Peace builders, community and religious leaders should take critical actions to institutionalise mechanisms for addressing women’s peace and security issues, in Nigeria, Community Initiatives to Promote Peace (CIPP), has said.
The CIPP Chief of Party at Mercy Corps Nigeria, Mr. David Gatare, made the appeal, Thursday, at a one-day Dialogue programme, themed; “Translating Commitments into Actions: Elevating the Role of Women in Peace and Security,” held at Silk Suites, Jos, commemorating the 21st anniversary of UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
“As a peace building program, CIPP takes deliberate actions to promote gender responsive peacebuilding practices and advance the women, peace and security agenda by aligning its interventions with the NAPs and SAPs.
“Through women-focused initiatives including the Women Peacebuilding Councils (WPC) which comprises 360 diverse women in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Benue, Kogi and Plateau states, the CIPP programme builds local capacities and create linkages at the local and state level to ensure that women are playing a substantive role in peacebuilding across various levels,” he said.
Mr. Gatare also said in a press release by Mercy Corps Communiactions Officer, Oluwadamilola Aina, that the CIPP is being implemented across six states in North central and North western states of Benue, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi and Plateau respectively.
He said: “The UN resolution on women, peace and security is commemorated every year to ensure that women’s priorities are central to peace and security at all levels.”
According to him, in Nigeria, the resolution 1325 has been localised through the development of a National Action Plan (NAP) and State Action Plans (SAPs).
“However, despite the commitments made to promote full and equal participation of women in conflict prevention and resolution decision making processes, gender gaps remain due to entrenched structural barriers, and lack of access to political spaces,” he said.
Mr. Gatare said although, Benue state has a SAPs for the localisation of UNSCR 1325, there is a need to ensure the allocation of adequate resources for its full implementation to advance the women, peace, and security agenda.
