In many part of the world, the female status are far below that of their male counterparts and are often subjugated through clandestine practices and norms. At the core of this is the cultural underpinning of a patriarchal society where male dominance and superiority is displayed both in public and private life. Unequal power relation between the sexes have also created and exacerbated violence against women which manifest in various shades. While cultural norms are difficult to change directly, case studies from other contexts and regions have proven that education and enlightenment can be used to influence negative part of culture. Project Men for Equality (M4E) is targeted at eroding the cultural norms about the status of women in Nigerian society through advocacy and education to men in informal networks, who are mostly the custodians of these traditions. It is strongly believed that as they get enlightened, they will be able to work more towards the achievement of an equitable society. 

Most of the structural factors impending women’s potential are based on stereotypes and cultural norms that form part of the socialization process for both women and men, For instance in many part of Nigeria, girls are raised to only be good wives while boys are raised to consider girls as ‘weak’. Adolescent Leadership Series is a special school outreach to young people, male and females. Our aim is to demystify these constructs by educating both boys and girls on gender parity and how to become better people and leaders, building leadership in young people is very important to achieve development. We do this through school outreaches and seminars to secondary schools most especially those in underserved secondary schools in Nigeria.

Our project ‘My Golden Cycle’ seeks to provide comprehensive Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management for Adolescent Girls in Government Secondary Schools across states. The project adopts a community participatory and empowerment approach into de-stigmatizing menstrual health and hygiene towards the overall goal of promoting gender equality and women empowerment in Africa. This comprehensive Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) involves facilitation of adequate and sufficient information on MHM to disabuse the mind of the people on the myths and taboos and encourage safe, hygienic and dignified management of menstruation, provision of adequate sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools, support to access affordable sanitary pads and mobilization of policies to promote open discussion of menstrual hygiene management to reduce stigma. All government secondary schools in different states will be deployed into this program and a schedule of the advocacy program will be disseminated through the State Ministry of Education. Similarly, we will be starting ‘Golden Cycle’ clubs in secondary schools where young people can become ambassadors and do peer to peer training on MHM. BHA has design the training modules and will provide the materials for their advocacy campaigns.

The United Nations as the International Day of the Girl Child have bookmarked 11th October. Across the world, families, communities, and organizations gather to celebrate the achievement of the girl child and to raise a voice for more inclusive policies to maximize their potentials. BHA has been part of the force promoting the girl child agenda and we organize various events to celebrate the day with girls in our community. The feminine gender has been the subject of widespread discrimination and lifetime vulnerability largely predicated on the unequal power balance between sexes in most climes. Global statistics have shown that one in every three girls will experience sexual violence in her lifetime while the poverty wears a woman face in many societies. Though several development interventions are been implemented to reverse the trend and empower girls and women as partners of development, despite this, progress has been slow particularly in low resource settings. In recognition of the International Day of the Girl Child, a day set aside to celebrate the achievement of females all over the world, we have deemed it necessary to leave no one behind in the fight to achieving gender equality and a better life for all girls.

The Nigeria Policing Program of Coffey International is a strategic intervention funded by the British High Commission through the Conflict, Stabilization and Security Fund (CSSF), the Nigeria Policing Program aims to improve the Nigerian Police Force’s contribution to the delivery of safety and security for Nigerians in target states; strengthen internal and external accountability mechanisms; and improve the coherence of security provision among and between formal and informal security actors. BHA is one of the select CSOs working with Coffey International, Nigeria Policing Program (NPP) in monitoring gender-based violence and youth restiveness in Lagos.

Globally, female represent about half of the world population but remain the most economically disadvantage group despite being a huge contributor to labour force. In many developing countries including Nigeria, poverty wear a female face which is attributable to lower empowerment level of the feminine folks because of patriarchy. Education is an important indicator of the Human Development Index of any country and has proven to be a primary tool for lifting people from poverty across the world. Recent development across the globe have also suggested that aside the basic literacy skills needed for individuals to read and write and make informed decision about their life choices, knowledge about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) also provides abundant of opportunities to empower individuals and countries. This recognition has been the basis for county’s increasing investment in the ICT in a growing age of technological innovation; and while Nigeria seems to be making some leaps in the ICT space, male players still largely dominate the sector. As an organization that champions women’s empowerment and that seeks to create a world where everyone can maximize their potentials, we are setting up ICT clubs in Female’s Only Secondary schools in Lagos where teenage girls can be taught fundamentals of ICT including Computer Programming, Coding, hardware repairs and others. We will be piloting this in two (2) government senior schools in Lagos.

About half of the estimated 200 million people living in Nigeria are females, constituting a large proportion of the country’s labour force. Yet, poverty wears a feminine face in Africa’s most populous country which is based on low empowerment of the female gender. Though female participation in leadership is generally low in the continent, the Nigerian narrative present a tale of intrigue with only 5.6% represented in national legislation as compared to 42.3% in South Africa, 38.8% in Ethiopia and 31.1% in Cameroon according to global statistics on Women in National Parliaments in 2018. This scenario also plays out in other fields including management, corporate businesses, private sector, entrepreneurship, Oil and Gas and so on. Case studies from developed climes have shown the power of effective female leaders in steering the political-economy of countries for national prosperity and sustainable development. However, evidence from literature and share of conversation have shown the limitations imposed on women in rising to top leadership in their various career fields which is largely premised on gender role expectations and a patriarchal culture that limit access to resources and opportunities to the female folks. As an organization deeply interested in creating a level field for both sexes to maximize the potentials and as women empowerment represent one of our core pillars, we have been organizing  a Women in Leadership and Mentorship program for Young Female Leaders aged 18 to 35 yearly in Lagos to Mark the International Women’s Day on 8th March since 2019.

The program aims at bringing highly placed female leaders from various fields to share their stories, empower the young ladies and inspire them for long-lasting success. The program has also provided a platform for some of the young leaders to be attached to mentors that will be highly beneficial for their career progression. Furthermore, the program serves as an avenue to discover talents while also creating a self-regulating platform for young professionals with the same area of focus to share ideas and opportunities. Through this program we have successfully mentored over 850 young female leaders in Nigeria.

Boundless women business empowerment program is an initiative of BHA that creates a safe and enabling environment for women to thrive through vocational skill based businesses. The project provides access to training, employment opportunity, business incubation support and linked up to micro loans for women to thrive. The Boundless Woman programme is for selected women entrepreneurs (aspiring and current business owners) with a vision to lead businesses that are bankable, scalable and sustainable, as well as businesses that can gain access to finance locally and globally.

Objectives of the project:

• To empower and equip aspiring and current entrepreneurs with the skills and enterprise knowledge
• To introduce them to networks that will help their ventures gain access to finance and other benefits.
• To Provide advisory services that will help participant’s ventures become bankable, sustainable and scalable
• Monitoring and evaluation process will span for 3 months, making the program duration of 6 months.