Advancing Positive Development for

vulnerable women in South-East Nigeria.

(A-Positive Development Project)

Project designed for

Bina Foundation for People with Special Needs
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INTRODUCTION

Women in Nigeria are often considered disadvantaged due to socio-cultural practices that
expose them to all forms of ill-treatments including domestic/sexual violence, neglects, denial
of rights including inheritance and in extreme cases, the right to speech is also denied. In
Nigeria, women receive social reinforcement for being quiet and never speaking out in public
except when permitted to do so. Women are most likely to be uneducated than the men with
66 percent of adult illiterates being women. This further makes it difficult for them to protest
or seek redress when they have been ill-treated. There are several activities that are common
in Nigerian communities that amount to ill-treatment and usually target women and especially
the poor. Domestic and sexual violence have been shown to be common with up to 60 per cent
of Nigerian women enduring some form of domestic violence or ill-treatment1. These are often
unreported due to socio-cultural factors predisposing women to remain silent and endure ill
treatment to avert shame within the community. Similarly, it was reported that community
based ill treatment manifest in the form of certain cultural and religious beliefs that are still in
practice in Nigeria including child selling/slavery, victimisation of widows whereby they are
forced to shave their hair or sleep in the same room as the corpse or drink water used to bath a
corpse among others, infanticide (intentional killing of infants) either due to religious sacrifice
or sex selection, stoning, amputation, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Female
Circumcision2. These practices manifest in variations from community to community and are
often unchallenged, perpetrators are unpunished and victims not rehabilitated. Most times when
the desire to challenge the norm arises, most women do not have the relevant information
concerning what to do or where to go. The issues that face women are great and even greater
when disability becomes a factor. There is a need for vulnerable women to be sensitized and
provided with opportunities to gain employability skills and become empowered.

1 Igbokwe, C. C., Ukwuma, M. C. & Onugwu, K. J. (2013). Domestic Violence against Women:
Challenges to Health and Innovation. JORIND 11(2). www.transcampus.org/journals;
www.ajol.info/journals/jorind
2 Piwuna M. G. (2015). The Acts of Torture and Other Forms of Ill-Treatment of Citizens by Some

Institutions and the Role of Criminal Justice System in Nigeria. International Journal of Humanities and
Social Science Vol. 5, No. 10(1): 208 217.
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Objectives
The main objective of the project is to contribute towards developing employability skills that
will enable women with disability to take charge of their lives in order to attain sustained self-
sufficiency.
Specifically the project will achieve the following objectives:
1. To promote employability skills development and financial empowerment among
vulnerable women especially those with disability in South East Nigeria.
2. To facilitate continuous learning actions on issues affecting women especially those
with disability in South East Nigeria.

Objective 1: To promote employability skills development and financial empowerment

among vulnerable women especially those with disability in South East Nigeria.
Vulnerable people are often not able to provide for themselves and have to depend on other
persons for most of their lives. There is a need to provide skills that will enable them to become
self-sufficient. These would include the provision of skills training using key-point pamphlets
written in English, braille and local languages. This will provide intermediary learning
activities and learning resources that will enable beneficiaries to stay up-to-date in learning
pre-determined skill areas. The training programs will also involve practice-based sessions that
will help participants internalise the training modules.
Training activities will also involve some basic business management education to ensure that
the project beneficiaries are able to operate and sustain small and medium scale enterprises
(SMEs). Small grants will be provided to successful project beneficiaries to help them start-up
SMEs.

Objective 2: To facilitate continuous learning actions on issues affecting people with

disability especially women in South East Nigeria.
The intervention will include a participatory learning and action approach which will be
instrumental in improving on the quality of services provided to the target group. This is an
important step which will ensure that the particular needs of the various groups are met.
Researches will be conducted quarterly to access the provision, access to, utilization and level
of satisfaction of beneficiaries with the provided services and the overall performance of the
intervention. This will be utilised in further developing project interventions.
The findings will be documented and disseminated to all stakeholders and other interested
parties through e-newsletters, social media and a designated website.
Activities, Outputs, Outcomes and Impact.
Advancing Positive Development for vulnerable women in South-East Nigeria. (A-Positive Development Project)

RESULTS FRAMEWORK
MEANS OF
OBJECTIVES INDICATORS ASSUMPTIONS
VERIFICATION
Goal:
To contribute towards developing employability skills that Number of women with End of project report Beneficiaries are willing to
will enable women with disability to take charge of their disability working to improve Monitoring and Evaluation participate in the project
lives in order to attain sustained self-sufficiency. the lives of vulnerable persons data
and communities.
Outcome 1:
Increased self-sufficiency for women, young people and Number of women, young Activity report Women with disability are
disabled persons through skills development and financial people and disabled people Monitoring data committed to acquire skills and be
empowerment in the communities. empowered empowered
Output 1.1
Stakeholders and staff mobilised and sensitized Number of staff and Monitoring and evaluation Staff and stakeholders are willing
stakeholders mobilised data, reports to participate in the project
activities
Output 1.2
Linkages established with various media platforms to Number of media platforms Monitoring and evaluation Media platforms are committed to
sensitize target groups and public. employed for sensitization data, reports the intervention
Output 1.3
Gender approach streamlined in Bina Foundation Skills Documented training modules Activity Report Funds are available
provision centre training modules with strong gender focus Training documents
Output 1.4
Enhanced SMEs Management knowledge of women with Number of women with Attendance lists Women with disability are
disability disability with enhanced SMEs Training assessment reports committed to acquiring SMEs
management knowledge management knowledge
Output 1.5
Start-up support provided to trained women with disability Number of trained women with Activity reports Women with disability are
disability who receive start-ups Pictures committed to setting up start-ups
support Proof of disbursement after they have been trained.

