In this exclusive interview with The News Chronicle, Joan Obeta shares how through education, empowerment, and community engagement, YNCSD champions a future where every woman and girl in Nigeria can thrive free from societal constraints.
TNC: Please can you briefly introduce yourself?
JOAN: My name is Joan Obeta, I’m the Communication advocacy officer for Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development (YNCSD).
TNC: Can you give us a little background about Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development (YNCSD)?
JOAN: Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development is a youth-led organisation that uses advocacy, research, and communications to advance sustainable development for women and girls, particularly in Nigeria.
TNC: What inspired the establishment of YNCSD, particularly with the focus on ending harmful traditional practices in Nigeria, such as female genital mutilation?
JOAN: A couple of factors inspired YNCSD.
First is the prevalence of FGM in Nigeria, Nigeria globally has one of the highest rates of FGM, Infact, millions of women and girls have undergone the practice and there is a sense of urgency to aid FGM, this was a major motivation, YNCSD started out with a particular focus on FGM, it was initially Youth Network Against Female Genital Mutilation (YNAFGM) before it became YNCSD.
YNCSD deals with a broader range of issues, it’s basically the prevalence of FGM and we saw that there was a gap, a sense of urgency and the need to end FGM.
Beyond the prevalence, there are health concerns because FGM is a harmful practice, these negative health consequences are infections, long-term pain and so on.
YNCSD was founded in response particularly to the need to protect women and girls from these health risks and also considering that FGM in itself is a violation of human rights, this is one of our motivations.
We feel like people should be free from this cruel practice and because we are big on promoting human rights and gender equality which is why YNCSD was founded to respond to a lot of this.
Beyond this, the transitioning period from being Youth Network against FGM (YNAFGM) to being Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development, is also because we decided that there was a need to focus on building young people, empowering young people as advocates of change, young people that will create change within their communities, within their spaces, and that is why we are the leading organization when it comes to youth empowerment and youth development generally.
TNC: Over the years, what challenges have the organisation faced?
JOAN: As it is with every other organization, there will be challenges.
For us – I would say for internal challenges, some of the challenges we have faced are with limited resources.
There’s so much to be done but so little resources, considering that our sectors generally get particular intervention from the government. So, thankfully, we have donor agencies that fund a couple of our projects and I could just say it is limited resources.
Projects come and go and the sustainable nature of the project also needs resources to continue, even with the area of securing grants and getting resources. The current situation in Nigeria, the unstable economy, a lot of things keep changing when you have budgeted and planned for your activities and then you hit the market and there are new prices and all of that.
Another challenge is we need strong and active youth, which can be challenging because young people move, they change the area in which they work, the area in which they volunteer, and they also reprioritise, so maintaining a youth network has really been challenging.
There have also been external challenges that affect the field of our work, the flow of our budget, when it comes to working in the FGM area is a very sensitive one because there are cultural sensitivity around FGM and they are deep-rooted traditions in many communities and these are belief regarding FGM mostly engrave with cultural and religious beliefs, so changing the attitude and behaviors of these persons who we are approaching in our quest to end FGM, there are challenges that we encounter because we are trying to change their behavioural pattern, we are trying to make them have a paradigm shift, trying to make them shift from that cultural and religious belief that they have attached to this harmful processes, we also face a lot of roadblocks in these areas.
Understanding also again that there are community resistances most of the time in our project in communities and we face resistance from these community members because these people do not want to lose their cultural heritage and whereas want to continue these practices, we always get that feedback and that opposition from them.
Another challenge also we face is getting government support and legislative buying to some of our quests, advocacy and campaigns, there is the absence of supportive government policies and legislature that will help to enhance the work that we do.
And again our area is mostly sexual reproductive health and rights and we know that in Nigeria, there are social stigmas attached to a lot of sexual health topics and issues. Navigating all of these things poses a lot of challenges for us but regardless, we are not deterred, we continue to push on.
TNC: What are the most pressing challenges facing women and girls in terms of sexual reproductive health and how does YNCSD address the challenges?
JOAN: So there is a myriad of problems that face women and girls with regards to sexual reproductive health and rights, and most prevalent in Nigeria is the access to healthcare, there is limited access to quality healthcare services, most especially in rural areas, those who live in urban areas are still able to access it to a large extent compared to those who live in rural areas.
You see restrictions, they are unable to get vital SRHR services that they require, like safe prenatal care, contraception, safe abortion care and access to quality healthcare is a major challenge, for us at YNCSD we have existing projects that respond to some of these issues.
We currently have a project, a Move2Act Project, this project is geared towards enhancing legislative policies in favor of safe abortion.
As we know in Nigeria, we don’t have abortion laws that allow women to terminate their pregnancies when they want to, if they want to, when they do not see the need to carry pregnancy to full time to terminate it. Move2Act Project is seeing how we can work with relevant stakeholders who can support this course.
We also have a project called Links Project, this project is geared towards making safe abortion accessible to women who require it, and we are working with other stakeholders to make these services.
