“The untapped assets of older women is an area of concern.”- NSCC
Oru Leonard
The Director General of National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC), Dr. Emem Omokaro, has said the untapped assets of older women is an area of concern.
Dr Omokaro noted this in her remarks on Tues during a One-Day Orientation Consultation and Capacity Enhancement Workshop on Domestication of National Senior Citizens Centre Act and The National Plan of Action and Project Activities on Ageing.
She also urged state governments and stakeholders to look into addressing the level of poverty and neglect of senior citizens, especially older women by domesticating the NSCC Act and Ageing Policies.
Omokaro lamented that discriminatory social norms, gender roles and traumatic events of marginalized women in the areas of education, access to job opportunities, land rights and family inheritance.
According to her: “Older women firstly
experience poverty as females
and then as widows and older women. Women as a subgroup of the older population experience greater poverty than the general older population. Systemic drivers of poverty are embedded throughout the trajectory of
life and the lack or delayed strategic interventions along the life course lead to accumulated disadvantages.
Discriminatory social norms, gender roles and traumatic events marginalise women in the areas of education, access to job opportunities, land rights, family inheritance and single headed family structures.
The implication of this in general programmatic action is that, understanding these specific
circumstances that lead to poverty among older women necessitates
focused deployment of strategic
interventions including advocacy to shift negative perception and stereotypes, development of research agenda on older women and resilience, their capacity enhancement and engagement
for productivity, different from
other groups.
Speaking earlier, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty and Poverty Alleviation Mr. Abel Enitan and was represented by the Director of Special Duties, Mrs Agnes Ancke, said the workshop is geared towards enhancing the lives of older pensons across all thirty-six states and the FCT as the population of older people is expected to continue increasing with passing years.
“By 2050, the number ofolder persons will surpass that of adolescents and youth aged 10-24 years, with Nigeria
projected to accommodate about 30 million older persons bythe same year. While Nigeria’s ageing population has not yet reached alarming proportions,
it is paramount that proactively establish policies, legal frameworks, guidelines,
and programs to address the
challenges of ageing within our
nation,” he said.
