UN Women underscores utilization of women capacity in peace building

UN Women has underscored the need to utilize the capacity and potential that women have in peace building processes.

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The Programme Manager, UN Women Nigeria, Peter Mancha, stated this at a Capacity Building Training on Implementation, Monitoring and Reporting of the 3rd National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), in Abuja, Nigeria.

Mr. Manca, also explained that women bear the brunt of conflict, and should be included in talks about conflict prevention and peace building

“ So women bear the brunt of this conflict. But then it was discovered that they are largely excluded when it comes to peace building processes. They don’t bring women to sit with men to talk about conflict prevention and peace building. What does that imply? It implies that we are underutilizing the capacity and the potential that women have to contribute to peace”, he explained

He also noted that, Nigeria is a highly patriarchal society where women are not involved in decision-making, urging traditional rulers to involve women in decision making citing the case of the Mayor of Katungo, in Gombe State,

“The traditional council is one of those sectors that do not involve women. And when we engaged with the traditional rulers to know why they don’t bring women on board, they told us that it’s a cultural heritage. Women are not supposed to sit as members of the traditional council. But we noticed that in Gombe State, the Mayor of Katungo who is a first-class traditional ruler, had 40 women. And when asked why he chose to have 40 women. He told us that conflict that men could not resolve in decades, those women were able to resolve it. And if women can be able to do what men cannot do, why wouldn’t he carry them along? So we used his case study as a best practice. We did a documentary.

According Mr. Mancha: “And that’s how the number started increasing from zero. Now we have over 400 women. What does that show us? It shows that culture is dynamic. It’s not static. It changes over time. Most times, people do some things out of ignorance. Now the traditional council have seen that women should not just be seen as victims of violence. They should be seen as individuals that contribute to decision-making, including conflict resolution and peace building. So that’s the story”, he said.

Also speaking, the Director Women Development; Mrs Friya K Bulus, who was represented by the Chief Social Welfare Office, Festus Bakpet , said the training is apt, as the Ministry with the support of the UN Women has decided to build the capacities of key stakeholders prior to the launching of the document to provide basic knowledge on expected roles in its implementation with the view to ensure a good take off by all.

“It is pertinent to note that, part of the strategies implored to ensure accelerated progress in the implementation of this 3rd NAP is aligning of the document with the present administration’s 8th points agenda and linking of its priority areas with the mandates of various MDAs seated in this room today. The major purpose of this is to increase ownership, encourage multi-sectoral implementation, secure present administration’s political will and then eliminate whatever bottlenecks that narrowed the implementation of the first and second NAP and other policy documents on promoting gender mainstreaming, women empowerment and protection of women’s rights”, she said

According to the Lead Consultant, the 3rd edition of the National Action Plan (NAP) also the Vice Chairman UN CEDAW Committee, Geneva, Mrs. Grace Eghobabamien- Mshelia, it was important all ministries have the right capacity to drive the implementation of the third national action plan.

“And this is what we are doing today, so that at the end of the day, we are able to generate results that will improve the security situation for women and girls, and of course, men and boys in the country”, she stressed.

One of the participants, Grace Obi- Ukpabi, a Deputy Director, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, share her expectation form the workshop

“What are your expectations from this training? So oftentimes we develop plans and policies and we don’t break it down to understanding of the average implementers and beneficiaries. So my expectation from this training is to understand what the plans of peace and security have for Nigerians and Nigerian women and be able to apply it in development of my ministry plans and budget process for the nation”, she said.

The 3 day workshop, aimed at strengthening coordination, improving monitoring and evaluation, and developing compliance mechanisms for the Nation Action Plan (NAP), was organized by Nigeria’s Ministry of Women Affairs and UN Women, an Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.