Gombe: Committee to draft implementable plan for Women inclusion in leadership

The West Africa Network for Peace Building has appointed a 16-man Steering Committee to draft the Local Action Plan of the UNSCR 1325 for Kwami Local Government Area of Gombe State.

The committee is intended to take down to the grassroots, the inclusion of women in peace processes and decision-making.

The appointment was conducted at the end of a two-day workshop on the Localisation of UNSCR 1325 and Women, Peace and Security in Gombe, using the recommendations of five groups of participants, who took time to discuss causes and suggested solutions to five pillars.

The pillars are hinged on Prevention and Disaster Management, Participation and Representation, Protection and Prosecution, Crisis Management and Early Recovery and Post Conflict, Reconstruction and Partnership Coordination and Management, which are the conflict areas discussed as peculiar to the area.

The project is being supported by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, with funding from the Canada Global Affairs and executed by Women in Peace Building Programme of WANEP.

The National Coordinator of WANEP, Mrs. Bridget Osakwe, said ”the Steering Committee was expected to prepare an implementable Action Plan, which would raise the capacity of women to participate in decision-making processes.”

Mrs. Osakwe said it was necessary to work with men, who feel that women should also be in leadership.

“There are men who are not allies but critical stakeholders by virtue of the positions that they hold like the local government chairman Since we want to have a local action plan whether he is a male ally or not he has to be here so that we have his buy-in from the beginning of the project,” Mrs. Osakwe said.

According to her, the ingredients used for the Action Plan were usually existing structures, which were then strengthened.

Local Action Plans are already in existence in Kaltungo and Yalmatu Deba, facilitated by UN women, while they are mirrored in on Balanga.

”This means Balanga has a faint idea of what is going on. So they need to strengthen and build this action plan in Balanga that already has an idea. So we took Balanga on another project. We also brought Kwami to enlighten them towards mirroring gradually.

“If women are relegated to the background, they will be unavailable to ascertain their potentials in life. The whole essence of this workshop which is hinged on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 which looks at promoting the involvement of women in peace and security issues. For us to realize the relevant roles that women are playing within communities, no longer seeing women as victims of conflict, but now seeing them as effective and active actors within the communities that can build peace” Mrs. Osakwe explained.

For the Head of Programmes, WANEP, Mrs. Patience Ikpeh-Obaulo, ”WANEP is working with relevant stakeholders, such as the traditional structure, who would enlighten the public to begin to see the essence of having women in their councils, so they could bring women in and the patriarchal structure could be eroded.

“….because when women are heard and their concerns are also heard, their needs are brought to the table and we will have a more holistic approach to resolving issues.”

Because one of the factors that can prepare women for leadership roles is the economic empowerment of women, Mrs Ikpeh-Obaulo, said WANEP had in place programmes to build the women leadership skills in peacebuilding and advocacy.

She said; “We have programmes in place for women by next week we are holding a 3-day National conference for young women across Nigeria. The programme will build their skills in leadership, peacebuilding and advocacy. Young women across the 6 geopolitical zones in Nigeria will be in attendance.”

Mrs Ikpeh-Obaulo stressed that Cooperative societies were going to be inaugurated within communities to see how they could be empowered economically and facilitate them getting soft loans to help them to start small scale businesses.

“We realised that if women are not empowered they will be unable to speak or sort themselves within groups in the society, we have that as a plan to empower these women economically,” She added.

Mercy Chukwudiebere