KDI, the secretariat of the Supporting Advancement of Gender Equality, has made Gender Equality issue a household name in Nigeria. Through the advocacy effort of KDI and other coalition partners, the president on Friday, 19th March 2021, is committed to assenting the gender equality provisions in the ongoing constitutional amendment.

Over the years, marginalization has characterized women's participation in politics due to various inhibiting social, cultural and religious forces. These forces reinforced the community’s stereotypical perception of women’s political leadership. Nigeria politics became male - dominated almost making women virtually politically invisible. Since the reintroduction of Democracy in 1999 till date, there has been no female president and duly elected female governor. The National Assembly has been dominated by males. The highest number of female senators that Nigeria has gotten is 9 out of 109 seats. While the highest of female representatives so far is 26 out of 360.

Political parties that are the only vehicle for political leadership have been consistently identified as one of the institutions responsible for women’s under-representation. The dominant masculine model of exercising power in political life and within political parties is built on traditional attitudes that marginalize women. The model creates ‘roadblocks’ at various levels, including party leadership, elected delegates and nomination of candidates.

Based on the foregoing, Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), with the support of the International Republican Institute (IRI), engaged political parties and the public in a series of dialogues, sustain dialogue between political and CSO groups on the need and benefit of women in leadership positions. KDI built the capacity of media personnel, especially male journalists, editors, editors-in-chief, photographers, and managers, on gender-sensitive reporting, turning them into male allies for gender equality, shunning stereotypical gender portrayals and support women’s political activities more broadly. Also, engaged new and traditional media to improve the public’s perceptions of women political leaders.

The goals and objectives of this project include:

Objective 1: To conduct advocacy campaigns targeting a broad audience (male allies, young women, youth, and persons with disabilities) on the issues facing women and the benefits of women in leadership positions.
Objective 2: To ensure sustained dialogue between political parties, CSO groups and the public on the need and benefit of women in leadership positions, thereby improving the public’s perceptions of women political leaders.