Borno Pledges NGOs Collaborative Support To Strengthen Resilience, Peace Building For Women, Girls
The Borno State Honourable Commissioner for Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hon. Zuwaira Gambo, at a two day Workshop organised by the Borno State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in collaboration with UNICEF Nigeria have assessed the progress of reinforcing the Resilience of conflict affected women and girls and their role in the peace-building in North East Nigeria.
The Honourable Commissioner commended the government, UN agencies' funds and programmes, NGO partners and donors for taking crucial steps to support women and girls in the North East Nigeria, reinforcing their resilience and support to ensure making a huge success of the on-going peace building process.
Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo Borno state Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Developed at A two day workshop in resilience and peace building for women and girls Thursday in Maiduguri organized by BSWASD in collaboration with UNICEF
She stated that through continued evidence-based advocacy, donors and development partners are collaboratively working together to ensure that the process is strengthened to achieve the desired result.
According to her, going by available statistics, the insurgence in the North East Nigeria has affected over 3 million women and girls, including the disruption of family and community setup and exposing women and children to all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse including gender-based violence.
"For obvious reasons, all humanitarian agencies and individuals working closely with government to bring to an end, the nightmares of our women and girls in the face of what they are presently going through are focused on providing normalcy including restoration of peace and security for everyone.
"The objective and purpose of this workshop is for stakeholders to come together and take stock of efforts made to-date in reinforcing the resilience of conflict affected women and girls, highlighting their roles in peace-building and identifying evolving challenges and opportunities to foster improved protection, safety and wellbeing of women and children.
"I believe the re-appraisal couldn't have come at a better time, than when appreciable progress are seen to have been made in the arduous task of working round the clock to ensure the return of normalcy to affected areas which has largely given victims a sense of belonging", Zuwaira said.
She further explained that "progress made since September 2017 women peace and Security meeting, outlined that we have collectively achieved a lot. We are here to assess if the situation of women and girls in the North East has changed for the better."
"As we take a closer look into salient issues faced by women and girls' survivors of conflict related sexual violence; the nagging question begging for answer is: are they being accepted wholeheartedly and convincingly back into communities? Do they feel comfortable in the reintegration process? ", Zuwaira said.
The commissioner noted that answers to these questions from the victims will not only serve as a good gauge of the success stories recorded to date, but also help in throwing more light into other issues evolving in the process of re-integration.
Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo Borno state Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Developed at A two day workshop in resilience and peace building for women and girls Thursday in Maiduguri organized by BSWASD in collaboration with UNICEF
She appreciated efforts made by the Nigerian government, specifically thorough the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development while pledging for its continued support and commitment ensuring that the welfare of women and children were given priority attention through the implementation of its result-oriented policy programmes and projects as laid-out in the National Acton Plan.
Zuwaira also expressed appreciation to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs And UNICEF as partners in progress for their commitment and support to the welfare of women and children of Nigeria.
