In this collection:
Overview
How do women's experiences and every day life differ between rural and urban contexts, and what challenges remain shared? What linkages and inter-dependencies exist between rural and urban systems, and what role do women, as migrants, entrepreneurs, and family members, play in these complex dynamics?
Rural
What health issues and occupational hazards do women in rural Nigeria face, and what can be done to better serve and empower women in remote rural areas? Women's representation is one answer, and successful efforts in Zimbabwe to promote women's participation at the local government level may hold valuable lessons.
Urban
What new opportunities and challenges are presented by urban living, with its greater diversity and density of people? How and where is patriarchy reproduced in urban environments, and what needs to be done to make cities more gender-sensitive and safe for women?
Infrastructure & Services
In the face of increasing demand for food, what can be done to develop agricultural and rural infrastructure to increase productivity? Women represent an untapped opportunity, not just in agriculture, but across the Nigerian economy; could gender-responsive and accessible mobile financial services play a part in empowering women?
How do women's experiences and every day life differ between rural and urban contexts, and what challenges remain shared? What linkages and inter-dependencies exist between rural and urban systems, and what role do women, as migrants, entrepreneurs, and family members, play in these complex dynamics?
3 documents
Rural-urban migration: a path for empowering women through entrepreneurial activities in West Africa
( Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research - 2015 )
Increasing entrepreneurial opportunities for women can be an empowering process that contradicts and helps overcome established gender norms. This process can be aided by facilitating rural-urban migration for women, to access new job opportunities, networks, markets, and resources not available in rural areas. This paper presents a case study describing this process, and how migration has helped to empower women living in Ibadan, Nigeria. Based on a 2011 survey of 160…
Rural and urban linkages and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa
( Gender and Household Food Security, IFAD - 2016 )
In a rapidly urbanising world, the role of smallholders and other agricultural producers in rural areas will require significant attention from policymakers, researchers, and the development field. The increasing demand for food, and the need for a booming youth demographic, points to rural agricultural production as being of vital importance, both in terms of ensuring food security, and as a source of income and economic empowerment. This paper, published by the…
The rural-urban divide in health and development
( Population Reference Bureau - 2015 )
This data-sheet from the Population Reference Bureau presents data from 2014 to compare rural and urban trends and metrics relevant to human development. The data is drawn from multiple sources, and provides a snapshot of developing countries at a time of rapid urbanisation and social change. While definitions of what constitutes “urban” differs around the world, it is estimated that over 54% of the world’s population is now living in…
What health issues and occupational hazards do women in rural Nigeria face, and what can be done to better serve and empower women in remote rural areas? Women's representation is one answer, and successful efforts in Zimbabwe to promote women's participation at the local government level may hold valuable lessons.
4 documents
Improving women’s leadership and effectiveness in agricultural governance – effectiveness review
( Oxfam - 2012 )
How can women’s leadership and participation in agricultural decision-making and governance be increased? To what extent do interventions that combine skills and capacity-building in improved production techniques with activities influencing local government and community leadership structures lead to greater involvement of women? This report from an Oxfam GB project operating in five States across two regions in Nigeria sets out to find out.The project review team applied a quasi-experimental impact…
Political participation of rural women in decision making at the local government level in Zimbabwe
( International Invention Journal of Arts and Social Sciences - 2016 )
The last few decades of the 20th century witnessed significant increases in women’s participation and representation in politics, in large part due to worldwide awareness campaigns, feminist movements, and better access to education, healthcare, and employment for women. Such is the shift in thinking, that the level of development of countries now includes reference to the level of women’s political participation and representation, and in this Zimbabwe is still lagging…
Improving access to quality information and tools to empower women in rural Nigeria
( Empower Women - 2015 )
In laying the context for the depth of challenges facing some women and families in Nigeria, this paper opens with a story of a mother and her children escaping imprisonment by extremists insisting that they submit to their ways and teachings to avoid persecution. Travelling alone and across inhospitable terrain for three weeks, with little food and through harsh weather, the family finally made it to an internally displaced people’s…
An overview of health and occupational hazards of rural women in Nigeria
( Journal of Rural Social Sciences - 2015 )
Women all over the world have been acknowledged for their important roles in providing livelihoods for their families, winning an enviable reputation for their economic contribution through food production, processing and trading. Yet in Nigeria, few research studies have been documented on the health and occupational hazards of rural women. Women are often incapacitated by occupational hazards that interact with other causes of illness to produce a wide range of…
What new opportunities and challenges are presented by urban living, with its greater diversity and density of people? How and where is patriarchy reproduced in urban environments, and what needs to be done to make cities more gender-sensitive and safe for women?
