Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation Supports Nigerian Women's Cooperative

2nd June, 2003 - Canada's Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation, via the global justice organisation CUSO has provided project funding totalling Cdn. $9,363. for several CHRRD initiatives this year. The project areas are conflict resolution, women's economic empowerment, and in strengthening the overall organizational capacity at CHRRD.

One portion of the grant is going to upgrading equipment used by the Aboluyo Women's Cooperative Cassava Processing Society, Old Ife Road, Ibadan. This cooperative of over one hundred women is purchasing a new, locally-machined grinder plate and engine, along with related hardware to manufacture and sell cassava-based foodstuffs such as gari and tapioca. The collaboration with CHRRD, located five minutes down the road from the cooperative, follows on infrastructural support provided since 1996 to strengthen Nigerian women's economic independence.

The remainder of the grant is being used to strengthen CHRRD's Public Complaints and Conflict Resolution Clinic. During the first five months of 2003, CHRRD's biweekly clinic has heard 216 individual cases. According to the United Nations "medium variant" estimates, Nigeria's urban population will increase as a proportion of the total from 44% in 2000 to 48% in 2005 and 52% in 2010. By 2025, 61% of all Nigerians will live in urban settings. Rural Nigerians are increasingly flocking to large cities such as Ibadan (population approximately 3 million). This demographic shift is eroding the efficacy for older resolution mechanisms, handled by the traditional leaders in migrants' home towns to settle conflicts. New rural emigrants live beside others from other towns and states, without shared systems of mediating disputes. In this lurch, NGOs like CHRRD play a valuable role, particularly for those unable to afford formal legal services.

Dayo Omotoso, Ag Media Director.

For More Information Contact:

Centre for Human Rights Research and Development
37, Old Ife Road, Opposite Green Springs Hotel, PO Box 1084, Agodi Post Office, Ibadan, Oyo State, NIGERIA, West Africa.
Tel: 234-2-712336
FAX: 234-2-712336
Internet: chrrd@skannet.com

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Last modified: 15 November 2003