The Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen has called for more gender mainstreaming partnerships to tackle discrimination against women.
Dame Tallen made the call in Abuja at the flag off of a campaign tagged “#I Commit behavioral change and policy advocacy” organised by a consortium of NGO’s “SHE FORUM AFRICA” and “PATHFINDER” in Partnership for Goals: Advancing the Gender Agenda for Sustainable development”.
The minister, who decried the fact that many women are victims of gender-based violence due to poverty, ignorance and other social-economic factors, said all hands must be on deck to create more awareness and ensure perpetrators of the act do not go unpunished.
The 17 social development goals (SDGs) would never be achieved if women were not on the centre-stage, Dame Tallen said.
“…We have robust policies like the National Gender Policy, we have an Armed Forces Gender Policy which is ensuring that all security outfits are mainstreaming gender issues ….we need these policies to be fully implemented by all sectors.”
Director, family health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Salma Aness pointed out that victims of sexual- and gender-based violence suffer psychological trauma, and urged women to be courageous enough to resist all forms of exploitation.
Salma also noted that for women to live up to their full potentials there was need for women and girls to be educated and empowered for economic sustainability.
The representative of the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Jason Currier, maintained that for a country to develop, there was need to eliminate bad cultural practices, stressing that change must come from the society.
Earlier, Dr Amina Salihu, the Senior Programme Officer of MacArthur Foundation, said women could bring out the best in themselves by supporting each other to contribute their quota to the development of the nation.
The event had panel discussions, commitments from attendees, an act presentation on gender-based violence in the country.
Reporting by Sarah Gimba; Editing by Daniel Adejo and Tony Okerafor