By Funmi Olasupo

Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina has enjoined stakeholders to come up with a sustainable solution for peace and conflict management of the northern region and the country at large.  Hajiya Maina made the call recently in Abuja at a one-day stakeholder’s workshop on the European Union funded programme on ‘Promoting women’s engagement in peace and security in Northern Nigeria’.

Zainab Maina

She urged the participants to take advantage of the brainstorming workshop saying the primary purpose is to ensure women’s full participation in all activities on conflict prevention, peace building and post conflict recovery at all levels of governance.

Also, worried by the daily occurrence of violence against women and children in the country, the Minister said her ministry inaugurated both the Joint Taskforce for the prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and the National Steering Committee on the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) to jointly respond to child sexual abuse and other forms of violence against women and children.

She said since the launching of the NAP, the ministry and its stakeholders have commenced the implementation through various activities.

Peace building processes

Also speaking, UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Dr Grace Ongile said the involvement of women in peace building processes cannot be overemphasized.

She said the workshop is aimed at strengthening the programme strategy for the implementation of the ‘Promoting women’s engagement in peace and security in Northern Nigeria’ a three year programme  which seeks to support the three tiers of government  with focus in three states, Adamawa, Gombe and Plateau.

According to her, was intended to achieve two specific objectives. She said the first was, “to strengthen programme design and delivery modalities through innovative and results-focused approaches, using current strategies, local expertise, indigenous knowledge and international best practices.

“And the second is to strengthen partnership, promote ownership and relevance to evolving national context on Women, Peace and Security in Nigeria”.

She said the outcome of the workshop will enable review of the programme design, especially now that efforts were being made in finalizing necessary changes in the Inception Phase planned to be completed by the end of March, 2015.

She said this will help contribute to the overall goal of strengthening women’s leadership, advancing gender equality and improving protection for women and children in conflict settings, adding that her organization is fully committed to the programme and working with other stakeholders.

“By strengthening collaboration we can indeed make a huge difference in the lives of millions of vulnerable people, especially women and girls”, she emphasized.