Philippines Offers Nigeria Gender Equality Blueprint, Links Compliance to Govt Funding
The Philippines has challenged Nigeria to move beyond policy declarations on gender equality and strengthen its laws, institutions and accountability mechanisms to ensure that women’s inclusion becomes an enforceable reality across government.
Philippine Ambassador to Nigeria, Mersole Mellejor, made the call in Abuja during a high-level dialogue organised under the Female Legislative Mentorship Initiative on Parliamentary Affairs and Diplomacy at the Philippine Embassy.
The envoy’s intervention centred on a key lesson from the Philippine experience: gender mainstreaming must be backed by institutional sanctions and financial consequences if government agencies fail to implement it.
Mellejor explained that the Philippines had developed mechanisms that tie compliance with gender-responsive policies to government funding, making gender mainstreaming a matter of institutional responsibility rather than voluntary commitment.
