Gender parity is not recovering— NESG Chairman.     

CHIDIMMA UCHEGBU-Abuja.

Mr Niyi Yusuf, the Chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group says that gender parity is not recovering according to the  Global Gender Gap Report 2022  .

The Chairman made this statement in his opening remarks in Gender & Inclusion Summit 2022 in Abuja with the theme Connecting the Dots for a Gender Inclusive Society stressing that there is no sustainable development without Gender Equality.

Mr Yusuf said that it will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap. As crisis compound, women’s workforce outcomes are suffering and the risk of global gender parity backsliding further intensified.

“The pandemic has done more than open our eyes to economic vulnerable if our nations. It also opened our eyes to the plight women and others marginalized groups face. Statistics are out there for us all to see, showing how the pandemic disproportionately impacts women and others marginalized groups. They all saw the spike in violence, primarily fueled by societal power imbalance”,he stated.

On Educational Attainment, Nigeria records higher levels of parity in secondary education and tertiary education enrollments. However, both shares of men and women in secondary education in 2022 were lower than in 2021, while both increased in tertiary education. The sub index where Nigeria has the widest gap to close is political Empowerment which has been widening since 2012 and currently stands at 96% .

According to him, the World  Economic Forum is covering 63.9%of its gender gap, Nigeria (123rd) returns to higher and earlier levels of parity (2013, 2016) registered in the 16years covered by the report. It also  ascend 16 ranks on the overall index, with positive changes recorded on the economic and educational subindexes. After dipping in 2021, overall workforce parity recovered in Nigeria, although the participation rates decreased for both men and women while equality in professional and technical workers declined from 1 to 0.628 over the past year; parity in Legislators, senior officials and managers increased from 0.434 to 1, as women now make up a majority in 2022.

Also he  said , twenty-seven years ago , stakeholders from all over the world gathered at the Fourth World Conference on women in Beijing to produce one of the most important documents. The Beijing Declaration and platform for Action, which was a turning point for the global agenda for gender equality and in securing the equality for all in law and in practice, which has set the stage for ensuring actions. However,as we are all aware,27 years later, the concerns raised are still largely unsolved.

He acknowledged and thanked Her Excellencies, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria,Ms. Catriona Laing, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, the EU Deputy Ambassador Alexander Borges-Gomes, the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning,Dr Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammed Mahmood Abubakar and the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen.