Women Environmental Programme Factsheet

Women Environmental Programme Factsheet

Founded in 1997
WfWP member since 2010
Mission: To addressing the gender injustices on issues relating to environment, economic and social rights of women, children and youths in the society.
Focus area: West Africa
Level: Local, national, regional
Main themes: water, sanitation, environment, gender, sustainable development, IWRM, human settlement, natural and man-made disaster management, peace and conflict transformation, women and youth empowerment

Milestones

Women Environmental Programme addresses water and environment issues in Nigeria through a gender lens, furthering women’s meaningful participation in the implementation of projects and programmes that concern them. The major aim is to address the gender injustices on issues relating to environment, economic and social rights of women, children and youths in the society. WEP uses its water and environmental programmes as an entry point for improving women’s rights and empowerment. Besides building water points and training local people on adaptive strategies to reduce the negative effects caused by climate change, core activities of WEP include capacity building for women so they can take up leadership roles.

COP 21
Towards the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Paris, France, in December 2015, where another climate agreement was reached, Women Environmental Programme (WEP) in collaboration with some of her partners around the globe, with support from Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) launched a global campaign for climate justice.

Worried that women and girls around the world have continued to face severe impacts of climate change due to lack of just and sufficient actions on climate change by the world’s leaders, as governments of the world were moving too slowly, with too little effort, and without the ambition, commitment and financing that it would take to stop or reverse the global climate crisis, women launched this call to demand for climate justice from world’s leaders.

The campaign for climate justice climaxed at COP 21 in Paris, where different women organizations and Women’s Major Group came together and staged several actions ranging from side events, media conferences, meetings with heads of governments, climate marches, to push their demands in the new global climate agreement. Director Priscilla Achakpa was awarded warrior of global warming and interviewed by Vogue.

Innovative “SHIT” business model
WEP supports local communities to turn waste into opportunity. The “SHIT” business model regards sanitation as a development opportunity with a positive economic value. The WEP’s “SHIT” business model has been adopted by the G-WIN project of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Nigeria, as a means of increasing access to WASH services in the country. The WEP initiative provides access to WASH services in public places by providing toilets and urinals for income generation. So far, eight enterprises have been created in four states where WASH facilities have been installed to provide services to the public for a modest fee.

G-WIN
Girls and Women Initiative in Nigeria (G-WIN) project is an initiative of the federal government of Nigeria to empower hard to reach women and girls in the country. Five (5) Ministries - Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Communications, are the implementing ministries piloting the G-WIN project. These ministries "are to seek out innovative approaches to reach out to the poorest girls and women by enhancing the already existing opportunities and opening more support and increase the number of girls and women gainfully employed..." Women Environmental Programme (WEP) has been commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to implement the training component of the ministry's G-WIN project.

The Federal Ministry of Water Resources vision for the G-WIN project is to make women leaders in water management. This the Ministry wants to achieve by building capacities of women and girls to be leaders in water management, provision of water and sanitation facilities in public places and improving the hygienic condition of the rural populations.

WEP has since trained rural women and girls in four project pilot states of Abia, Bauchi, Plateau and Osun on Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), Leadership and Conflict Resolution, Slab Construction and Facility Maintenance. Over 40 women and girls in each state were trained on CLTS, slab construction and facility maintenance and over 20 were trained on leadership and conflict resolution.

For more information visit the WEP website: www.wepnigeria.net