The West Africa Network for Peace Building, WANEP, has launched the maiden edition of the Women Peace and Security Journal, to promote women’s contributions to the peace and security process in Nigeria.
The National Coordinator of WANEP-Nigeria, Mrs. Bridget Osakwe, said the journal was being launched to commemorate the 22nd Anniversary of the launch of the United Nations Resolution 1325, and the implementation of Nigeria’s National Action Plan on the UNSCR 1325.
According to WANEP, the goal of the bi-annual journal will be realised through the documentation of information based on facts from women, peace and security interventions in Nigeria, which will then provide a platform for sharing information and best practices.
The UNSCR 1325 had highlighted the important role of women in conflict prevention, resolution, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction.
It also stresses the importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.
Consequently, the Women, Peace and Security Journal is being co-published by WANEP and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Nigeria and focuses on the Nigerian context.
It has been designed to be an important reference on the subject matter for stakeholders within West Africa and beyond.
According to WANEP, ”the journal will provide a dependable reference material for academic discourse on Women, Peace and Security agenda, as well as provide documented, quality and quantitative information based on facts from women in theory and practice, peace and security interventions in Nigeria.”
The Women Peace and Security Journal is also intended to significantly promote the contributions of women to peace and security processes in Nigeria through evidence based research.
”The need for the journal was borne out of the gaps discovered and the need for women’s contributions to be documented, which was not so in the past,” it stated.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, who wrote the forward of the journal, congratulated WANEP and all stakeholders who were part of the development of the journal and those who validated the manual.
Mrs. Tallen recommended the journal as a document that the ministry identified with, which could be used as a reliable manual for reference.
She said there had been a huge collaboration between the Ministry and Civil society organisations, regarding the issues of women down to the grassroots, which ensured the domestication of the National Action Plan in 15 states.
“Through the Emergency Committee on GBV, which she set up, she’s able to drive the process. You need to also work in synergy with state Commissioners of Women Affairs, so that your work is made easy. The truth is that there is dearth of capacity at the state level,” Mrs Tallen said.
She, however, said domesticating the various laws was not enough, but that it should be backed up with a budget line and implementation strategies to ensure the full commitment to a Nigeria free for all.
The Minister also said her Ministry was working on a World Bank collaborated Nigeria for Women Project, which would be beneficial to the states, but that only the states which had domesticated the Violence Against Persons’ Act, the Child-Rights Act, State Action Plan, the He-For-She Strategy, would benefit from the project.
The Minister was represented by Ms. Jummai Idonije at the event.
Professor Joy Onyeson, the Country Director of Women International League for Peace and Freedom-Nigeria, the co-publisher of the journal, said the content of the journal had been verified and as such was reliable.
“So, you can trust it, you can quote it without any fear. This is something that is very key, coming at a time like this. And this is the 22nd Anniversary of 1325 globally. So, it is very symbolic that we are celebrating this very resourceful resolution,” Professor Onyeson said.
The book was reviewed by Professor Patricia Donli, a Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maiduguri, who doubles as the Executive Director, Gender Equality, Peace and Development Centre.
She said the journal provided and opportunity for people to organize their data and put it forward for other people to see the lessons and learn what others were doing on such issues elsewhere.
In the meantime, the Consultant for the Women, Peace and Security Journal, Mr. Nathaniel Awuapilla, said being part of the project was fulfilling for him, because it highlighted key developments, achievements and issues around women, peace and security.
Mr. Awuapilla said the journal was a launch pad for better things, because a lot of lessons would be learned from it, as a lot was being done about women, peace and security, even though no record of documentation had been done on them.
He believed that when the journal eventually circulated widely, reaching researchers, policy makers and people who write projects to donors, Nigeria would begin to have proposals that were more conceptualized and innovative programmes.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
