Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI) Nigeria Chapter, UN Women, Spotlight Initiative in European Union and United Nations have agreed to partner to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030.
This was in commemoration of this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, from 25 November to 10 December, themed, “Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!”
Speaking at the just concluded workshop, UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Comfort Lamptey said they are happy about the opportunity to collaborate with the Nigerian film industry through WIFTI and will be collaborating with senior leaders of WIFTI to leverage on momentum towards the second reading of the GEO Bill.
Lamptey said the collaboration would position the network to advocate for an increase women’s political representation and address violence against women and girls.
She said, “The collaboration will also leverage on WIFTI’s convening power to support the film and TV industry to structure products that will champion gender equality in Nigeria and increase awareness of the Bill while garnering support toward its successful passage.”
Also, the Convener of WIFTI Nigeria, Joke Silva said the partnership was necessary to help people within the entertainment industry understand gender issues as well as the GEO bill.
According to her “Most of these people are writers, directors and producers, who work behind the scenes but they are the people who put together the project, the performance they present to the public. So the strategy is to let the people who actually craft the messaging understand the issues behind the message.”
Also, a human rights lawyer and founding Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said the workshop is part of awareness, as few people know about the Bill.
“The level of awareness might also be one of the reason the passage has been so difficult because we didn’t get the kind of support we needed from Nigerians generally.
So this is a strategy to ensure that the bill gets passed because it is very important for everyone.
Also, Senator Biodun Olujimi said Nigeria has a thriving film industry, which for the last two and a half decades, has transformed into a global phenomenon and seen artistes’ creativity explode on the cinema and on-line platforms.
He said available statistics have valued Nigeria’s creative and entertainment industry at $3.3bn and contributes enormously to Nigeria’s GDP.
He said the importance of Nollywood to our GEO campaigns cannot be over emphasized adding that the bill is scheduled for second hearing this month.