The United Women Africa has said that achieving the 15% minimum budget allocation for women’s programmes in the north-central states is imperative for advancing gender equality and empowering women in the region.
This forms parts of the consensus reached at the end of a 3-day zonal coordination mechanism meeting for the six north central states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), held in Ilorin, Kwara State.
A communique issued at the end of the meeting said the participants agreed on establishing targeted advocacy campaigns to engage key stakeholders, including government officials, political parties, and religious and community leaders, on the importance of budget allocations for women’s programmes.
They also called for the implementation of training programmes to enhance the skills of state representatives and line ministries in gender-responsive budgeting and planning.
Other modalities to achieve the goals of the meeting according to the communique included monitoring and evaluation framework through the development of a comprehensive framework to monitor progress and impact, ensuring that data-driven decisions guide future initiatives, and fostering collaboration among states to share best practices and lessons learned, enhancing the overall effectiveness of gender coordination efforts.
” Participants were unanimous in their commendation of the UN Women for organising the coordination meeting, training and the open day activity, which brought together a cross-section of key stakeholders in the gender equality and women’s empowerment value chain. The coordination meeting was adopted as a strategic activity that needed to be sustained through the newly elected and inaugurated members of the north central coordination mechanism as one of the major outcomes of this event,” the communique added.
At the closing ceremony of the 3-day event, the Kwara State governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, said the state is committed to fostering an environment where every individual, regardless of gender, has equal opportunities to thrive and contribute to the state’s growth.
The governor was represented by his special adviser on Media, Alh Bashiru Adigun, while the commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Afolashade Opeyemi, also delivered a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the programme.
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