The World Bank Gender Innovation Lab and Social Policy in partnership with Nigeria For Women Project and Empower Her is gathering policymakers in Abuja to talk about new evidence on Women’s Empowerment, and how to leverage these evidence to improve Policy and Jobs for women at the forum on the 28th and 29th of April, 2025.
What this means
For the market woman in Onitsha and the young graduate in lagos, and anyone tired of “inclusive growth” sounding like a slogan, this is the breakdown.
The Event: A two-day policy forum in Nigeria bringing together government officials, development agencies, private sector leaders and civil society groups
The Topic: Women’s Economic Participation – Specifically: farming, access to loans, social safety nets and job creation
The Content: Presenting research findings from World Bank programs across Nigeria. Not theory, not promises but data and evidence from actual projects that have run and are still running.
The Goal: Turn evidence into policy. Move from “what we know works” to “we are doing what works”
The Stakes: Nigeria’s economy can’t reach its potential if half the population face systemic barriers to work, capital and markets, and moving from business as usual to scale what works
The DevNews.Africa’s Opinion
Lets be clear: Nigeria doesn’t lack research on women’s economic participation
What Nigeria lacks is knowledge of what really works and implementation at scale
Its not just about buying grinding machines for women and Mortar and Pestle, Instead, evidence is needed to direct policymakers, private sector, development organizations etc to show “WHAT REALLY WORKS” and how they can support that instead.
So, this is what we hope happens at this event and why we think you need to be there.
We hope:
- The evidence presented can direct these organizations on impactful ways to direct their funding in support of Women Based Businesses especially.
- Specific commitments emerge: Not “we will explore” but “We will implement”
- Accountability mechanisms are built in: Who tracks progress
- The private sector shows up… not just as a spectator……
The end of the matter is simple. Forums like these are great to keep the conversation going about barriers in the marketplace but what is more important are the action points that come out of these forums.
So be there…. and let’s hear your take from the forum.