Output 1.6
Progress of women with disability monitored and reinforced Monitoring reports
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Advancing Positive Development for vulnerable women in South-East Nigeria. (A-Positive Development Project)

RESULTS FRAMEWORK
MEANS OF
OBJECTIVES INDICATORS ASSUMPTIONS
VERIFICATION
Number of monitoring visits Staff are competent to conduct
conducted monitoring visits.
Activities
1. Organize planning meeting with staff and stakeholders
2. Engage media platforms including radio, television and print media to sensitive target groups and public on project.
3. Streamline gender approach in training modules used in the Bina Foundation Skills Provision Centre.
4. Provide Basic SMEs Management education for women with disability to assist them have improved and sustainable means of livelihood.
5. Provide SMEs Start-up support including equipment and money to trained women.
6. Provide monitoring and reinforcement for women with disability running personal businesses.
Outcome 2:
Research based development recommendations to improve Number of research based Research reports Funds are available
interventions for people with disability especially women in recommendations made to Monitoring data
South East Nigeria. stakeholders
Output 5.1
Researches on the issues affecting people with disability Number of researches conducted Report Funds are available
especially women commissioned. Expertise to conduct research
exists
Output 5.2
Best practices in managing and empowering people with Number of stakeholders Activity reports Funds are available
special needs discussed with governmental and participating in discussions. Attendance registers
nongovernmental stakeholders Communique
Output 5.3
Research findings and information on best practices in Number of media used in Monitoring and evaluation Funds are available
attending to the needs of women, young people and disabled disseminating research findings data, reports
persons disseminated through website, e-newsletters and Frequency of sharing
social media. information with stakeholders
Activities
1. Conduct researches on the issues affecting people with disability in order to proffer suitable solutions to the existing needs.
2. Organize annual conference for discussions on best practices in managing and empowering people with special needs discussed with governmental and
nongovernmental stakeholders
3. Share research findings and information on best practices in attending to the needs of women, young people and disabled persons among stakeholders through
website, e-newsletters and social media.
Risk Management
Risk Likelihood Impact Mitigation Strategy
(L-low, M- (L-low, M-
medium, medium,
H-high) H-high)
1. Funding to implement M H Prepare convincing arguments
intervention is not in support of the project by
raised highlighting the needs in grant
applications. Source for
funding opportunities.
2. Intended beneficiaries L H Vulnerable persons will
are not motivated become motivated if they have
towards participating more information about
in programmes. planned interventions.
Awareness and sensitization
campaigns will be conducted
using channels accessible to
vulnerable persons.
3. Competency to M M Engage professionals to
implement project conduct relevant researches
does not exists in while building capacity of local
Bina Foundation. staff

Monitoring
The intervention will be monitored continuously throughout the project life. To aid monitoring,
a monitoring plan will be developed in coordination with project partners. This planning phase
will involve the development of monitoring objectives in line with the project goals and
expected outcomes. The monitoring objectives would be able to measure the project indicators.
Tools for Monitoring will be prepared by the project team. Milestones will be documented
while the desirable monitoring intervals will also be agreed upon. Project stakeholders and
beneficiaries will play a key role in the design of monitoring tools. Monitoring objectives will
be clearly explained to the beneficiaries and stakeholders so that they can actively contribute
towards the suitability and content of the tools to be used for the various activities. Such tools
will include tracking sheets, checklists, questionnaires and interview guides. Guidelines and
processes for administration and scoring of the tools will also be developed.
A designated monitoring officer whose responsibilities will involve the direct measurement of
project output and outcomes, consultations with beneficiaries, administration of monitoring
tools and preparation and dissemination of project outcomes, will monitor the project. This will
be achieved through visits and participation in community-based project activities. Community
visits will provide first-hand information as to the success of the project. There would be
periodic interviews and surveys conducted for the beneficiaries to determine progress and
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potential flaws of the project which would be taken into account in implementing future project
activities if relevant.
The Monitoring officer will prepare progress reports on a quarterly basis from the
commencement of project. Lessons learned from prior activities implemented will be utilized
in the avoiding potential bottlenecks in project management for improved overall project
outcome.
The Monitoring officer will provide timely relevant analysis and recommendations to the
project team. All lessons learned will be circulated to project staff through internal memos.
Weekly meetings will be held where all developments and interventions are discussed.