Beyond even making safe abortion services accessible, we respond to inquiries and queries about sexual reproductive health and rights. A lot of times, we have realized that there is that gap, people do not know where to assess information with regard to sexual reproductive health and rights, when they want to ask questions concerning their body changes and making safe choices, there’s that gap because they do not know how to direct that question or who to channel these queries to.
So we at YNCSD, run a hotline, the Diva hotline, this hotline exists to respond to all of these queries, when you come with your inquiries, we link you up with people who are able to continue because we do not run a clinic but we can provide advice on how we can go about it.
Because again following that particular challenge is also a lack of education, there is inadequate education about SHRH topics, and because there is inadequate information about this topic, it often leads to misinformation, that’s why you have misinformed people, you have unintended pregnancies, you have unsafe sexual practices, people are having sex in the most unsafe way. You also have increased vulnerability to STIs and sexually transmitted infections, because there’s that gap, these are a few challenges that exist that we are also responding to.
TNC: Can you share a specific success story achieved by the YNCSD in its effort to end harmful traditional practices or promote human rights in Nigeria?
JOAN: So we have a lot of success stories.
One particular one that stands out is the FREE Fund Project because, at YNCSD, we try to ensure that beyond leaping a situation or an issue at the board, we want to ensure that our interventions are also sustainable.
We realize that there are professional quarters, these are people who carry out their process with FGM, pretty much people who circumcise these victims of FGM, these are people who have cutting as their profession and as their day job, we realize that if we are trying to end FGM, we also need to empower this quarters, by giving them alternative means of survival and source of livelihood, that was a major objective of the FREE Fund Project to empower these quarters.
What we did was that we developed and empowered them with other skills such as soap making and bead making, we empowered them with these skills in 2 states in Nigeria, Ebonyi and Imo states. We developed their skills to give them an alternative source of livelihood and we also recently had the close-out ceremony for that particular project. The testimonials we got from the beneficiaries of the project were mind-blowing, they were very excited to abandon cutting and delve into this new venture that we have empowered them with.
For us, that is a major success story.
TNC: In your experience, what have been the most effective methods for transforming social norms surrounding female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices in Nigeria, and how has the organisation contributed to these efforts?
JOAN: Initially, I had said how for us at YNCSD, we use education particularly because when you talk about social norms, you talk about beliefs, nominal that people have been groomed and have been socialized into the community with. So for us, a major way to challenge this is through community outreaches.
We have what we call the value change system and attitudinal transformation, for us, that’s the big hats. We use that model and what do we do with it? We organize focus group discussions as FGDs in these communities.
We have a curriculum, we take them through a system and a period of training. We organise these activities in their communities with their community leaders, people who hold authority in those communities, we try to change their values system, and we try to help them to have a shift from these norms that they have been socialized into life with.
We build them with new systems, give them new information because a lot of them operate with some of these beliefs because that’s what they know and that’s all they know but we let them know that when it comes to FGM, your foremothers may have practiced this, but this is barbaric, harmful and not a good health choice, this affects your kids in this ways, that ways. They grow up as adults and they grow up with certain health issues and also lack in certain areas, mostly sexually.
We try to educate them, that is why we are big on advocacy too. Also, because currently, we know the immense power of social media, we try to use social media through digital advocacy.
Sometime this year, we held digital advocacy boot camps for youth advocates against FGM, In that boot camp, we developed them with digital skills that they could use in Canvassing and advocacy because we know that a large chunk of the population is on social media. The society is dynamic and a lot of our approaches are dynamic, so we try to move with the flow and adapt to the various changes that happen. But for us, education is a key instrument in combating social norms.
TNC: Looking forward, what are the organisation’s priorities and strategic goals for the future?
JOAN: For us at YNCSD, we will continue to try to advance sexual reproductive health and rights for women and girls in Nigeria because we have noticed that there is a lack of access to information and services, we also will continue to fill that gap.
Because most of our approaches we try to ensure that it is inclusive, we want to see a society where women can easily access good and quality healthcare services, women in various parts of the country, women in rural areas and women in urban areas.
We also want to ensure that we build an equal society where people who require quality care and human rights services can access it. We also are working earnestly to ensure that there is improved SRHR information and services for young people, that young people can easily assess SRHR information, this information that will help them make safe choices, information that will help them understand themselves and the choices that they need them to make.
We also want to build a platform for action that uses advocacy and research to drive policy change, we want to see effective policies in Nigeria, policies that are not just developed and kept, but policies that beyond whatever domestication or ratification of these policies, we want to ensure that these policies are also implemented and enforced, that there is an enforcement system that sees that these policies work for young people, especially women and girls because we have a bias for men and girls at YNCSD. So these are some of our goals in the coming years.
TNC: Is there anything you would like to add or inform the public?
JOAN: I think I have I have said enough.
Just to say, advancing SRHR requires a collaborative effort, as CSOs, we cannot do it alone, we need all hands to be on board
We also require you the media to help us advance the course that we do and also the support of both the government and the general public.
We always say that, where you see the need, you take the lead. In our various areas of work where we see the need, we will always take the lead.
First, at YNCSD, we will continue to remain the leading organisation advancing SRHR in Nigeria.
