May 2026 - SWEDIWorld

May 28, 2026

Children’s Day and World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2026

Children’s Day: protecting every child

On Children’s Day, a family photo served as a reminder of the joy, innocence and promise every child deserves, and yet, SWEDIWorld noted, hearts remain heavy for the many Nigerian children whose daily reality is marked by fear and uncertainty instead of safety and celebration. The organisation called on professionals and leaders to strengthen their commitment to protecting every child and building a future where all can thrive without fear.

World Menstrual Hygiene Day: end the stigma

In Nigeria, countless girls still miss school, face stigma and lack basic menstrual products, silently losing dignity and education. Yet change is happening: menstrual hygiene kits are reaching schoolgirls through SWEDI Care, proving that a #PeriodFriendlyNigeria is possible. End the stigma. Period.

A SWEDIWorld team member hands out SWEDI Care kits to schoolgirls.

To support, partner with or learn more about this work, write to contact@swediworld.org.

May 25, 2026

From Soil to Strength: Twenty Women Turn Cassava into Garri in Usar, Benue State

Project at a glance

Location: Usar community, Kwande Local Government Area, Benue State
Participants: Twenty women farmers
Supported by: SWEDIWorld
Output: Eight bags of garri recorded in the first cycle; fifty bags of cassava flakes later reported ready to go

Overview

“Farmland is more than land. For many rural women and families, it is livelihood, food security, resilience and survival.” That is the reality behind this SWEDIWorld-supported project in Usar community, Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, where twenty women carried out the full cassava value chain together.

What the women did

Cultivation: planting and tending cassava on community farmland.
Harvest and preparation: harvesting and preparing the cassava for processing.
Processing: cooking and processing the cassava.
Frying: frying the garri to perfection.
Result: eight big bags of garri produced by the twenty women.

From farm to market: women building resilience, communities building futures.

Why it matters

The images document more than a harvest. They show the strength, cooperation and determination of rural women who contribute to household food security and local livelihoods while carrying the weight of climate vulnerability, food-system pressures and unpaid care work. At SWEDIWorld, we believe gender-responsive, locally grounded approaches are essential to community resilience: women at the grassroots are not only vulnerable to climate impacts, they are also central actors in adaptation, food security and community survival.

A follow-up update reported fifty bags of cassava flakes (garri) ready to go to market.

To support, partner with or learn more about this work, write to contact@swediworld.org.

May 19, 2026

Engaging the Global Climate and Sustainability Community in 2026

London Climate Action Week 2026

In May 2026 SWEDIWorld’s founder shared her plans to engage the growing global climate community around London Climate Action Week 2026. As Founder of SWEDIWorld in Nigeria, her interest lies in feminist climate justice, girls’ leadership, community resilience and locally led climate solutions from frontline communities, and in building meaningful collaborations and shared learning across the climate ecosystem.

Global African Women Sustainability Conference

At the Global African Women Sustainability Conference, the lesson was about purpose over spotlight: “Not every step on a red carpet is about spotlights; some are about purpose. The work we do, the people we meet, and the stories we carry all matter more than the stage.”

Our approach

SWEDIWorld helps women and girls become leaders in climate action. It builds the capacity of communities to respond to climate change and supports women and girls to tell their own climate stories and lead.

May 5, 2026

Gender Inclusion Is the Foundation of Resilient Food Systems

SWEDIWorld’s Executive Director attended the launch of Nigeria’s Revised National Gender Policy on Agrifood Systems Transformation (2025–2030), led by Senator Abubakar Kyari and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

The message at the launch was clear: the time for implementation is now. The focus is shifting towards practical solutions: improving access to finance, strengthening cooperatives and creating opportunities for women and youth across the value chain.

“Gender inclusion is not a side note in agriculture; it is the foundation of resilient food systems. When women and smallholder farmers are fully empowered, agriculture does not just grow; communities thrive.”

The policy sits at the centre of SWEDIWorld’s work with women farmers in Benue, Nasarawa and the FCT, and of its advocacy for clear targets and funding to implement it (see the October 2026 report in Vanguard on making women farmers drivers of agricultural interventions).

May 1, 2026

Smallholder Women Farmers Are Workers Too

On International Workers’ Day, SWEDIWorld’s founder reflected on something she first noticed years ago: smallholder farmers are workers too, especially women.

They grow the food, sustain households and keep local food systems running, yet they are often left out of how “workers” are defined and supported in real terms. Through its work with adolescent girls and smallholder farming communities, SWEDIWorld has seen the gap play out in real time.

The reflection recalls a conversation at COP26 about smallholder farmers and climate change, one of the clearest moments in which it became plain how central women smallholders are to food systems and climate adaptation, and how far removed they are from tools, financing and support.

The question SWEDIWorld puts to policymakers and partners: which workers are still invisible in the systems we continue to design?

May