Secunderabad Chronicle

International sustainability-focused firm, CSR-in-Action, has premiered its chillingly expository documentary, ‘Earth Women’, in Lagos. Funded by Ford Foundation, Earth Women highlights the suffering of women living in areas impacted by extractive activities in Nigeria.

Ilobekeme Olowola, Chief Executive, CSR-in-Action and Executive Producer, Earth Woman walks down the red carpet during the event

Oil and gas, and mining activities generate the bulk of government revenue in Nigeria. Whilst the West African country continues the quest to diversify its economy, discussions have been going on for years around the adverse effects of extractive activities on the communities close to them. Earth Women echoes the themes of social justice and gender inclusion, telling the untold story of how women in these communities are struggling to thrive in a male dominated world.

L-R: Adegbite Falade, MD/CEO, Niger Delta Exploration and Production, NDEP; Tokunbo George Taylor, Managing Director, Hill+Knowlton Strategies Nigeria; and Meka Olowola, Managing Partner, Zenera Consulting and Co-Executive Producer, Earth Women

According to Ilobekeme Olowola, CSR-in-Action’s Chief Executive and Earth Women’s Executive Producer, who visualised the concept for the documentary, “When natural disasters occur, women suffer immensely because their sources of livelihood are threatened, and they often do not have control over what happens to them in such situations. Nevertheless, women continue to thrive and find better ways to survive”.

L-R: Managing Partner, Zenera Consulting and Executive Producer, Earth Women; Nollywood star and Co-Executive Producer, Earth Women, Ego Boyo; with Chief Executive, CSR-in-Action and Co- Executive Producer, Earth Women, Ilobekeme Olowola

“This documentary is inspired by our deep understanding of the multi-layered challenges in the extractive industries. Through our Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) initiative, we have worked for the past ten years on a common platform for resolving these socio-political challenges by bringing together key stakeholders in government, business and the communities,” Olowola said.

L-R: Chinwe Ifechigha, Manager, CSR, TotalEnergies Marketing Nig PLC; Lere Odusote, Commissioner for Energies and Mineral Resources, Lagos State; Bekeme Masade-Olowola, Chief Executive, CSR-in-Action and Producer, Earth Women; Meka Olowola, Managing Partner, Zenera Consulting and Co-Executive Producer, Earth Women; Mmeme Abeka, Communication Projects Coordinator, TotalEnergies Marketing Nig PLC; and  Adegbite Falade, MD/CEO, Niger Delta Exploration and Production, NDEP

“Wherever you find benefits in the form of natural resources, you find women and girls unfairly excluded from conversations around these resources. Women continue to be marginalised in both formal and informal spaces,” said Olufunke Baruwa, Country Director, West Africa for Ford Foundation. “However, we are really happy that women continue to challenge this marginalisation and continue to push through to make sure that our voices are heard.”

“We are funding organisations like CSR-in-Action because we believe that supporting them will help in identifying gaps and driving programs and strategies that address challenges that women face in the extractive sector,” Baruwa added.

Earth Women is an initiative of the ‘SITEI-Woman’ project, a series of initiatives targeted at empowering women, especially those impacted by the extractive industries in Nigeria, which is an offshoot of the 10-year-old Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) Initiative, of CSR-in-Action which is aimed at fostering fiscal and social justice for communities with oil and gas and mining resources.

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, commended the consistent commitment of Masade-Olowola and the CSR-in-Action team to finding sustainable solutions to the challenges facing the extractive industries sector in Nigeria, having provided a platform for various stakeholders in the sector through SITEI for the past 10 years.

“The issues facing the extractive industries sector in Nigeria can only be solved through collaborative effort by multiple stakeholders including the government, extractive companies, communities and the civil society. In the past ten years through the SITEI platform, Bekeme and her team have helped identify many of these problems and inspired the search for collaborative solutions to them,” said Orji.

According to Meka Olowola, who is the Chairman, SITEI Organising Committee and Co-Executive Producer, Earth Women, the SITEI-Woman initiative is a platform for driving social justice for women and promoting gender inclusion.

“Through SITEI-Woman, we want to help deconstruct some of the paradigms that have kept women away from vital decisions that have an overarching impact on their lives, especially with regards to resources available in extractive communities. We believe that empowered women will lead to peaceful and prosperous communities,” the Energy expert added.

Through the SITEI initiative, CSR-in-Action has announced a $500,000 fundraiser to create an access-to-market platform for local female (and male) miners. Visit https://www.sitei.org to learn more.

Earth Women continues to receive awards and is scheduled for more screenings in the coming months.

Media Contact
Company Name: CSR-in-Action
Contact Person: Ayodele Arowosegbe
Email: Send Email
Phone: 09062634118
Country: Nigeria
Website: https://www.csr-in-action.org