Sustainable Development & Economic Empowerment
Overview
The majority of the world’s poor are women. Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours. They also produce half of the world’s food. However, women earn only 10 percent of the world’s income and own less than 2% of the world’s property.
Women’s economic rights and empowerment are thus central to national and global strategies for eradicating poverty and achieving gender equality. Because women suffer the economic imbalances most acutely, they ought to be at the center of development models and economic policymaking.
Our Work:
The repeated oil spills in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has had devastating impact on the fields, forests and fisheries that the majority of the people in the region depend on for their food and livelihoods. Of the majority of people affected by this oil crisis, women of Niger Delta are the most hit. The depletion of the economic livelihood in this region due to the consequences of petroleum explorations and refineries has had negative consequences on women. Women experience violence on different levels ranging from dehumanization, to sexual violence, early child marriages, girls trafficking for prostitution and as domestics to urban cities. This long term implication continues to lower the status and economic rights of women of Niger Delta.
GADA continues to work with Niger Delta Women’s Movement as a regional advocacy platform to articulate developmental issues directly affecting women’s social safety and economic prosperity.