As part of its contribution to support recent initiatives at the national and state levels to strengthen women’s cooperatives and economic collectives in Nigeria, the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), in Collaboration with the development Research and Program Center (dRPC), is organizing a training on advocacy and communication for women’s economic advancement.
By this development, the MINILS in collaboration with the dRPC are calling for applications from women leaders of cooperatives and economic collectives to participate in the 2021 training and grants program.
The training program on – Advocacy and Communication for Women’s Economic Advancement – is scheduled to take place in Abuja between 2nd and 7th August 2021, according to a statement from the institute.
The statement read in part: “The MINILS will select 35 women leaders from formal and informal women’s livelihood associations including cooperative societies; associations of market women and women traders, associations of producers; and women’s groups running micro, small and medium enterprises.
“Kindly see the attached flyer for more information concerning the training. Also, you are expected to nominate women leaders or Women Economic Empowerment Collectives (WEECs) in your state for this training,” it added.
Furthermore, the training according to the statement will be practical and skills-oriented, with modules on, “identifying barriers and constraints to women’s businesses; identifying advocacy targets and issues; and constituency mobilization and coalition building for advocacy to duty bearers of the economy; advocacy strategies, tactics, messages and communication strategies; and strengthening leadership and organizational management of women’s economic collectives.”
The statement also explained that, the application procedure includes submission of 2-page application which must provide the full name of the leader of the women’s economic empowerment collective making the application, the elected to be the leader, phone or WhatsApp number, year of the group’s formation, number of members, type of economic activities carried out and annual turn-over, information on group’s registration status, as well as information on business loan or credit obtained in the past 3 years.
In addition, information on the name and contact details of 2 referees of high social standing in the community and information on membership in any other collective, local, national or regional must be provided in the application.
Additionally, the statement also calls for nomination by government MDA’s and donor agencies but added that, officials with direct responsibility for coordinating the activities of WEEC in national or state government MDAs are eligible to nominate women leaders of women’s economic empowerment collectives. “Program Officers from donor agencies supporting WEECs are also invited to nominate WEEC leaders,” it said.
“Nominating officers are required to submit a 2-page application with the nominating officer’s full name, post in the ministry, Department or Agency (MDA) or donor agency, email and phone number. Nominating officers must also provide the WEEC leader’s contact details (name, phone number and address); reason for making the nomination; brief profile of the WEEC with information on year of formation, number of members and type of economic activity; information on registration status with LGA, state or national level bodies; and information on membership in any national or regional associations,” it added.
The statement further directed that all applications and nominations should be forwarded via email address: paweddrpc@gmail.com and must reach the said address on or before 20 July 2021, assuring that, all applications will be acknowledged.
“At the end of the training workshop, participants will be supported to develop and implement an action plan to conduct an advocacy visit on a problem or issue of concern to the women’s economic collective,” the statement concludes.
