UN Women has stressed the need to prioritize more investment by all stakeholders in financing development plans and policies towards ending violence against women and girls in Nigeria.
This was stated by the UN Women Deputy Country Representative to Nigeria, Mr. Lansana Wonneh at a Joint Symposium on Prevention of Violence Against Special Need Groups in Nigeria with the theme: “Tackling Multi-forms of Vulnerability and Violence through Improved Policies, Programmatic and Funding Mechanisms.”
Mr. Lansana Wonneh, who was represented by the National programme Officer UN Women, Mrs. Patience Ekeoba, said that despite many countries passing laws to combat violence against women, weak enforcement and discriminatory social norms remain a significant problem.
“Being able to stop violence from occurring in the first place is critical to achieving the goal of ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) because if violence does not occur, all the other GBV responses will not be necessary. VAWG is preventable; we need to continue to invest in transforming social norms, addressing unequal gender power relations, strengthening essential services for survivors, and enabling safer environments. I call for more attention to gender responsive budgeting, ensuring that budget circulars have definite allocations to gender equality and women empowerment including budget for addressing violence against women and girls,” he explained.
Mr. Wonneh, explained that women with special needs and other groups experience violence differently because of their vulnerability, hence the need for stakeholders engagements to mobilize support and raise awareness to end the menace.
“The symposium provides opportunity for the Association of Women with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, ASWHAN, and the other special need groups to share their experiences of violences, their survivor stories and make demand for increased prevention interventions and response. It will also allow all relevant government agencies, the UN System, development partners, civil society gather here today to listen, discuss and advance prevention strategies and funding mechanism to enhance prevention and mitigation services and actions for the targets groups,” he added.
Similarly, the Acting Director, Policy Planning and Coordination, Nation Agency for the Control Aids (NACA), Dr. Yinka Anoemuah, noted that the agency will continue to work with partners to achieve the desired goal of ending all forms of violence.
“We have so many vulnerable populations that experience vulnerabilities and that is why we will continue to partner with the UN system and partners to find ways to bring an end to all the challenges that people are facing in the communities,” she noted
On behalf of people with disabilities, the President, Women with Disabilities, Lois Auta, called for an increase in budget allocation on disabilities issues.
“Women with disabilities are much more vulnerable to issues of GBV, this violence could be in different forms such as issues of economic empowerment, issues of health, issues of institutional barriers and infrastructural barriers. We have legal frameworks and these frameworks are not implemented. The big issue is lack of funding, with need to come together and collaborate and activate the goal 17 of SDG, by working together. We need to insert a budget plan in all the MDAs for issues of women and girls with disabilities. We need to talk to National Assembly to increase the budgets allocation on issues of disability as well as increase awareness on GBV in the rural areas,” she said
According to the Head of Health Desk, Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs. Marian Shuaibu, she said the ministry takes priority in the wellbeing of all women, noting that approval to establish a mobile court to deal with the perpetrators of GBV has been gotten, as well as development of a policy on mental health.
This year theme, “UNiTE!; Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women & Girls” is apt as it focusses on investment and financing of strategies and programmes that will help prevent violence from happening in the first place against women and girls.
