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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: OUR STORY

Centa for Organizational Development (COD) was conceived in December 2005 by Mrs. Nkiru Celine Okoro as a gender proportionate & focused non-governmental, non-political, not for profit organization, that seeks to redress the existing in balances in women’s access to credit in Nigeria by offering to the poor and lower middle class mostly women, cost effective and efficient management, leadership, human rights and organizational development trainings necessary to effectively access and manage micro credits & finances. Through these initiatives, the economic, socio – cultural and political rights of more women are promoted and protected in Nigeria.

At another level, working in coalition and collaboration with other gender focused NGOs in Nigeria including the Nigerian NGO-CEDAW COALITION, CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION FOR POVERTY ERADICATION (CISCOPE) etc; COD seeks to constructively engage the Nigerian government at all levels (local, state and federal) to ensure the realization of GOAL Three (Promote gender equality and empower women) in the Millennium Development Goals as well as mainstream gender into national accounts/budgets.

Members of COD have since February 2006 to date participated in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW 50 -53) in New York as well as several national and regional meetings aimed at the promotion and protection of women’s rights.

COD started operations in July 2006 with a micro finance workshop, which had over 60 people in attendance drawn from among the poor and lower middleclass in Lagos. It has since then implemented the following activities:

One Day Strategy Meeting Towards Gender Proportionate 2011General Elections in Nigeria (A joint Project Of Independent National Electoral Commission in Nigeria – INEC, Women Leadership Group, United Nations Fund For Women & Centa for Organizational Development)  Held In Abuja on April 21, 2009.

  • One Day Meeting on Harnessing Strategies for Legislative & Social Engagement for Electoral Reform in Nigeria- Held in Abuja on May 04, 2009.

  • One Day Dissemination Workshop on ANY HOPE?  Being monitoring and evaluation report of the Primary Health Care Programmes and Special Initiatives in Agriculture in Bauchi, Enugu and Cross River States carried out by Civil Society for Coalition for Poverty Eradication (CISCOPE) with support from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on March 22, 2009.

  • Dissemination Workshop on Concluding Observations/ Recommendations of the UN CEDAW Committee to Nigerian NGOs’ & the Media on October 30th 2008.

  • Working in collaboration with National Planning Commission (NPC) and Civil Society Coalition for Poverty Eradication (CISCOPE), COD put together the December 2006 Lagos State SEEDs benchmarking exercise. SEED is State Economic Empowerment & Development Strategy, drawn from the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) the Nigerian governments economic blue print/policy.

  • With Support from the Nigerian Gender Budget Network Abuja, COD facilitated a workshop titled “Mainstreaming Gender in the budget of South Western States in Nigeria.

  • Working in collaboration with Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), 25 of our members participated in the training and observation of the just concluded April 2007 general elections in Nigeria.

  • Working in collaboration with Justice, Peace and Development Commission Ijebu Ode, we are in the process of Engendering the Ministries of Education and Agriculture Budgets in Lagos State.

  • Working with Civil Society Coalition for Poverty Eradication (CISCOPE), in a project titled CIVIL SOCIETY MONITORING & EVALUATION OF SECTOR PROJECTS IN THE 2008 BUDGET OF MINISTRIES OF HEALTH & AGRICULTURE

  • Writing of the Nigerian NGO Shadow Report with NGO- CEDAW Coalition

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  • Between September 2006 and June 2007, COD has advanced micro credits to 120 members totaling Three Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Naira (N3, 800,000.00) about Thirty Five Thousand USD ($35,000USD) from internally generated funds with about 93% return rate to mostly women in the Lagos Sub burbs.

Promoting Gender Equity, Health,Socio_Economic & Political rights of Women