4 documents
Freedom to move: women’s experience of urban public transport in Bangladesh, Brazil and Nigeria, and how lost tax revenues can pay to improve it
( ActionAid International - 2016 )
Public transport is the lifeblood of cities, used by millions as the most efficient way of moving people. However, half the population are marginalised from these transport systems as they often fail to accommodate the needs of women and girls, whose freedoms are curtailed by unsafe, inadequate, and inaccessible urban public transport (UPT). This report by ActionAid looks at the quality of UPT across three cities: Dhaka, in Bangladesh, Abuja…
Gender roles and opportunities for women in urban environments
( GSDRC Applied Knowledge Services - 2016 )
Women are becoming the majority in urban areas, and many more people now live in female-headed households, representing a significant shift in gender roles and relations. This GSDRC helpdesk research report examines the literature to tell us about different gender roles and opportunities for women in urban environments, compared to rural. It highlights when gender roles are perpetuated and when they change, with particular attention to factors influencing women’s economic…
Gender and urbanisation in Nigeria
( Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences - 2014 )
Urban studies has only recently begun to incorporate feminist perspectives, and in doing so reflects on the working not just of political economy, but also patriarchy. While urbanisation can challenge the private patriarchy found in suburban and rural environments due to the higher density and diversity of people, public patriarchy can be reinforced as women, once dependent on men, also become dependent on paid work, employers, and the state and…
Urban land, planning, and governance systems in Nigeria
( University of the West of England - 2015 )
In the face of rapid urbanisation, the issues of inadequate planning, governance, and management in Nigeria is well known, and the combination of customary and colonial practices, outdated policies and plans, and entrenched attitudes make solutions hard to come by. To make sense of this seemingly intractable problem, this report summarises the urban land administration and planning debate in Nigeria by examining the issues based on literature review, and the…
In the face of increasing demand for food, what can be done to develop agricultural and rural infrastructure to increase productivity? Women represent an untapped opportunity, not just in agriculture, but across the Nigerian economy; could gender-responsive and accessible mobile financial services play a part in empowering women?
4 documents
Infrastructure: a game-changer for women’s economic empowerment
( Infrastructure and cities for economic development (ICED) - 2016 )
Produced by the Infrastructure and Cities for Economic Development Facility (ICED), this background paper lays out the case for infrastructure as a key tool for women’s economic empowerment (WEE). With over half of Africa’s economic growth between 1990 and 2005 attributed to improved infrastructure, the return on investment is clear. Yet millions across the developing world still lack access to clean water, energy, transport links, and energy, representing an opportunity…
Women and rural development in Nigeria: some critical issues for policy consideration
( Social Sciences - 2015 )
This paper, published in the journal Social Sciences, examines the broad idea of gender and development, with specific focus on some of the critical issues and challenges confronting the involvement of rural women in development activities in Nigeria. The paper addresses this issue through theoretical and empirical literature review, examining how the impacts of women in rural development in Nigeria have been discussed and situated in historical and political perspectives. Although…
Nigeria confronts a challenging financial inclusion gender gap: a case study of policy change to support women’s financial inclusion.
( Women's World Banking - 2016 )
To complement the release of a discussion paper by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and Women’s World Banking, the organisations co-developed this case study report to examine the specific experience of Nigeria. While the country has seen promising approaches to gender-focused financial inclusion policies, efforts have faced a challenging environment that has seen the gender-gap in access to an account in a financial institution rise from 7.3% to 20.7%…
Women and agriculture: the untapped opportunity in the wave of transformation
( African Development Bank - 2015 )
Women constitute a majority in Africa’s agricultural sector, and are estimated to produce between 60-80% of the continents food. Yet women remain an untapped opportunity due to their disproportionate lack of access to finance, services, and productive resources. Combined with rapid population growth and urbanisation contributing to increasing food demand, it becomes clear that a new, innovative approach for regional and national development based on gender-equality, sustainability, and good governance…
I think it is good to engage men in gender equality. This is because there are only two genders – men and women -and none can do without the other in all fields,of human endeavor. So, women are men’s alter ego. This will make for a better relationship in both private and public spheres and a more humane and progressive society and international community, anchored on achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The lives of women in rural and urban contexts is sharply contrasting. Statistics show that there are more women in rural than urban areas. Statistics also show that feminization of poverty in terms of income, power and dignity is more real in rural than urban contexts. Women in rural areas are like beasts of burden, without voice and power, and so look up to their counterparts in the urban area for a better deal. But in all, both women in urban and rural areas suffer avoidable deprivations from the male dominated society. Yet, women contribute so much to both the formal and informal economy including agriculture. There is need for a paradigm shift for a better and progressive society. Indeed, we need women’s contribution to achieve the Sustainable Development goals
Engaging men towards promoting gender equality in Nigeria is important in disabusing the minds and perceptions of men against gender equality. Gender equality in Nigeria suffers set backs because of some traditional societal norms that promotes stereotyping hence advocacy is important. On the majority, men perceive gender equality as threatening to their ego and even roles in the family and soeiety. Through engagement, Men’s low perception of gender equality can be improved upon. Education is key and advocacy is equally vital to the sensitazition process. On the other hand, women should be given more education and opportunities to justify their capacities to consolidate their equal roles to men. Rather than viewed as daughters, wives, mothers and sisters , education and advocacy can be used to influence men’s positivity and respect to equality.