The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has received the 2021 DUSUSU (Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up) Gender Minister Award.
Receiving the award in Abuja, Nigeria, the Minister promised to continue uplifting women to be change makers in the society.
“The Gender Minister Award may, at first glance, seem surprising to be awarded to myself as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. However, taken as a whole, along with all the programmes under my purview, we have made a conscious effort to mainstream gender considerations and ensure that women are enabled to be change makers in their immediate communities and beyond.
“My work and that of my Ministry are primarily focused on the vulnerable populations in Nigeria, across all regions, religious, ethnic and tribal lines. It is well known that the most affected of the vulnerable populations are women and children, and it is our mission to empower these sections of the population through a variety of means”.
The Minister noted that most of the beneficiaries of the economic buffers like Conditional Cash Transfer, Cash Transfer for Rural Women, the N-Power Scheme, Government Enterprise Empowerment Scheme and the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme were women in addition to the upcoming Alternate School Progrsmme.
“The Alternate School Programme is very much aligned with the ethos of your DUSUSU advocacy efforts in advancing alternate global education for girls all over the world in ways that can benefit them”.
The Minister thanked the conveners, DUSUSU Foundation (Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up) for considering her for the prestigious award designed for Gender Ministers and promised to continue uplifting women to be change makers in the society.
“I want to sincerely thank you and the DUSUSU team for your abiding commitment to bringing key issues to the fore, and for your resilience in bringing change to fruition”.
In her remarks, the CEO of DUSUSU Foundation, Ms Zuriel Oduwole said that the minister was presented the award following her humanitarian role in Nigeria and contributions to the development of women, girls and children.
“The Gender Minister Award follows the collation of all the data, information, corroboration of trends, compilation of external inputs, verification of all information received, transparency of definition models and authentication of all sources in delivery by the various external audit support groups from June 2020 to July 2021.
“We are delighted to share that since the awards began 8 years ago, it is the first time across English, French, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish speaking Africa and the Caribbean region, that the recipient for this category has transcended the gender criteria and into the Humanitarian remit of leadership.
“Congratulations to this incredible change maker, the first in the newly ministerial position for her country who has demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the scope of Humanitarian affairs and a clear support for girls’ education and their welfare within the parameters of her remit”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Bashir Nura Alkali thanked the lead and co-Founder of DUSUSU Award, Zuriel Oduwole for the recognition and selection of the Minister for the award.
“The presentation of the DUSUSU Award today is an evidence of her remarkable efforts to ensure that the President’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years is achieved through the active participation of women” Alkali said.
Emmanuel Ukoh
