sustainable rural women’s health in Nigeria.
General Objective: To contribute to Nigeria’s achievement of SDG Goal 5 to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” and Nigeria’s Gender Policy on “eliminating harmful cultural and religious practices” by generating a body of evidence on scalable and context specific approaches to promote gender equality and improved access to health.
Specific Objectives: The project has five specific objectives organized into three work packages: knowledge generation (Objectives 1 and 2), interventions in pilot communities (Objective 3) and capacity building of stakeholders (Objective 4 and 5) as follows:
1. To generate robust policy-relevant evidence on rural women and girls’ lives before, during and after covid-19 periods in Nigeria and the impact on rural women’s inequality status, the root causes of the inequality and the needed gender-transformative strategies;
2. To generate robust policy-relevant evidence on the relationship between rural women’s paid and unpaid work and women’s health before, during and after covid-19 in Nigeria and the implications for post covid-19 response and recovery for women and girls;
3. To improve the gender equity and health status of women/girls in rural Nigeria through interventions to promote their empowerment at household and community levels and enhancing women and girls post-covid-19 access to essential health;
4. To promote the integration of context-specific innovative strategies on gender equality and women’s access to essential health into gender transformative policies on covid-19 response and recovery through the capacity building and proactive engagement with policymakers, women groups and other key stakeholders.
5. To communicate and disseminate the project results to key stakeholders and the general public within Nigeria and in other countries in Africa in order to facilitate the understanding and enhanced capacity for promoting gender equality and enhancing women and girls in post-covid-19 access to essential health.
Activities and Timeline
The project which officially commenced in October 2022 will be implemented over a period of 2 years. CPED has four major activities to be carried out on the project in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region focusing on Delta and Edo states. The first is research in which new knowledge will be generated on rural women and girls’ lives before, during and after covid-19 periods in Nigeria and the impact on rural women’s inequality status, the root causes of the inequality and the needed gender-transformative strategies. Secondly, interventions to promote their empowerment at household and community levels and enhancing women and girls post-covid-19 access to essential health will be carried out in six communities in Delta and Edo States. It is expected that the interventions will lead to women leaders acquiring skills and capacity to promote gender equality in their various communities as well as the enhancement of the status of women in targeted communities through the availability of scalable community-based women empowerment initiatives that will be piloted and validated. Thirdly, the project will strengthen the capacity of policymakers on the integration of gender equality and women empowerment initiatives in public policies and programs through a series of training activities. Finally, the results and recommendations of the project will be communicated and disseminated to key stakeholders and members of the public.
Team Members
Prof. Andrew G. Onokerhoraye,
Prof. (Mrs.) Francisca Omorodion
(Mrs.) Mary Igharo
Prof. (Mrs.) Dicta Ogisi,
Prof. (Mrs.) May Nwoye,
Prof. Eddy Akpomera,
Dr. (Mrs.) Rebecca John-Abebe,
Dr. Johnson Dudu,
Engr. Job Eronmhonsele,
Dr. (Mrs.) Vere Balogun
Dr. Francis Onojeta,
Prof. (Mrs.) Felicia Okoro
