December 07, (THEWILL) – Akwa Ibom State has been rated overall second best, after Lagos State, as one of the model states in the campaign against gender-based violence (GBV) in Nigeria.
This was contained in the Womanity Index Report launched on December 4, 2023, in Abuja, Nigeria by Invictus Africa and BudgIT Foundation.
According to a press statement by the Media Unit of the State Government, the Womanity Index Report utilised quantitative and qualitative data collection and research approaches and assessed the subnational government’s commitment to GBV prevention and response using indicators across five indexes – Laws and Policies, Access to Legal Justice, Support Services, Information and Awareness, and Budget and Spending. States were ranked using colour codes, both overall and individual index.
Akwa Ibom State was ranked across the five indexes as follows, Laws and Policy – Blue (Excellent), Access to Legal Justice – Yellow (Fair), Support Services – Yellow (Fair), Information and Awareness – Green (Very Good), Budget and Spending – Green (Very Good), and its Overall Ranking was Green (Very Good)
It was ranked Green along with Bauchi, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, FCT, Kaduna and Ogun States. Only Lagos State was ranked Blue. It was the shining example for other States of the Federation to follow as far as SGBV Prevention and Response is concerned.
The Womanity Index shows gaps in the implementation of SGBV Prevention and Response even among the Blue, Green, Yellow and Red States.
This implies that Akwa Ibom State still has lots of room for improvement despite the great progress recorded since COVID-19 on SGBV Prevention and Response in the State.
According to the statement, the Akwa Ibom State Government became interested in GBV response and prevention in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic through the effort and political will of the immediate past First Lady of Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel, and the Akwa Ibom State GBV Management Committee.
The gaps revealed in the report, however, call for more action to improve on those indexes. Akwa Ibom State has done well but must take further steps to do excellently well.
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