Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The United Nations (UN) Women Deputy Country Representative to Nigeria, Mr. Lansana Wonneh has called for more women participation in peace building and conflict resolution.
Wonneh, who stated this during the official launch of Women, Peace and Security Program in Benue State, explained that women will play a greater role if they are allowed to participate in peace building and conflict resolution.
At the event launch which also coincided with the celebration of the 2019 International Women’s Day, Wonneh who lamented that women are affected in situations of conflict, also expressed worry that 99 per cent of women are marginalised and not given the opportunity to participate in peace and security issues.
According to him, gender equality was a human rights issue and needed to be treated with all seriousness, hence the need to get women, who are mostly at the receiving end, actively involved in peace building process.
Also speaking, Programme specialist, UN Women Mr. Peter Mancha, said the objective of the programme in Nigeria and in Benue State was to ensure that women participate effectively in peace and security process, peace negotiations, conflict prevention and resolution as well as improve public perception of the role of women in peace and security.
Mancha noted that the Programme is sponsored by the Norwegian government and designed to end within two years (2019-2020), and would involve key stakeholders in realising its aims and objectives.
“The programme approach would also be to support governing issues of insecurity with active involvement of women, reforming security and judiciary to have active gender policies
“It will also look at capacity building and strengthening of institutions as well as make use of Media sensitisation,” he added.
Earlier, various stakeholders including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Benue, FIDA, BENGONET, Police, among others, commended the UN Women for the programme saying it will help in promoting women participation in peace and security.