…….In South West, Nigeria
To strengthen Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) across Nigeria, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, has organized a 3-day training for participants.
The event holding in Lagos, tagged: “South-West 2024 Zonal Coordination Meeting, Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting Training, and UN Women Open Day” at Protea Hotel, Ikeja commenced on Tuesday, 3rd September and will end on Thursday, 5th September, 2024.
In 2023, UN Women, in collaboration with the Federal and State Ministries of Women Affairs, Women’s Centres, and other relevant ministries, agencies, and departments, successfully launched the quarterly Zonal Coordination Mechanism. This platform has brought together key stakeholders to share insights, drive initiatives, and advance actions towards the development of women and girls, as well as strengthen accountability and investment for GEWE in Nigeria.
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The Country representative to UN Women Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Beatrice Eyong said the launch of the quarterly zonal coordination meeting for GEWE of Women was one of the most innovative thing they did in 2023 with all commissioners, leaders of the state ministries of women affairs networks and coalition.
She disclosed that within a space of four months, August to November 2023, they were able to convene six zonal meetings across the six geopolitical zones reaching all the 36 states and the FCT, Abuja.
“We identified and mapped hundreds of coordination platforms working on various GEWE across thematic areas and using SWOT analysis we were able to garner information on the status of the existing coordination platforms,” she said.
She added: “We brainstormed on how we could work together to get the groups functioning to facilitate the goal of GEWE especially touching on critical issues that concerns women’s representation, relevant adoption of GEWE bills and funding GEWE.
“We concluded by supporting states to develop plans that could help create coherence in the ways that GEWE is planned, implemented and coordinated,” she further added.
Stating the outcomes of UN Women initiatives, Ms. Eyong said like never before, the states after the meetings hosted various programmes and campaign to decry violence against women and girls in line with the theme of the year and “this were mostly state funded events and activities in collaboration with networks, coalition, the UN and other partners.”
The UN Country representative stated further that the outcome of the initiatives validated their believe in the importance of working together and shared accountability for GEWE.
“Since then we have been able to develop Directorates of commissioners, permanent secretaries, directors and other relevant networks and coalition focal point available to support continued mobilization.
“It is to this end that we felt that we needed to continue this beautiful thing we started, so as we meet, we plan to collectively review, reflect, and build on what we have started to continue to push GEWE across the zones generally.
“We also use the zonal meeting this year to build capacity of the zonal coordination participants on Gender Response Planning and Budgeting (GRPB). We will be looking at the differences between traditional budgeting and GRPB on day two and how planning and budgeting from a gender lense can help us facilitate the goal of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
“Lastly on day three, we will meet with a broader audience in an activity we have called the ‘Open Day’.
During the open day event, UN Women and partners will share broadly what we have been doing specifically in Lagos State and what we plan to do in collaboration with existing partners as well as solicit more partnership for the women and girls in Lagos state and indeed the south-west zone.
She thanked and commended the Lagos State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Bolaji Cecilia Dada and her team for the support in planning and rolling out the South/West zonal coordination meeting 2024, adding that the appreciation also goes to all commissioners, whose without their leadership they wouldn’t have been able to advance the initiative to where it is today.
Lagos State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Bolaji Dada said Lagos State understands the pivotal role that women play in both the family and the wider community hence the total engagement with the UN Women initiative.
“I am happy to see you all here today, committed to the advancing and shared goals of empowerment, equality and sustainable development. This meeting is a testament of our collective effort to enhance gender responsiveness in our planning and budgeting process.
“It is therefore imperative that we integrate gender consideration into every aspect of our policies and programmes; ensuring that the needs of women are not only heard, but prioritized.
She explained that the training is a significant step in equipping stakeholder with the knowledge and tools necessary to drive the vital initiative forward.
“Let us embrace this opportunity to learn from each other, share best practices and brainstorm innovative solutions that can uplift our communities.
Together, we’re stronger and together we can achieve monumental progress.
“As we embark on this journey of collaboration, may we leave here as partners united in our visions for a more equitable society. I encourage each of you to engage actively in the sessions, ask questions and share your experiences; your insights will be invaluable as we work together, towards implementing strategies that truly reflect the need of women and the broader community.
She commended the commitment and passion of representatives from South/West states to the cause of women and poverty alleviation in Nigeria as they work together to pave the way for a brighter, more inclusive future.
Stating the objective of the meeting, National Programme Officer; Coordination and Partnerships, Patience Ekeoba listed them to include: To provide opportunity for the South/West zone to review and reflect on progress made against the 2023 work plan developed to strengthen Gender Coordination in line with the state SWOT Analysis; Discuss gaps, challenges, and explore opportunities for advancing pending plans; Present the global SWOT for South/West and explore opportunities to scale up advocacies for GEWE agenda leveraging coordination platforms; Update the plans and budget for 2024 and 2025 and Develop monitoring and Evaluation Framework for plans and agree on next steps.
She disclosed further that the reason for the meeting was to bring every stakeholder together in order to get the desired result.
“A lot of people have been acting in isolation and because of that, we’re not getting the kind of impact that we need, the kind of result that we should have for gender equality and women empowerment.
“So we believe that if we are talking to each other, we are pair reviewing each other; they’ll be able to do better.
We just came back from Northwest; Kano State was able to increase their budget for women and gender at a level of over 300% because of the last meeting we had.
We talked about what needs to be done to better position our work and because of that, they went back, made advocacy to the relevant quarters and through the help of their Governor, they were able to get more funding.
“So the message here is that we want people to work together. When you talk about gender equality and women empowerment, there are laws, legislations that need to be passed and implemented and we talk about them here.”
She said: “There is the issue of coordination for different stakeholders, there is the issue of programmes; what are programmes? Whether you’re working, doing something to empower the women economically, whether you’re advocating for women to go to school, Girl-child education, whether you’re talking about issue of women’s health, men’s health, all of these are gender issues.
“What we are saying is that if we work together, we’ll able to address this issues that exist. From a study that UN women did globally last year, we discovered that it’s going to take almost 300 years to achieve the goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment; and this is because people are working in isolation, they’re not talking to each other.
That is why this programme is so novel, it’s so unique. It’s not a segmented programme that is looking at maybe violence against women alone or empowerment. It’s a programme that is seeking to ensure that stakeholders are talking with each other. And part of this initiative is to also build capacity of stakeholders.
On the second day, we will be building capacity on Gender responsive planning and budgeting. So this same stakeholders you’re seeing, are going to be taught how to plan and how to budget for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
“We are just trying to make sure that people are talking to each other and UN women was established for this. To make sure that there is coordination at the UN level and with external stakeholders. So we’re just fulfilling our role. And the message we have is that when there is coordination, there will be coherence in the way we plan and implement, there will be more accountability and then there will be sustainability,” she explained.
Ondo state Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Deaconess Lola Fagbemi in her remarks commended the UN Women initiative for the coordination and support for gender equality in the country.
She assured the facilitator of the state’s support and readiness to learn to improve on their strategies and work in the state.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Ekiti state, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Adebola Omotayo Olatilu said the state has been working in tandem with the UN Women initiative with gender equality and women empowerment being institutionalized in every area of government initiative including education.
Representative from Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun states were represented at the programme.
End.
